Secrets Of A Colombian Cocaine DYNASTY: From The Slums Of Medellin To Miami Drug Kingpins

The Connect- with Johnny Mitchell

Johnny Mitchell

True Crime

4.3 • 563 Ratings

🗓️ 25 February 2026

⏱️ 101 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Christian Carmona grew up in Medellín’s infamous Barrio Antioquia—an area known for prostitution, gambling, and later, cocaine. In this episode, Christian tells the inside story of a Colombian cocaine dynasty that quietly expanded from Medellín to Miami… and even Portland, Oregon. Raised “Americanized” in the suburbs, Christian didn’t learn the truth about his father’s criminal enterprise until federal agents came crashing down in 1991—taking both of his parents at once. From cartel-era Miami strategies (stash houses, mules, low-profile living) to family-wide trafficking ties and the chaos of the early 90s, Christian lays out how the business really worked behind the scenes. The story gets even wilder when Christian later gets pulled back into the orbit of his father’s old associates—working at a bank where traffickers allegedly used safety deposit boxes to stash cash and kilos. A setup, a sting, and years of court delays later, Christian describes spending nearly four years incarcerated while prosecutors tried to force him to cooperate. This is a raw conversation about family, loyalty, survival, and redemption—plus how Christian found faith and wrote his book Zeal while locked up. 📚 Zeal by Christian Carmona is available now (English & Spanish). https://www.zealnovel.com/ Join The Patreon For Bonus Content! https://www.patreon.com/theconnectshow 00:00 Growing up in Medellín’s Barrio Antioquia 04:08 The neighborhood’s history: red-light district → narco hub 09:29 Why Miami was the move (and how mules worked) 16:11 Living “middle class” while running a cocaine operation 20:47 Why Portland, Oregon became a new market 38:08 1991 indictment & parents arrested 51:02 Bank job, safety deposit boxes, and old ties resurfacing 58:22 The setup, DEA sting, and arrest 1:10:49 Four years jailed while prosecutors pushed cooperation 1:34:19 Faith, forgiveness, and writing Zeal Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Project Hail Mary is an extraordinary cinematic experience.
0:03.9	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. I would see my dad wake up in the morning, just like every other dad on the block,
0:40.2	get in his car and believe that he's going to work. Where he was going, he had stash houses. It was so easy and about it to just get a connection. All you had to do was then come to Miami. It would come somewhere to the U.S. From both sides of my family, my mom and my dad, I only have one aunt that never did nothing in the game.
0:39.7	The legend on Miami is. come somewhere to the U.S. From both sides of my family, my mom and my dad, I only have one aunt that never did nothing in the game.
0:40.5	The legend on Miami streets is my dad was one of the first ones to start cutting it.
0:46.2	There's a saying in El Barrio where they say, where many are born, but few are raised.
0:49.7	Christian Carmona was born and raised in the Medellín cartel.
0:53.6	His father was an early pioneer in the Colombian drug trade. He and raised in the Medellin cartel. His father was an early pioneer in the
0:55.7	Colombian drug trade. He was raised in the infamous Barrio Antioquia neighborhood of Medellin
1:00.7	Columbia, the breeding ground for Colombian narcos. He brought Christian and his siblings to the United
1:06.3	States when they were just children in the 1970s, and built a cocaine dynasty that would last
1:11.5	until Christian went to prison in the early 2000s.
1:14.4	You could read all about his family crime saga
1:16.8	in Christian's new book, Zeal,
1:18.9	available anywhere you get books.
1:20.8	You're going to love this episode, you guys.
1:22.5	An inside look at a drug-dealing dynasty.
1:25.8	It's Christian Carmona,
1:27.4	right here on The Connect with Johnny
1:29.4	Mitchell. Yeah, man, I mean, Medellin is like, it's certain areas you're like, am I in
1:37.3	Europe? Like it feels like you're in Spain or some shit like that, you know? Yeah. It's just too
1:43.4	goddamn hilly for me. That's the only problem. Yeah, right? Sometimes like it's too built into the mountains. Colombians love their fincas, you know. I like to be able to walk around, you know, but Bogota is too fucking cold. So I guess I'm just staying in America. Cartagena or Barranquilla, too. I've been all over the place.
	...

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