Ian Frisch

That's what Martin and the FBI had realized in the early 1990s, which is why in this book, he posed not only as a smuggler, but as a money launderer to figure out how the cartels sustained the economic loop that made up their business.

That is kind of still the choke point of the drug trade today is how the cartels get paid.

It is the money laundering that is the kind of crucial cornerstone of all this.

Some people would argue that they're more powerful.

And I mean, as you said, they're kind of shapeshifters.

And they're shapeshifters not only in terms of product, whereas in the 70s, it was marijuana, then it was cocaine, and now you're getting into fentanyl.

It's also about political alliances and geography and methodologies and hierarchies.

I mean, all these things change over time based on the geopolitical kind of makeup of

the North American, South American relationships, what's going on in Europe and stuff like that.

But if you look at what's going on today compared to in the late 80s and early 90s, it's kind of the same.

They're just called a different cartel.

It's a Sinaloa cartel versus the Medellin.

And Mexico is more powerful than Colombia was back then.

But when you break it all down, to me, it's all very much the same.

That's a million dollar question, Adam.

I mean, if someone had the answer, we probably wouldn't be here.

You know, war on drugs 50 years later.

I mean, I don't really have a hard and fast answer to that.

You know, like I said, like it's China.

I mean, you probably could.