Matthew Cox

Right.

So now suddenly the Colombians became perceived as a threat because you're supporting these guys, not politically, you're supporting them financially.

Right.

Well, that's why you had this panic set in.

This is ultimately what gave rise to the Iran-Contra affair.

where we were supporting the Contras fighting the Nicaraguan Sandinistas.

Okay.

Yeah, I never saw it.

And so anyhow, the point being here is because of geopolitical concerns, the Colombian banking system was under a tremendous amount of scrutiny.

You didn't want to be in the United States doing business with the Colombian because all your financial transactions are being monitored.

You know, you've got agents visiting you.

I mean, it's just a nightmare.

It's just a nightmare.

And so when the Colombians originally came up with, they're the ones that created the black market payslope exchange.

And they were using that as a device to get American dollars sold to Colombian businesses to buy product from American vendors.

Well, once the Mexicans took over the distribution, they took the black market peso exchange concept and they personalized it.

And for the purposes of getting the money to South America, they excluded Colombia.

And so, like I said, the first full year of Sinaloa's operation in Los Angeles was 1990.

Well, this was actually how I cut my teeth.

I got recruited in January that year.