Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
"Cartel Crew" Member Exposes Celebrities, Street Code, & More! | Eddie Soto
Sun, 11 May 2025
Former Miami Crime Boss Eddie Soto.Follow Eddie https://www.youtube.com/@UC0Zw7vsNiwlrDYsb6cPQTDQ https://www.instagram.com/eddiesotoofficial/https://eddiesotocoaching.com/?fbclid=PAZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAaeT-5q6g5cAQe0eKqYWS8e58UfWBuuusc0xyq9_yHplvTx4QCvqVCwwZB1aFQ_aem_uVPkMwp19AQqUGBjc_a1FQGet 50% sitewide for a limited time. Just visit https://GhostBed.com/cox and use code COX at checkout.F*%k your khakis and get The Perfect Jean 15% off with the code COX15 at theperfectjean.nyc/COX15 #theperfectjeanpod https://theperfectjean.nycDo you want to be a guest? Fill out the form https://forms.gle/5H7FnhvMHKtUnq7k7Send me an email here: [email protected] you extra clips and behind the scenes content?Subscribe to my Patreon: https://patreon.com/InsideTrueCrime Follow me on all socials!Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/insidetruecrime/TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@matthewcoxtruecrimeDo you want a custom painting done by me? Check out my Etsy Store: https://www.etsy.com/shop/coxpopartListen to my True Crime Podcasts anywhere: https://anchor.fm/mattcox Check out my true crime books! Shark in the Housing Pool: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0851KBYCFBent: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BV4GC7TMIt's Insanity: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08KFYXKK8Devil Exposed: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08TH1WT5GDevil Exposed (The Abridgment): https://www.amazon.com/dp/1070682438The Program: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0858W4G3KBailout: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/bailout-matthew-cox/1142275402Dude, Where's My Hand-Grenade?: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BXNFHBDF/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1678623676&sr=1-1Checkout my disturbingly twisted satiric novel!Stranger Danger: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BSWQP3WXIf you would like to support me directly, I accept donations here:Paypal: https://www.paypal.me/MattCox69Cashapp: $coxcon69
Chapter 1: How did Eddie Soto start his life of crime?
I got arrested 61 times. I've been in movies. I've done reality TV. I knew how to commit crimes so well. I was not going to stop. So born and raised in Miami, Florida, specifically a city called Hialeah. Raised by a single mom. My life of crime started at a really early age. I left the house at eight. I was on the streets at nine. I was already trying to figure shit out.
I had my first pistol at 11, which I had tattered on me, a fucking Desert Eagle. Mind you, I couldn't even carry that shit at that time.
yeah so i uh i learned and uh oh why why why were you out at eight that's exactly that's exactly the question is why you're so you don't you never know um but i mean i guess the neighborhood i was in it wasn't a bad neighborhood but we were exposed to a lot of you know criming i started selling drugs at nine Right. So, yeah, if you're familiar with Hialeah. I mean, I'm not, apparently. Yeah.
So it's a very heavy Latin-oriented neighborhood. Started selling drugs at nine. Started doing it at 11. Started fucking, you know, toting guns and hanging out with the gangsters at 13. I mean, was your dad there? No, my dad left the house at eight. Your mom just can't control you. Right. Okay. My mom is Brazilian, so she came here with her sister very early age. She took the right path.
She didn't have much life experience, which is why she couldn't handle the heat that came with raising a son on her own. And I just fucking took off, man. You know, 15, heavy in the streets, already catching gun charges, all sorts of shit. So my life of crime started at about the age of nine. Ended at 25 when I finally caught my fair case. But in between there, I got arrested 61 times.
for all sorts of shit. Is this just drugs or drugs got like... Drug dealing, aggravated assault on leos, fucking all sorts of shit. You know, a bunch of fights. So I was the leader of a gang. Fucking organized crime. So imagine the shit that I was into at that time. Is this a specific gang? You don't want to mention the name of the gang? Yeah, it was a gang.
It's a very notorious Latin crime organization in Miami who ran Hialeah, which I'm sure she knows who Hialeah is. She knows exactly what I'm talking about. And, yeah, man, it was fucking crazy. It was a lot of drug dealing, extortion, fucking, I mean, everything. You can name it. Anything that you see in the movies, I did. I was part of. So how does that work?
I mean, what are some of these, like, arrests? So first time I was arrested was at the age of 13. I was at a quince's party. I'm not sure what that is. Again, it's a Latin thing where they celebrate the whole 15s of when women have their 15s party. Right. And I actually got arrested for stealing fucking Vaseline. Not Vaseline. Visine to put in my eyes because my eyes were fucking red.
We're all high and we're, you know. You got arrested for having it? I got arrested for stealing it. Oh, okay. At the little locals at the beach, went across the street at the mart. And my dad literally bought me out. I used to get my dad for the bullshit. Like my dad was present. He just wasn't, he didn't know how to fucking. It wasn't like a father. He didn't know how to handle me as well.
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Chapter 2: What were Eddie's early experiences with gangs?
Like anything that he would do to be in good faith or, you know, have like somewhat, you know, control over, he would do it. So he, took me out of juvenile and brought me right back to the same fucking party that I got arrested at. So that just made me feel like unstoppable. You know, I'm like, okay, damn, is that fucking easy? I'm going to beat the system. Don't just doing this.
So that was the first time I got arrested. What is your dad doing?
no my dad's a great human being he's just not a great father right say there was no i mean at least in between the picking you up and bringing you back to the party was there a lecture of what are you doing with your life not really yeah and he i mean i have a younger brother and we speak about this shit all the time you know he's he's a man of many morals and and ethos but he's just fucking
And, well, it sucks at being that figure to me. So I ended up finding that in the street, which is why I became part of this organization. Started as a foot soldier. Ran the streets for a really long time. Got arrested, again, so much. Between just the ages of 13 and 18, I probably did my longest stretch of how many times I got arrested. Jack, Juby, all that. And I got arrested for fighting.
I got arrested for drug dealing. I got arrested for...
when fighting some more when you say foot soldier what is what does that mean that's like at the bottom of the hierarchy when it comes to you know crime but it's organized crimes like you start as someone who just puts in work right so i interviewed a mob guy yesterday and um you know obviously they have like a super structure right um but he was explaining that like you know you
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Chapter 3: What led to Eddie Soto's first arrest?
whatever you run whatever a scam or you sell some dope or whatever and you kick up money is it like that or it's not like that it's it's not really like that we didn't really take from people it was more of building your credibility to be in the bigger rooms you know talk about the more serious shit so at that time i'm just out there while i'm collecting my stripes per se where are you living in hialeah
No, I'm saying with your mom? Well, I was with my mom and first mother, my son at the time, which is how I got introduced to this Latin crime organization. And I was exposed to it all. Again, at a very early age, I was really deep into this shit. I saw it all. I was very curious. And it's crazy because, how you mentioned earlier, there wasn't a time that I ever said I wanted to be a drug dealer.
But I was always impressed by the gangsters, the guys that had the power, the money. Not necessarily the money for the luxuries of it, but the money for the power of it. And I just wanted to, you know, be a gangster. I remember my teacher asking me this at a very early age. And there was like, you know, second, third, fourth, fifth. I didn't have an answer.
And I think by like fifth or sixth grade, I answered. And I'm like, I want to be a gangster. All the kids are saying, I want to be a firefighter. I want to be this. I want to be that. And I answered her and she chuckled a little bit, but she looked at me with a face like, he's fucking serious. Right. And you can see pictures that I post from me at 13 years old.
I had my hair braided and I just had like a blank stare already. My older son is 13 years old. He still has that purity to him, you know? So to look back and I'm like, fuck, I was so lost at that age. But I was already so street smart and I had seen a lot of shit. I had been into a lot of shit. But yeah, man, getting arrested for fucking fighting.
And I mean, I remember the first time I got into a fight with a kid in my neighborhood and I almost got into a fight with him again and almost got arrested the second time. And I turned on the police officer that came to, I guess, like mitigate the situation. Got arrested for that. You know, so I was a fucking hothead, man. I was into a lot of shit. So, I mean, are they sentencing you to...
Well, at that age, no. Juvie or are they just saying you're on probation? 21 days, you know, you get a little slap in the wrist. You'll go to Jack. They'll send you to Juvie. You'll go to what they used to call it. Shorty, I forgot what the fuck they called it. It was rough, you know. You get really pressured into a lot of shit in there. And then you come out and you have more stripes.
So all these things that I was doing was adding to my repertoire of, you know, notoriety and reputation. Okay. So I was just addicted to that, man. There was something that I was so addicted to and I didn't find out until later on in life and it was power.
I kind of took the same energy that I'm doing now, just in more of obviously a constructive and positive light, which is now helping people do the opposite. Right. But I was just fucking addicted to power, man.
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Chapter 4: How did Eddie manage to evade law enforcement?
And again, like I mentioned for the cultivating charge, I was on probation while I was outside fighting this federal case. Feds and the state, they don't communicate. So now I'm trying to beat my state probation for early termination on the probation, because if not, they will run concurrently. You know, violation of probation. After you finish your Fed charge, I'm going to a bunky-ass state.
When you're doing Fed time in federal prison, to go from that to fucking state prison, it's a super big downgrade. It's like, holy shit. They don't even have air conditioning. So I didn't want to do that. I'm like, I'm not going to go to this fucking prison with a bunch of corner store chain snatchers and shit. And I fought my case. I beat it. My federal... Judge Gayles.
Everyone knows who this fucking guy is. Black gay dude. He's a motherfucker. Black gay federal judge or state? Federal. Gayles was his name. He was like the fucking most cutthroat judge in the Miami district. This guy, when I walked in, when, so I ended up having to file my case on the street. He ended up taking me in because I guess the feds were in his ear. Look, we need to get this guy inside.
This guy's going to, he's a fly race. He's going to run wherever. And one day I went to a court hearing. They brought me in and my next court hearing, the judge, I remember telling me, so here I have that you got your state probation. early terminate, huh? He's like, you're a smooth criminal. You think you're going to moonwalk up out here? I look at my lawyer.
I'm like, is this motherfucker allowed to talk to me like that? Like, how is that going off on me at this point? And my lawyer is still trying to play the finesse game. He's like, bro, this guy's gay. Had long hair at the time. He's like, I need you to wear your hair loose. You know, wear a pink tie. I'm like, bro, are you fucking serious?
Right.
Are you fucking serious? He's like, bro, trust me. This guy's gay, bro. You know? I'm like, holy shit. I'm not going to do this, James. We have another angle here, you know? And again, this was his way of finessing the state. You know, it's either we pay him or we finesse him. None of them worked in the feds. He's like, bro, I can't find no loopholes here. Like nobody wants to work with me.
Nobody wants to talk to me about nothing. I didn't get the vibe that there was any. So now we're just fighting our case head on. And I remember going into my last hearing and I get there and I look back and none of my family is there. I'm like, what the fuck is going on? And then there was like 30 people behind the D.A., So I'm looking and I'm like, who the fuck are those people?
Am I in the wrong courtroom? Is that the other people's family? And I remember looking back and there was this really pretty lady that I remember seeing her at the Fed building the day I turned myself in. And I remember them telling her how she had just, you know, had this big bust or whatever. I'm like, holy shit, this is how the Feds look? Like the Feds are another, a different game.
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Chapter 5: What was Eddie's experience in prison?
he's losing a year he's god knows they probably got him nine months halfway house or a year halfway house like he was but yeah he was uh he was a comp and he was he was what he was mrs uh he was miss miss dr smith's pet i mean me him had it out he was the head orderly right he was the second was he uh might have been ahead by the time i got there he might have been good because the guy the main guy he was cool he had left right when i was there
But that mother, me and him had it out. Everyone, you're like, there was tension. I was a lot bigger. I was 260 pounds at the time, you know, fucking stuck in my face, going to the yard, lifting people up and shit. And me and him had it out. We had it out. But that, he was, he was, man, he was fucked. That guy was churned. He was declawed completely because he had this mean program.
You'll see him walking from like the other side of the hallway and he's just You soft motherfucker. I would look at him like, who the fuck this guy think he is? And me, the gangster in me was like, bro, I'm going to fucking emasculate this motherfucker. Open hands, bro, I will catch these moments. You remember a guy named Google? Google, he was this tall, dorky guy, super intelligent man.
I think I would see you with him. Real goofy guy, right? But like super intelligent. He was so smart that people would pay him for information. He was like the cell phone of the yard. You have to know who he was, man. So this guy, we did a release party for him. And the guy came back and he was on the compound within two months.
You know how hard it is to get released and then get back on the same compound in two months? You have to go back through the holding. Why? What? The guy was just so smart, and it was just on ice. He didn't apply none of his intelligence to the fucking street. The guy went back out there, got back strung on drugs, and fucking paying for prostitution, and the fucking guy ended up back inside.
Do you remember a guy named, I'm thinking Turk?
Dirk?
His nickname was Turk, but if he was an RDAB, he would have been Shannon Siegel. Fuck, sounds familiar. White guy, short crop hair. Anyway, him, and then there was the other guy I used to hang out with. Except these guys all went to RDAP the year before me, like a year or so before me. One of them was Harold Locke. Damn, sounds familiar too. Yeah, he's in Los Angeles right now.
He actually, he's one of those guys. It's funny, I had an interview the other day, and the guy we were talking about- retraining yourself while you're incarcerated, kind of figuring out a plan and re-educating yourself while you're incarcerated. And I meant to bring up Harold.
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Chapter 6: How does Eddie reflect on his past life of crime?
They're trying to keep you from being just turn the savages into normal human beings. If you came in and you were a normal – pretty much you were okay to begin with, it's that last three months that they come for those guys. The educated guys that are in control of their emotions because that's like the last phase where they go for the manipulators.
That's where they – luckily, I never had to go through that. And I knew even though everybody was like, man, you're sailing through this program. I used to think – No, no.
I remember that. They'll come for me. We used to think that. We used to think that certain people were sailing through the fucking program.
yeah and then that shit was a rough for me from the start from the very beginning it was it was a lot of adapting i that's why i really relearned yeah but you're the guy that doesn't say thank you and please no i am i do have the the you know the common courtesy of you know my mannerisms are good that's one thing my dad taught me right but i just had no filter man i had no filter there was like a complete different set of rules and laws that were not only in prison but in art that that i had to abide by now you know right pulling up and the whole this and
And it was just some weird shit, you know? A lot of weird shit going on in the fucking dorm. And I would not catch myself with nobody. The guys I was with were the people I'm working out with. Most of the people I was with were outside of the compound. Right. I mean, outside of my housing unit.
But they'll give you a hard time for that too. You're not taking it, but you're not, you're not, you're not, Like just doing that, oh, I'm hanging out with my buddies. Oh, no, no. That has to stop at some point too. They'll give you a hard time for that.
I didn't hang out with nobody. I didn't trust nobody. I didn't like anybody. I didn't like myself. I'm in a whole revamping of everything, my habits, my character. And that's really what I spend the most time doing. I spend a lot of time with myself. And it wasn't just a craft that I was building. It was myself. Again, going from who I was to where I'm at today. Right. I don't drink.
I don't smoke. I don't fuck around. My thing is business, relationship and kids. That's it.
But why? Like what what happened? And was it? Was it just getting arrested and getting the time? Was it at that moment or did something happen while you were locked up along the way that you started thinking, I can't keep fucking doing this?
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