Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
How Brian O'Dea Built a $240M Smuggling Empire
Fri, 24 Jan 2025
Brian O'Dea is a Canadian businessman, author, television personality, and former drug smuggler. He is best-known for a large smuggling enterprise he masterminded in the mid-1980s. Set up to move marijuana in bulk from Southeast Asia to the Pacific Northwest and California, between 1986 and 1988, O'Dea's organization successfully smuggled 76 tons of marijuana worth about $300 million into Washington, transported it to California, and distributed it throughout the United States. Follow me on all socials! Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/insidetruecrime/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@mattcoxtruecrime Do you want to be a guest? Send me an email here: [email protected] Do you want a custom "con man" painting to shown up at your doorstep every month? Subscribe to my Patreon: https: //www.patreon.com/insidetruecrime Do you want a custom painting done by me? Check out my Etsy Store: https://www.etsy.com/shop/coxpopart Listen 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/B0851KBYCF Bent: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BV4GC7TM It's Insanity: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08KFYXKK8 Devil Exposed: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08TH1WT5G Devil Exposed (The Abridgment): https://www.amazon.com/dp/1070682438 The Program: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0858W4G3K Bailout: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/bailout-matthew-cox/1142275402 Dude, Where's My Hand-Grenade?: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BXNFHBDF/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1678623676&sr=1-1 Checkout my disturbingly twisted satiric novel! Stranger Danger: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BSWQP3WX If you would like to support me directly, I accept donations here: Paypal: https://www.paypal.me/MattCox69 Cashapp: $coxcon69
Chapter 1: How did Brian O'Dea start his smuggling career?
I got on a plane. The day I got out, a friend of mine picked me up. I had 500 bucks and a return ticket to Bogota, Colombia. And that's where the magic started. And he put his newspaper down on a bureau there and it went clunk. The butt end of a gun was sticking out of it. He couldn't speak English. I couldn't speak Spanish.
In about 10 minutes, he made it clear to me not to go anywhere, to stay where I am. He will be back. You can get 10 grand for what I'm gonna give you for your $500. You go do that and then come back and talk to me. He took me back there and it was a suitcase factory. It looked like American tourist or luggage. but it all had false bottoms.
As far as we know, no one else was doing that process in those days. We were the only ones. And then we went back down to Columbia and we picked up the load and we crashed it on landing, we lost an engine, we took off with three engines, we lost another engine, we put it in the ocean, 16,000 pounds, crash in the ocean in the nighttime and no life care. So there were 110 of us in our group.
The load came over. The 50 tons is now up in Alaska, hidden in a fjord with our three boats. And they're all hidden up there, repackaging it, doing a quality control on it, barcoding everything. getting it ready to sell, right? They know, you know they know, but they don't know that you know they know. So you can orchestrate something for them to look at while you do what you need to do.
And that's exactly what we did. I'm in the midst of this and I get a phone call from an old nemesis, an old bad guy that I grew up with, but he's no fucking good. And the moment I got his call, I knew my gut told me, hang the phone up, and I did not.
Hey, this is Matt Cox. I'm going to be interviewing Brian O'Day. He is a former marijuana smuggler and a current filmmaker, and we're going to be I'm going to be interviewing him, and we're going to get into his story, and I appreciate you guys watching. Check out the video. Let's start at the beginning. Where were you born?
I was born in St. John's, Newfoundland in Canada, which is where I am right now. Newfoundland, many people don't know it, so I will tell you. It's the furthest point east in North America. It's an island 105 miles off the coast of Nova Scotia. And it was where a lot of people during 9-11, their planes got diverted to Newfoundland. Oh, lost you there. I lost you there. Sorry.
It may freeze up a little bit. Yeah. But it's actually recording on both of our computers right now and it will upload.
Okay.
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Chapter 2: What challenges did Brian face during his early smuggling days?
And so, you know, when that happens to you at 11 years old and nothing is done about it, you don't tell anybody, then when you discover things that get you out of your mind, drugs, alcohol, cigarettes, you go for it. You know what I mean? Because the mind is a fucking minefield. It's a terrible place to be. I can only, in retrospect, tell you that I think that's what happened.
And, you know, when I, like I drank at an early age, I never really had a drinking problem, but I was always drinking. There was booze in my house all the time. Dad owned a brewery. It was a room that had beer and booze. And I would steal it all the time and we'd go drinking with the boys and never considered myself an alcoholic, interestingly. And then when I discovered marijuana, university,
well that that was that was it for me i found a business found something that i loved and i found a business in the midst of it so and you know getting out of my mind was a constant thing Eventually, I shook the God thing. I shook the guilt thing. I shook the Catholic thing. I shook all of that nonsense. But I, you know, getting out of my mind kind of stuck. And this was in college, university?
University and then after, you know, I smoked my way out of university.
And real quick, did anything ever happen with your abuser? Did it ever catch up with him later on?
No, no, no. I did bump into him at my father's funeral, my mother's funeral. And that was interesting. I didn't bump into him. He showed up at the wake. We were Irish. We have wakes, open coffins. People come. You know, my dad, when my mom died, dad was sitting in a chair next to her body. She was in an open coffin in there. And, you know, a couple of hundred people show up and pass regards.
And my brothers and sisters and I, five of us at the door greeting people as they come. And I'll tell you just very briefly, two men and a woman are coming in. shaking their hands, welcoming, and looked into the next person. They shook this guy's hand. I'm looking to the next person. Swear to God, I recognized the hand. I recognized. I didn't recognize the guy, but I recognized the hand.
When they shook his hand, and I'm looking at the next guy, I went, what the fuck? And they looked, and I realized who it was by the fucking hand. Imagine. That was, you know, I was 11 years old. I'm 75 now. That was...
10 12 years ago you're 75 i am you're you're great you look great you look you know you you sound good you're you seem very clear-headed i am 53 and i'm already feel like i'm losing it you know and focusing on i'm losing focus and stumbling over my words half the time and
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Chapter 3: What led to Brian's transition from marijuana to cocaine?
Something's wrong, but they just couldn't put it together. And they had to let me walk out with the money. But they knew and there was nothing that said it just in their mind. They could in their gut, like you're saying in their gut, told them something's wrong here. I can't put my finger on it, but something's wrong. But because I had all the forms, I had all the documents.
They were like, they let me walk out with a check or they let me walk out with the cash. So, yeah, so I am absolutely a big believer in that because let's face it, what else? There's, you know, there's too many, you know, it's the coincidences are so overwhelming sometimes. It's like there's a connection. Something's connected.
There are no coincidences. There's synchronicities that point to something. It all points to something else. You know, Jimmy Stewart, the actor Jimmy Stewart? Yes. Years ago. Yeah. Jimmy Stewart kept a book his entire life. And in that book, he wrote every coincidence that ever happened to him. I would love to see that book. I would love to see that book. I'm going to tell you one more book story.
And that's this. When I got sober in 1988... My wife had had enough. I had two kids. And my wife and kids were down in the valley, in San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles. I was up in Santa Barbara in the hospital, 65, 70 miles away. She'd had enough of me. I tried to get sober four years earlier.
Six months after that, I was back in the bag and I was kind of stayed in the bag for the ensuing four years. She sent the kids up to see me and they came in, brought me an envelope and in the envelope, there was a key and an address. And she had rented a place for me, told me she didn't want me to come home. This was my new place. There it was. Good luck. Go get it.
And, oh, we used to go back and forth on the phone all the time, you know. And, oh, you don't understand. And hang up. So one day I was visiting a psychiatrist friend of mine, George Buffano. And I was telling him, George, she doesn't fucking get it. She's just, she's so wrong. And he said, Brian, I'm going to let you in on a little secret. I'm right all the time, but I try and keep it a secret.
And I suggest you do the same, too. And by the way, so is she. She's always right. You know how when you're disagreeing with her and you're saying, no, no, no, that you don't understand what you're saying to her is this. Drop your life experience. Assume my life experience immediately and see this my way. What's wrong with you? He said, hold your rightness gently.
Always be prepared to change with new information. And it's just nonsense. You don't need to be right for anyone else. Yeah. I left his office. I stopped at a bookstore and I bought a book called 10,000 Proverbs and Quotations and went back to the house, got on the phone with her. Of course, we're at it again and we hang up on each other.
And I flipped the book open and this is what I read the moment I flipped that book open. This is the grave of Mike O'Day, who died maintaining his right of way. His right was clear, his will was strong, but he's just as dead as if he'd been wrong. Buddy, it's like, bam, lightning hit the page. I could not believe that I read that at that moment.
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