“Darkest Part!” - Cartel Cop on Cartel Occult, “R*pe Tree” & Life-Changing Cure | Matt Thomas • 379
Julian Dorey · 3 Feb 2026 · 2h 55m
Guest: Matt Thomas · Host: Joey Def, Julian Dorey
A retired sheriff's deputy who spent over three decades fighting the Sinaloa cartel out of an Arizona border county walks through his path from a gang-adjacent Phoenix childhood to undercover narcotics work and eventually second-in-command of his agency. He describes the mechanics of cartel structure, the prison-gang hierarchy that feeds street gangs, and specific raid operations, including one night-vision house hit on a cartel enforcer known for carrying grenades. He also details the psychological toll of the job: survivor's guilt, hypervigilance that follows him home to his family, and a mentality of not expecting to live past the career itself. A large portion of the conversation covers his experience getting ketamine therapy through a first-responder nonprofit after his department initially threatened to revoke his certification, including the visions, physical sickness, and personality changes he says followed treatment. The two also discuss darker cartel practices he encountered on the ground, including so-called rape trees used as trophies by smugglers, forced drugging of migrants to keep them moving, and the cartels' adoption of Santa Muerte and occult ritual as organizations grew more violent from the mid-2000s onward. The episode closes with reflection on border policy, COVID-era governance, and the strain his career put on his marriage and family life.
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Timestamps link into the episode on YouTube.
- Cartel house raid gone sideways
- Growing up near Phoenix street and prison gangs
- Ketamine therapy fight with his agency
- What ketamine sessions actually felt like
- Family background, absent father, grandfather figure
- Scholarship to a private high school and escaping the neighborhood
- Becoming a father at 19 and joining the force
- Working county jail among mafiosos
- Recruited into undercover narcotics work
- Rape trees, drugged migrants, and cartel exploitation of humans
- Cartel occult practices and Santa Muerte
- Toll on family and marriage from the job
Said on this episode
Quoted from the auto-generated transcript, which mishears names and technical terms. podcite.com reports what a show said; it does not endorse or fact-check it.
“I'm a hunter, right? I'm going after the worst of the worst. Hunting bad guys, hunting men is the ultimate hunt.”
“he was known to carry grenades and he always had an AK with him”