“DARKEST Ritual!” - The 3 “Ground Zeroes” of the Mexican Cartel Occult | Ed Calderon • 465
Julian Dorey · 21 Aug 2026 · 2h 8m
Guest: Ed Calderon · Host: Joey Def, Julian Dorey
This conversation with a former Mexican counter-narcotics operator ranges across cartel logistics, geopolitics, and personal reckoning. The guest describes newer smuggling technology like autonomous narco-submarines and a recently discovered border tunnel linked to a rival cartel, walking through how such tunnels are financed, built, and kept secret through coercion of laborers. The discussion moves into cartel history, including claims about a cartel figure's connections to a former CIA-linked Cuban officer and stories of mobile medical facilities used by cartel leadership. From there the two move into current American and Mexican politics, touching on Epstein-related scandals, a tech billionaire's event guest list, UFO disclosure skepticism, immigration and border rhetoric, and speculation about future political figures. A long personal section follows in which the guest discusses his upbringing, a formative moment after his brother's death that shaped a self-destructive path, his struggles with alcoholism, and how fatherhood changed his relationship with death and purpose. The final stretch covers Mexican religious and occult practices, distinguishing between open folk-saint veneration like Santa Muerte and hidden Afro-Caribbean blood-sacrifice practices, alongside a documented case of institutional abuse tied to a Mexican church. The episode closes with speculation about irregularities surrounding the killing of a major cartel leader and the handling of evidence at the scene.
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What comes up
Timestamps link into the episode on YouTube.
- Narco-submarines and drone tech
- Tijuana's growth and cartel violence
- Tunnel construction and labor coercion
- Mobile medical facilities for cartel bosses
- Peter Thiel's event and elite culture
- Predictions for future US and Mexico leadership
- US-Mexico relations and invasion risk
- American founding ideals and travel perspective
- Recovery, fatherhood, and confronting death
- Cartel leaders' Catholicism vs occult practices
- Church sex-abuse scandal (Luz del Mundo)
- Questions about cartel leader's death and evidence handling
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.
“we need an enemy that we can all coalesce around.”
“the United States has another drug problem, which is illegal immigration, cheap labor. You're addicted to it.”
“my whole mindset is I don't want her to repeat what I had to go through. So I'm being present.”
“if the person you're cursing doesn't know their cursed, the curse doesn't work.”