Cartel Destruction: From Silicon Valley to Montana's Reservations

I was flying down to Las Vegas for UFC 300 and thought- I better listen to that podcast with Andy Stumpf and John Nores.

John Nores joined me on the radio a couple years ago talking about how he battled the drug cartels on public lands as a fish and game officer in California. He wrote a book about the environmental destruction caused by the cartels and now lives in Montana.

Nores caught my eye more recently, as I noticed that he and Navy SEAL veteran and podcaster Andy Stumpf (who also now lives in Montana) were talking about how the drug cartels are targeting our Native American Indian reservations here in Montana.

For those who don't recall, NBC News did a big report on that topic after hearing my interview from last year with Stacy Zinn, who headed up the DEA in Montana at the time.

Stumpf and Nores talk (in the podcast below) about how the cartels are wreaking havoc from Silicon Valley to rural Montana.

I followed up with Nores on Tuesday. Here's why the cartels are targeting rural Montana in particular.

John Nores: "Because these remote tribal areas in northeastern Montana- any small community in any small state- it will bring in 20 times the street value price on fentanyl compared to like the city of say Silicon Valley, San Jose, or New York or Chicago. We're talking $100 a pill for a poisoned fentanyl tablet coming from a dirty lab out of Mexico can be sold very lucratively in rural Montana."

Nores says it is important to educate kids on why they need to know what they are taking. Just because it looks like an official pill from a pill bottle doesn't mean it is legit.

John Nores: "When I show these environmentally graphic pictures and tell horror stories of a valedictorian candidate in the Silicon Valley with a knee ache from being on a varsity volleyball team- taking a dirty pill, going into a room that night to do homework, and the next morning she's not waking up to go to school when mom's knocking on her door. That's a true story. That's a relative of a friend that I have right here, as an example. This is why the national priority has to be focused on and this is why we have to talk to everybody on a unified front try to solve it."