Roger Reaves — One of history's most prolific drug smugglers, a pilot who flew countless tons of cocaine and marijuana for Pablo Escobar and Jorge Ochoa's Medellin Cartel, employer of Barry Seal, and author of the memoir 'Smuggler.'
The gist
Roger Reaves walks Lex Fridman through a decades-long smuggling career, describing how he met Pablo Escobar and Jorge Ochoa and flew cocaine out of Colombian jungle strips for $5,000 a kilo. He details his friendship with pilot Barry Seal, the alleged CIA-Contra cocaine pipeline through Nicaragua, and the events leading to Seal's assassination. He recounts being shot down twice, tortured nearly to death in a Mexican prison, and escaping five prisons including Lubeck maximum security. The conversation turns reflective as Roger, his wife Marie, and family describe enduring 33 years of imprisonment through faith and love. He argues he was punished disproportionately compared to legal tobacco, and closes with advice, visions, and his daughter's poem.
Big reveals
- Roger describes the cartel as an 'insurance company' that guaranteed replacement of any lost load, claiming 100 tons piled up under the program.
- After Escobar bombed an airliner killing women and children, Roger says he 'was sorry I ever shook his hand.'
- Roger claims Barry Seal said he couldn't get caught in Mena, Arkansas, and was having dinner with then-governor Bill Clinton.
- Roger alleges renegade CIA agents ran cocaine into the US by the ton to fund the Contras, leaving Barry Seal 'holding the bag.'
- Roger names the man who killed Barry Seal as Ronaldo, the same hitman who guarded his first cocaine load.
- Facing life in prison, Roger refused to testify against the cartel and fled to Brazil with his family.
- Tortured in a Mexican prison, Roger refused to sign a confession even through waterboarding, beatings, and chili-pepper torture.
- Roger's DC-3 was reportedly announced shot down during a 1980 World Series broadcast as the first plane downed in Reagan's war on drugs.
Things worth remembering
- The cartel paid $5,000 a kilo to fly cocaine, loading 300-500 kilos per plane for an 8-hour trip.
- A million dollars in $100 bills weighs exactly 10 kilos (22 pounds); each bill weighs one gram.
- Barry Seal flew 'Panther conversion' planes with Q-tip propellers the CIA developed in Southeast Asia for quiet behind-the-lines flights.
- Roger's wife and children stayed in five-star hotels in Colombia as 'insurance' that he wasn't a DEA agent.
- After being shot down, Roger and a wounded companion escaped 7 miles on a 30-year-old donkey with no saddle.
- After being shot down in Colombia, Roger walked 11 days through jungle and stumbled into a Missionary Aviation Fellowship base.
- Roger escaped Lubeck maximum-security prison by bending bars with a rope and broom handle, then scaling scaffolding to the roof.
- Roger argues tobacco kills 500,000 Americans a year while all drugs combined kill 10,000-15,000, 60% of them pharmaceutical.
- Roger wrote over a million words of his memoir on a prison computer while guards watched through a one-way mirror.
- Lex praises HBO's Chernobyl as proof you can capture a story's spirit without being native to it if you pour your heart into it.
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Smuggler
Roger Reaves
“he recently got out of prison where for many years he worked on his memoir called Smuggler” — Lex Fridman 00:00:31Find it on Amazon
Smuggler: A Memoir
Roger Reaves
“Smuggler. A memoir. Yeah, I I really do hope that they they make a movie of this one.” — guest 01:00:45Find it on Amazon
Chernobyl
HBO
“there's a there's a series called Chernobyl done by HBO... they did an incredible job of being historically accurate” — Lex Fridman 00:59:11Find it on Amazon
Blow
Ted Demme (inferred)
“I didn't know George Jung, but it was a wonderful movie. Absolutely, it captured it.” — guest 01:01:17Find it on Amazon