Joe Rogan Experience #1408 - Ed Calderon

Calderon says the safest choice is not to travel through cartel‑dominated areas at all; if confronted with a roadblock, slowing down and complying is generally safer than trying to run it, as cartels often shoot vehicles that flee.

Groups like the Jalisco New Generation Cartel run training camps, use drones, armored vehicles, encrypted communications, and community‑policing tactics, resembling insurgent or guerrilla forces more than traditional mafias.

Calderon stresses that a destabilized Mexico and a thriving U.S. black market are two sides of the same system: U.S. cash and firearms flow south, while drugs—now heavily fentanyl‑based—flow north, making this a joint U.S.–Mexico problem.

Based on his experience destroying marijuana fields, Calderon believes outlawing relatively low‑harm drugs like cannabis is a “fruitless fight”; partial legalization could erode cartel profits, though fentanyl and heroin remain much harder policy problems.

Such a label could justify U.S. military strikes, financial warfare, and stricter banking rules, but would also strengthen asylum claims for Mexicans fleeing violence and potentially pull banks and governments into “funding terrorism” liability.

Huge lithium deposits in Sonora and illegal Chinese mining operations elsewhere create new incentives for both cartels and foreign states to control territory, adding another layer to what is often framed only as a drug war.

By paving roads, funding churches, giving out cars and food, and paying for education and migration, cartels capture “hearts and minds,” so federal forces often arrive in communities where criminals, not the government, are seen as benefactors.