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They're some of our favorites. And now we bring you the story of Dr. George Valdez. He's the author of Coming Clean, the true story of a cocaine drug lord and his unexpected encounter with God. Here's George.
tell his story. You know, what's really interesting about my life is that a lot of times in life we believe that only bad things happen to bad kids. No one can ever imagine that good things can happen to good kids. You know, my story is very, very different. My story starts when I was a young boy in Cuba.
My parents were a very wealthy family. My dad was a man of tremendous integrity. Didn't talk to him. Very, very much. My mother was everything in our lives.
And my mother was the one that wanted to leave Cuba. She did not want her children, she was very religious, did not want her children to grow up in a home. that just did not, was not allowed to worship God because it was a communist country. And my father, on the other hand, he really just thought that communism was not going to affect them. And he was 40 years old and I wanted to come to the United States.
And my mother said, well, if you don't want to come, that's fine, but I'm not going to raise my children here. My mother applied to leave Cuba when I guess in 1962, right after the revolution, which would have made me six years old. we did not get to leave till October 11, 1966. And I tell them a life I look at it in three very traumatic or three shifts of my life. where different occurrences happen that would define.
the next decade of my life. And that first one was Being waked up in the morning early, my mother's saying, get up, get up. We're living Cuba and I'm in shock. I'm 10 years old. My brother is nine.
My sister is five. And I had no idea, so I went to pack some toys and my mother's like, no, no, no, only the clothes on your back.
So as I was going towards the airport, I'm like, mom, where are we going? She said, we're going to Miami. Uh, we're gonna be with your relatives, and I'm like. I mean, constantly like looking and like wondering, everything is going through my head. Why am I leaving my toys?
Why am I leaving my friends? Why are we leaving? are relatives. We get to the a port. as we are waiting for our name to be called out then all of a sudden Uh towards the end of just about everybody had boarded.
I see my mother and my father crying and my mother coming to me and my father, all I could hear him say was, I'm not going, I'm not going. I could not understand what he meant by that. When my mother grabbed my hand, I was 10. And she put it with my brother and my sister, and she looked at me and said, Jorge. You take your brother and sister to Miami.
I will meet you there one day. And at that moment in time, my father, who was just crying and just shaking his head, and I'm walking towards the airplane, and I was in complete shock. I mean, like my whole world had shattered. What what was happening to me? Why am I where am I going?
Who am I going to go see? Why is my mom and dad staying behind?
Well, my dad ended up joining us by God's grace at the last minute. And we arrived in Miami and we used to live in a house that was one square block in Cuba. We had cars, we had colour television in our house. And we went to live with some relatives and it was a total of 11 of us. And we went to sleep in the floor.
One bedroom, one bathroom, and 11 of us had to go to work or go to school. And at that moment in time, I made a decision in my life. And the decision was, You know, there's no God in the world. God is whoever I make him out to be. My mother's crazy.
Fidel was right when he said that God was only for weak people. They need a meaning for their lives. But still, you know, I ended up Doing things with tremendous integrity. At the age of 17, I became the youngest employee of the Federal Reserve Bank. I was a straight-A student.
And I went to school at the University of Miami. and uh and worked at the Federal Reserve Bank full time. And I did that for almost four years and literally never had seen drugs in my life, never drank alcohol. I had a girlfriend that I would see her for two hours on Saturday night. and about four hours on uh Sunday.
And that would be about it. I was just set. My life was defined because my life was going to be. I was going to reach the American dream. And the American dream was really defined to me two days after I came from Cuba.
When I saw my cousin one day come, And he had this gorgeous candy apple red GTO. With uh A white interior inside, and he had only been there about a year before us. And I began to say to myself. Oh my god, if my cousin Who just came from Cuba a year ago has this beautiful car. The day I have a car like this, I'll be somebody.
Because at that time I met what I call the pseudo-American dream. That American dream that told me, George, whenever you have beautiful cars, whenever you have a beautiful woman, whenever you have mansions and cars and planes and all those great things. You'll be somebody. And I was so focused on being that somebody that I really did not think about nothing else but that goal in my mind. Time passed and I'm about to graduate from the University of Miami.
My accounting professor at that time, he came up to me and said, George, I want you to come work for me. I just moved from Miami. I did not speak Spanish. You can have secretary, office, all those wonderful things that I thought that one day I would have when I own my own business. And all you have to do is do my Spanish clients for me.
And to me, it was probably the first evidence that there was a God in this world.
So I went to work for him. I left the Federal Reserve Bank. You know, my father, again, very conservative, did not want me to leave. He thought I had a tremendous career. And my mother, the other way, was different.
My mother was. You're never going to be somebody working for somebody, so. Do whatever you have to do, son. And so she encouraged me. And I went to work for that man and I remember going The first I mean, the first job I had was a little grocery store in Miami.
I would say it was about twenty-five feet wide by forty feet long. Uh in the middle just Really, really Cuban uh land I called it at that time. And uh I went to work for him. It's called La Porta de Sol. And the first day that I went in there, he had a little office set up in the back.
a little room in the back of the store. And I go there and the first thing that I see is a bag. And I begin to count the money. And it was over $100,000.
Now imagine this is 19 76. When you could buy a gorgeous home in Miami for $25,000.
So I looked at that and I was like, wow, amazing that a little place like this. is making so much money. And when we come back, how did that $100,000 land in a bag in Miami? You're wondering? I think you already know the answer.
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Make a donation. A monthly gift of $17.76 is fast becoming a favorite option for supporters. Go to ouramericanstories.com now and go to the donate button and help us keep the great American stories coming. That's ouramericanstories.com. Hi, I'm Steph, and I work at United Healthcare.
When I think about United Healthcare's members, I think of my own family. My niece was diagnosed with an ultra-rare genetic disorder. I know how hard it is for our families at United Healthcare. We can make it easier. I'm Brian.
I care because I know what it's like to not speak the language. It's not easy. Health insurance is complicated. I would say our job is to make everything easy for our UXC members. I work for United Healthcare.
I'm committed to care. The official language of football is trash talk, late-night group chats, memes, and unbelievable highlight clips. That's why Boost Mobile brings you our new global connection plan. The first plan ever made for WhatsApp. Get unlimited data, talk and text, international roaming, and calls to over 100 countries for just $40 a month.
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You ever notice nobody remembers just the game? Facts, it's always like, where were you? The people you were with? For real, people in place. That's the real memory.
For me, backyard at my teos, carne on the grill, everybody yelling. Kids running around, learning their first gold celebration, just copying everybody like, goal. And there's always that one uncle with the upgrades from the Home Depot. Bet dad approved everything. New grill, string lights, upgrade patio seatings, whole setup leveled up.
Mira esto, showing you every little detail. But that's what makes it yours. Same spot, same people. Game after game. That's how the stories stack up.
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with a lot of money. With Let's just call it funny money. Let's get back to the story here again. is George Valdez. I mean, apparently, this is definitely not what they taught us at school.
So I let it pass and I did my books. I set up the journals. I did all that stuff that an accountant does. Come back the next Monday. And when I came back the next Monday, I find another bag, and the bag has 75,000 this time.
I looked around the store, I looked at all the receipts the guy had bought. It didn't add up to about $500 and I'm like, man. How the heck is this guy turning this $500 into so much income? I mean, I was that naive. Third week, it was just the weather road.
Where the rubber met the road. I come in again, and this time it was like $110,000, $120,000, and I just, I couldn't take it anymore. And again, at the same time, nothing wrong would cross my mind.
So I called him in, I said, hey Albro. Let me ask you a question. You know, in accounting there's a very basic formula. You buy a dollar worth of product and if you sell it for three dollars, you have $2 profit. If you sell it for $4, you got $3 profit.
I mean, this guy couldn't even read or write. I said, but we have a problem here. or the entire month all you've bought is About $800. And so far I'm counting almost $300,000. And literally he just started laughing in my face.
He said, George, what do you think? with drug dealers. And you can imagine How shocked I was. And I WO shot for about 10 seconds. I was shocked for about 10 seconds because that's how quickly I was able to convince myself.
Hey, George, don't get excited. You're an accountant. You were trained to count money. As long as you don't break the law. And do nothing wrong.
You're fine. And then again, remember during this time, there was no money laundering loss.
So uh he looked at me and he said, Look. We have currency restrictions in Colombia. We can't take our money there.
So we know that you work for the Federal Government. Do you know how to open foreign bank accounts? I looked at him and said, Of course, I know how to open foreign bank accounts. He said, Well, how much does it cost? And so now, I knew that you could open a four-bank account and I had heard that It cost you about $700 in Grand Came In.
But I didn't want to get involved in any of this because this was just way beyond my means. I mean, I was the ultimate nerd. All I ever did is study and work. I knew nothing about life, I knew nothing about drugs, I knew nothing about big business. And they're like, well, can you open three account for us?
And I'm like, sure. No, not a problem. And of course, I'm going to give them this really stupid offer. And with that offer, They're just going to go ahead and leave me alone.
So I go ahead. And I said. Ten thousand dollars a piece.
Now remember, I knew that all they cost is about You know. 700 bucks.
So I knew for sure that they would tell me: hey, forget about it, there's nothing. Here do it.
So. Uh just good health.
Well They looked at me and said, can you open three? And so I'm trying to you know, portrayed the big guy that I work for the government after all, so I'm a big shot. And I'm like, not a problem. It'd probably take me a couple of weeks.
Well, you know, I think it's one of the gravest mistakes in my life because I've looked at life. I've never looked at life that I can do something. I always thought, well, if someone's done it, I can do it too. And that was the wrong mindset. Because all of a sudden, here they give me right up front $30,000.
I had never seen money like that in my life. At that time, I think minimum wage was like $1.20 and I was making $320, $3.25 an hour at the Federal Reserve Bank. All of a sudden I see thirty thousand dollars in my pocket.
Well, it didn't take me long to make a connection, head out to Grand Cayman, open those bank accounts. And my world began to change. And that's something that I talk about crossing lines in life. You know, when we cross a line in life, it's just so easy to cross that little thin line. But then it becomes so hard.
But once we cross that thin line one time, Then it just becomes easier and easier. And all of a sudden I was opening foreign bank accounts to people managing millions and millions of dollars. you know, my world started to drastically change. And then came the second shift in my life. I went to a party.
And I saw this federal judge that would give people hundreds of years for Any drug offense? Snorty cocaine. And I said to myself, You know what, George? There is no God in this world. And there's definitely no morals.
So whatever you do is fine. And then that's where my life just drastically starts to spin out of control. But then again, at the same time, I'm saying to myself, well, I'm making a lot of money. I just bought a brand new Mercedes. I'm going to buy my parents a house.
And again, I'm not doing anything wrong. And it's very important to go back to that era in the six in the mid-70s. Cocaine was not even in the DEA radar. It was not even a thing. It was something that was for the rich and famous.
And I began to justify my actions as we all do whenever we do something that just deep down inside we know. It's quite not right.
So I began to justify my action by saying, list, if rich people want to do this stuff, that's their problem. At least I'm not involved with the drug part, I'm just involved with the money. And uh and I went out like that.
Well, the next thing they did is they asked me to if I was interested in opening a banana import company. Little did I know that the least thing they were thinking about importing was bananas. And I say, sure. I said uh you know If I if you want me to head be the president of the company, if you want me to do the whole feasibility study and and the whole infrastructure, Then I gotta be the president. And it was four people, it was for them.
And these four gentlemen were the group that originally the original group that would one day go on and become the methogene drug cartel. And they were different though. Manuel, who was the head of the cartel at that time. was a gentleman. He was a man that went to mass every day.
He had uh enormous businesses. He was worth hundreds of millions of dollars in 1976 On coal mines, emerald mines. And I start Doing all the infrastructure for the company, and then I went all over Europe to look for a ship that we called it a landing ship because it had to be something that would have low draft.
So that we go in uh low waters. Because all along, all they cared about was not importing bananas. They couldn't give a darn if we threw all the bananas in the ocean. What they want to do was import cocaine. I had no idea, totally clueless.
But we went on like that, and as I started to get to know those people, they started to say to me. You know what, George? We want you to handle all our operations in the United States.
Now, imagine: here's a 20-year-old kid, I have braces. I've never, never crossed any I'd never done anything wrong in my life. I had a perfect record. I didn't even have a speeding ticket. All the alcohol my life did not even fit in a teacup.
Being asked to handle all drug operations in the United States, for the most powerful criminal organization in the world at this time. No way, there was just no way that even thought would cross my mind. But they kept that in a very subtle way in a subtle way until one day I came up with this brilliant idea So I'm gonna say to him, I said, you know what? I know what I'm going to do.
Next time that they ask me, If I want to do that, I'm going to say, okay, I'll do it. But here's the deal. You guys put up all the money. And I want equal parts. In other words, you're four, now we're going to be five.
No doubt in my mind. No doubt in my mind. And they would tell me to just go to hell because there's just no way in the world. this for mid-forties multi-millionaires Ah, very, very powerful people. Would go ahead and let a 20-year-old punk hit dictate to him that he's going to be cool partners with them and they got to put up 20% of his money, which at that time would have been.
Each load was costing three four hundred thousand dollars. per person to bring in.
So I left. They told me, well, we'll think about it. And I went back to my hotel and I'm saying, well, you know what? That's wonderful. Finally got rid of the headache.
Not a problem. And I go on. And I went went to bed and I was just I had this amazing feeling of relief. In the morning when I went to uh to go to the airport, they sent the driver for me. And the driver said, We got to stop at our manual's office because he wants to talk to you.
So I'm like, okay. Uh we're gonna stop over there. And uh and see. What he wants.
So when I go over there, I'm like. Yeah, Manuel, is is there anything that Unique. Hold on one second. Let me cut that out. This dog started.
Barking here for a second. And you've been listening to George Valdez tell the story of his own life, and he talks about crossing lines in life. And that first time it's hard. But then each time you cross it, and we all know it because we've crossed a line or two in our lives. It just gets easier to cross the line.
And then, well, from that first step. He finds himself Approaching that job of handling all the drug operations for one of the largest drug cartels. In world history. When we come back, more of George Valdez's story. Here.
on our American story. Uh Hi, I'm Steph, and I work at United Healthcare. When I think about United Healthcare's members, I think of my own family. My niece was diagnosed with an ultra-rare genetic disorder. I know how hard it is for our families at United Healthcare.
We can make it easier. I'm Brian. I care because I know what it's like to not speak the language. It's not easy. Health insurance is complicated.
I would say our job is to make everything easy for our UXC members. I work for United Healthcare. I'm committed to care. He's dribbling the ball with everything on the line. He's driving down the pitch.
He's facing price hikes and cuts past him. Carrier contracts tries to block him. Oh, he leaves him in the dust. He's at the edge of the box. He cuts past the non-stop group chat trash talk.
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Boost Mobile. After 30 GP, customers may experience lower speeds. Customers will pay $25 a month as long as they remain active on the Boost $25 unlimited plan. Yakush Baba podcast is brought to you by the Home Depot, official FIFA World Cup 2026 supporter. All right, serious question.
Match day at your house. Is it really match day? Depends. You got the grill going or just talking? For real, not just the grill.
I'm talking car nasada. The smoke hits the block before kickoff. That's how people know where to pull up. Dang, that first sizzle? Yeah, that's it right there.
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The Home Depot. Learn more at Home Depot.com. This is Matt Altmix from How to Money, and we are all about comparing prices to save money on so many things in life.
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more precisely, the world of cocaine, importing and selling it. and then laundering and hiding the money. Things are about to get even wilder though for this accountant turned drug dealer. Let's pick up. Where we last left off.
So when I went to meet Manuel in the morning, he's like, George, come in.
So I went in there. And he says to me, You know what? We'll accept. You go ahead and handle all the operations for us. What make you equal partners?
We need someone like you in the United States. And I'm like, what the hell's wrong with this freaking people? I'm 20 years old. What do you mean they need somebody like me? I don't even know what the hell cocaine looks like.
Handle operation? What does that mean? I mean Who brings it in? Who takes her to where? Who buys this?
How the hell does this and then What happens with the money? Because at the end, later on in life, what we find out that the Isha thing was bringing it in. The hardest thing is what we do with hundreds of millions of dollars. in the in the 70s. And now I'm petrified.
I mean, I'm so scared right now that I'm like, there's no way in the world I can tell these people know.
So I'm like, fine, uh let me go take care of the uh we're remodeling this ship. in California, I said, let me take care of the ship. And once we've done that, I'll come back or we'll meet in Miami and we can go over what exactly it is that you all need.
So when I go to California, all along there, the gentleman I had hired to do the refrigeration had kept asking me, hey, you know what? I know that your boat is for cocaine. And I'm like, no, you're crazy. How would this boy be to bring in cocaine when it's in my name? Am I that stupid?
You know, here that got pretty friendly because. I used to play baseball really well and he had a softball team and so we became really, really good friends and he just kept kidding me about that.
So when all of a sudden I find myself that I'm going to be head of all operations, I'm like. You know what? This guy wants cocaine in California, but let me do the same thing. Let me make him a stupid offer.
Well, he says no, then I can come back to the manual and say, look. I'd like to help you guys out, but I don't have a buyer. I don't know anything.
So I go to Mel and I say, hey, Mel. You know, all this time you've been harassing me about the bobbin cocaine, and you know, now that we're close friends, let me tell you, it is, man. In the meantime, I had found out that cocaine in Miami costs $40,000. It was $20,000 in in Colombia at that time. And it costs about $5,000 to bring it to the US, $25,000.
And wholesale, it will sell about $42,000, $43,000. A kilo.
So I go up to Mel and I say, Hey, Mel. I want to come clean with you. And he's like, oh man, I knew it all along, I knew it all along. How many can you sell me? I said, How many do you want?
He said, Well, how much? I said, seventy thousand. It took an act of God for me to not pee in my pants from laughing when I came up with that number. And he's like, That's a lot of money. I said, Exactly.
We only handle the best quality ever.
So he said, well, let me get with my people. It wasn't about four hours later he says. We'll buy five kilos and I'm like I don't know if I can supply that little. And I'm like, man, at that night I couldn't even go to bed. I was just in such turmoil.
I'm either going to get killed by the buyers, or I'm going to get killed by the sellers, or somebody's going to kill me. I didn't believe in God at that time, but I was sort of like, Jesus, just go ahead and kill me right now because, you know, take away the misery. Lo and behold, I go to Miami. And one other uh representatives from that grocery store, his name was Jaime and I'm like, Jaime. I got this problem.
This guy already wants to buy three kilos.
Now they want to put me in charge of all this operation. I mean, like, I don't know what the hell to do. He said, oh, that's easy, man. He wants three kilos. We'll get him to California.
Sell it to him, how much? I said 70. He said, 70. Are you crazy? You sure they're gonna pay and they'll rip you off?
I said, I have no idea. I said, man, I've never even sold a candy bar in my life. How the hell do I know if they're going to pay me or not? He said, Man, you better act like you can kill each and every one of 'em, 'cause if not.
Somebody's gonna kill you. I mean, I just couldn't sleep for a week. They took the three kilos, I made sixty some thousand dollars. And then I came back, and within six months, I was U.S. head of all operations, and I was importing over 85% of all the cocaine that came into America.
I was 21 years old and I was making between a million and $3 million a month.
Now it's very, very important to realize that's 1977 money. you know which is a little bit different than today's money But you know what? The interesting thing for me was that now I knew I was gonna be happy.
Now I just knew that my world would change and that I would be somebody, that I'm somebody important. I mean after all, now all our clients were Hollywood celebrity movie stars. Cocaine was not even in the DEA radar during this time, so I was not even feeling guilty about doing anything wrong. I had the business, I had the office, I went to the To my office every morning at 8 o'clock like I'd done all my life, I put on my suit. And I left the office at 6 o'clock.
And I ran the biggest empire and created the biggest drug empire in America and created the most intricate financial web. That there was. But Why was I miserable? Why was it that, for example, I remember one time I got a phone call and like, George. The Corvette convertible just came out.
And I mean, I was like so excited. It was like, uh... You know, it was like if it was by mitzvah or my baptism, you know, I put on a suit, I put on cologne, I told one of my bodyguards, I said, hey, load up a briefcase with money, we're gonna go find my happiness. And we get to a dealer. And all of a sudden, when I get to a dealer, I see that.
They got three colors and I'm like what the heck? If my joy is dependent upon one of these colors and I picked the wrong one, How am I going to be happy?
So I did what any accountant would do, I just bought one of each color. And when people say, well, what's the hardest thing you do every day? You say, well, of course, the hardest decision I make in the morning is what them car is going to drive. And I looked around one day and I had a million dollar worth of cars. and I just couldn't understand why I was not happy.
Well, I realized then I was married to one woman. And I'm like, well, I'm a good Cuban guy, so how can a Cuban guy be just happy with one woman? And I started dating all the most beautiful supermodels in America and I hated them all. and could not understand why all of a sudden I hated women, treated them the way I did. I mean, I did not.
abused him or anything like that, but just to me that was just so insignificant. when I adore my mother who was my entire life. and I had the utmost respect in this world. You know, everybody in the world wanted to be like George Valdez. You know, I was considered the most powerful person, well, one of the most powerful in America at that time, and no one even knew that I existed.
But I tell people every day of my life I would lay down in my bed, wake up in the morning, see the mirror, just did not like what I see. Then one of my uh associates comes up to me and says, We have an opportunity. The government of Bolivia wants to make a deal with you.
So I was in Colombia with the pilots and I showed him what the airstrip was and I was going to fly back to Nicaragua because I had a meeting with General Somosa where we were going to bring some drugs through a Corn Island and then he was going to send it in in his refrigerator cargo ships to us. We landed in Colombia and everything was fine. Then all of a sudden as We loaded up the cocaine, we spent overnight tied up to a tree at night. And we got on the airplane about half an hour afterwards, we lost contact with Columbia because We lost both alternators. And eventually we're over uh the country of Panama, about 5,000 feet when both engines just went off.
and we crash landed. And it was a miracle that we even lived. And we jumped from the airplane and then a military officer came. And I took out $300 and I gave it to him. I said, Look, we were looking for cattle ranches and we had a problem with the airplane and we crash-landed, but.
All I need to do is, if you can take me to a hotel. And here, take my passports, sign them. And uh tomorrow I'm gonna send someone I'll have someone come and fix the airplane. He uh took me to a private office and split us apart. And they came in there, and it was the head of the DEA, the general counsel of Panama.
and the head of the G2, which was the intelligence division for Noriega. They lined up all the cocaine in our table. They took pictures of us. When I got to Miami, I was charged with heading the largest drug conspiracy in the history of America and giving the highest bond ever in the history of America, $7 million. I was just 23 years old.
And you're listening to the story of George Valdez and what a ride he's taking. And then his life literally comes crashing to the ground in a plane in Panama. And now he's back in Miami with the highest bell ever posted. on a criminal in this country's history. $7 million.
When we come back, what happens next in the life? of George Valdez here. on our American stories. Hi, I'm Steph, and I work at United Healthcare. When I think about United Healthcare's members, I think of my own family.
My niece was diagnosed with an ultra-rare genetic disorder. I know how hard it is for our families at United Healthcare. We can make it easier. I'm Brian. I care because I know what it's like to not speak the language.
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When we last left off, George had been caught with pounds of cocaine in Panama after his plane was forced to crash land in a field. Let's get back to the story. You know, I hired the best lawyers that money could buy. I hired every name lawyer that you can ever imagine in America. I spent a million dollars at that time.
But anyway, it did not matter. I was sentenced to 15 years in jail for conspiracy, which was the most that you could give to anyone because they didn't have a wiretap. They didn't even have the cocaine. The cocaine disappeared the same day. No Rega sold that quickly.
I go off to prison and you know people think that prison will change you. Prison doesn't change people. I went into prison and I was the same guy I always was. When I get out. After five years in change, I went back to the same thing.
And really, I look back now, there was no need for it. I was a multi-millionaire. I couldn't spend the money that I had. But it was this thing that They thought they had beat me, but I'm gonna beat them in the end. And I went back to the same thing, but something very dynamic started to happen right now.
And what happened was My mother found out for the first time that I was a drug dealer. All along before that, all she thought I was an international businessman because I had a lot of business. When she found out, it destroyed her. It is the most painful thing I've ever been through in my life, seeing my mother walk into the courtroom and hearing that her baby kid. was charged with being this monster, being this the most powerful man in America.
you know, heading the largest drug conspiracy in the world. She said, son, you destroyed us. But here's the interesting thing about my mommy and this is a message that I tell to a lot of parents. My mother, not one single time. would take a dollar from me.
My mother not one single time stopped telling me that what I was doing didn't please God and that I had destroyed them. But in the same breath, My mother will say, Well, what do you want for dinner tonight, son? Because she let me know that Yeah, I could become a monster. I could become whatever. but in her eyes her God was bigger than anything.
and in her eyes her God would change her child. 40 years later, she This genius, because I see we get mad at our kids and we kick them out of the house and we find our children making horrible choices and we call it tough love, and it really doesn't work. We gotta be tough. But we gotta love.
So it's not tough love, it's tough, but love. And that's how I raise my children. But You know, and it went like that. And there was not one chance that my mother would not ever stop telling me that. And she's like, son.
If I get killed. You kill me. Because what you do doesn't please God. And I'm like, mom, what God? God ain't real.
What was God when we came from Cuba and we were going hungry every day? What was God when you came from Cuba and laid in a hospital dying of throat cancer? What was God, Mom? And I just left and I went back to my operations. One night I'm partying in my house with some movie stars.
And all of a sudden, the head of the uh security at the gate says, George, your ex-wife just dropped your daughter. I said, just bring her over.
So she comes over, I tell the The babysitter that lived with us, I said, Go ahead and put her to bed. Make sure she doesn't get out of her room and in the morning I'll have breakfast with her. I went back to my party. Two three hours later. I hear this knock on my door and say, Daddy, it's Crystal.
And for the first time in my life, I began to feel filthy. I began to feel dirty. And it was the feeling, the more she knocked, it was almost the feeling that you see your baby child going to drown on a boat, and you're reaching out and touching their fingertips, and you just can't grab a hold of their hands. And I couldn't open the door, because if I opened the door, it would contaminate her. I told the woman to get out of my room.
They went to get out of the door. I said, no, out the window. And when they got out and went to the shower, he's a man that never feared anything in his life. All of a sudden in the shower I started to shake and I started to tremble and I started to try to scrub the filth off of me. not wondering what the hell was going on in my life.
I went underneath my sheet and I began to shake and shimmer. And when I came down and I was dehydrated, I went to get water and I saw my baby girl. in the floor crying. And I said to myself, this will stop today. And I didn't know what change meant.
You know, and this is what I tell people: when you know you gotta make a change in your life, don't worry about what that means. Just know this. For me, it was simple. If I'm going north, I'm gonna start going south. If I'm going east, I'm going to start going west.
And I called my mother in the middle of the night and I said, Mom, I'm done. And she knew what I meant. And she's like, God has answered my prayer. And I'm like, God, mom, God has nothing to do with this. This is crystal.
This has nothing to do with God. Or so I thought. And then I called in the morning, I called the head of the cartel and I said, I'm finished.
Now imagine the desperation in my life at this point. that I knew the most likely? I'd be killed within a month. And I just moved off to my ranch. I sold my house in Miami.
And uh and I went to live in my ranch and Wait till someone came around. Didn't care anymore because my desperation was so much that my life just had to find some type of a change. Anyways, I hired this guy to teach me karate. He says, I'm going to teach you about the sword. And I'm like, man, I done karate a lot when I was younger.
And I'm like, man, I'm really smart. I can't believe I hired this guy. I love weapons. He's not going to waste his time throwing kicks. We're going to get into weapons right away.
All of a sudden he turns around. And he has a Bible. And I'm like I look at him and I'm like, Sir, First and foremost, I need to tell you two things. Number one, I don't believe in that book. Number two, I don't believe in God.
And number three, I'm paying you a lot of money to teach me karate, so tomorrow would you please leave that sword home and bring the real sword? He got up into my face where I could smell his breath and was the first man that had done that. And I said, uh Well, here's a seven-degree black belt. He's going to start whooping Jesus into me, and I'm going to be paying for it.
So I'm like, hey, dude, dude, don't get excited. Let's just go ahead and wait. And go waste your time. And I said, Well, the steamroom heats up. You can talk to me, read to me, do whatever you want.
It says deal. And he read to me, For almost three years. And people say, What did he say that made you come around? I said, really, honestly. Absolutely nothing.
because I was just getting over the butt whooping he had given me to even think about what the hell he was talking about. But it was everything that I saw. You see, I saw a man that lived in a very little world. I saw a man that had a 1,400, 1,500 square foot housing. He was...
so happy and I lived in this $15,000 square foot mansion. I was miserable. I wanted to find out about this God that I didn't know nothing about. And I started to study theology and I taught myself Greek. I ended up getting another bachelor's in prison, and almost five years later, I had started a master's from Wheaton College, graduated.
Uh I mean when when I was released I went to Wheaton College. And finished my master, became an adjunct faculty there, met the most amazing woman on God's earth, my wife, of 25 years now. Then, from Wheaton College, I decided that I wanted to keep going, I wanted to be the best theologian in the world. And I applied to Loyola and I was accepted and I got a PhD in early Christianity and New Testament and ethics. and I became one of five Hispanics in America.
With uh PhD in Bible. You know, I'm here to tell the world, listen. The only thing our children need? The only thing I shouldn't truly want? It's our presence.
It costs nothing. But we keep We keep and we fall into this horrific cycle. Of destruction. And you know, it's like the old saying: Americans are so amazing about sacrificing their health to create wealth. and then they spend their wealth trying to get their health back.
And we abandon our family, we abandon our homes, we abandon our wives. And at the end of the day, It doesn't bring us a bit of joy, we're just as miserable as we ever were. Because there's a hunger within us, inside of us. That to me cannot only be filled with the love of God and whatever God might be to anyone. I talk to people all over the world.
I don't care what anybody is. I don't care if they're Jewish, I don't care if they're Muslim, I don't care if they're Christian or atheist. I don't care if they're straight or gay. All I care to tell people is, listen. I just wanna tell you a story about me.
My story. Not for you, not for anyone, my story. My life drastically changed when I fell in love with a Jewish carpenter.
So my story is about nothing but falling in love. and the fact that there is redemption, that there is hope in this world. And we don't have to sell to that message that, oh, I was a twice convicted drug dealer, who's going to hire you? We're not defined by our failures. were defined by how we get up from our failures.
We're not defined. by how much wealth we achieve I think that we're defined by how many lives we impact. At the end of the day, what I tell people is when the pages of history are written, Will history ever remember your name? And if we care that history will remember our name? History will only remember our name.
So we've impacted the life of somebody else.
Now because we have achieved great wealth, Not because we're very rich, not because we have mansions and homes and vacation homes in three and four cars. Yeah. If all we do is impact the life of our children, so that they become decent human beings. that believe in integrity, believe in the word, and above all love others? If I can do that, I've changed the world.
and so can anyone. listening today. God bless. And a terrific job on the production and editing by our own Monty Montgomery. And a special thanks to George Valdez.
What a story of transformation. Why we do this show actually is stories like this. and the power of God, the power of love. to change everything. George Valdez's story.
Here. on our American stories. He's dribbling the ball with everything on the line. He's driving down the pitch. He's facing price hikes and cuts past him.
Carrier contracts tries to block him. Oh, he leaves him in the dust. He's at the edge of the box. He cuts past the non-stop group chat, trash talk. He clears on goal.
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