October 17, 2022 • 32 mins
In 2016, a rookie NASCAR driver was arrested in one of the biggest police raids in Canadian history. Overnight, Derek White went from an unknown driver to a front page headline.
Running Smoke, hosted by journalist Rajiv Golla, is a white-knuckle true story about fast cars, organized crime, and a NASCAR driver fighting for the future of his nation.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
We interrupt your usual DP show feed. Do introduce you
to Running Smoke. It's a new show on my podcast network.
It's a white knuckle true story about fast cars, organized crime,
and a NASCAR driver fighting for the future of his nation.
Here's the first episode. I hope you enjoy. Campsite Media
(00:23):
race fans a moment has a ride Drivers Shia. It's
July nineteenth, twenty fifteen, and we're in Loudon, New Hampshire
at the Magic Mile. We're going racing baby, who will
(00:45):
hoist the lobster at the end of three hundred and
one laps from Hampshire over speedy Forty three of the
country's best drivers have gathered here for the NASCAR Sprint
Cup Series five hour Energy three oh one. On the
line is a check flag, a quarter million dollars purse,
and NASCAR's only living trophy, a twenty pound lobster named Loudon.
(01:08):
I want to take a look at our starting grid
as the car's about to roll off of Pitt Road.
On the front row Carl Edwards with its first Magic
Mild Pole and first since twenty thirteen. He's next to
two time New Hampshire Winter Joey Logano and then way
Way in the back. Starting in forty second place is
the Jet black number thirty three Chevy driven by a
(01:29):
man named Derek White. Even though Derek is forty five
years old, he's a rookie here in New Hampshire. It's
his first time ever racing in the NASCAR Cup Series,
his first time running with the big dogs. For a
guy that's been racing since he was a teenager, this
is a dream come true. Bands are on their fadeer
in New Hampshire Water Speedway. Green flating is in the air,
(01:53):
getty up and go the green flag. To call Derek
an underdog wouldn't be totally accurate because as Derek doesn't
stand a snowball's chance and how at winning this race.
He's starting last in a car that's a few miles
per hour off the pace even on its best days.
I'm behind the side candy making snake. In the end,
(02:18):
he finished in thirty ninth place, ten laps behind the leader.
The TV announcers never mentioned his name and the cameras
only showed his car for a split second. But that's
a damn shame because Derek is making history here. Derek
White is a Mohawk from Canada, and he's the first
Indigenous person ever to drive in the NASCAR Cup Series.
(02:39):
Instead of putting up ads for Oscar Meyer or Viagra
on his car, he chose to paint the Mohawk Warrior
flag on his hood. Derek was a real hero back home,
an inspiration for his community. What he didn't know was
that police were watching his every move. They were wired
tapping his phone, tailing his vehicles, and intercepting all his
(03:03):
messages because they believed Derek was a major figure in
a criminal organization made up of South American drug cartels,
Canadian gangsters, and outlaw bikers. Just a few months after
his NASCAR debut, Derek White would go from being the
pride of the community, someone the entire Mohawk Nation could
(03:23):
stand behind, to the person splitting it. Apart from Campsite
Media and Dan Patrick Productions, this is Running Smoke, the
story of a race car driver taken down in an
international police stay and how he might change the future
(03:46):
of Native rights. Episode one, Welcome to Ghanawage. My name
is Rodigola and I grew up in Florida between the
(04:08):
Volucia County dirt Track and the Daytona Speedway. If I
hadn't been blessed with severe motion sickness and a voice
made for podcasting, I might have become a race car
driver instead of a journalist. So you can understand why
I've been hooked on Derek's story since it made headlines
back in twenty sixteen and what had called the largest
rate of its kind in America, Quebec Provincial Police carried
(04:28):
out Operation Mygale, aimed at dismantling what they called a drug,
tobacco and money laundering ring. On Wednesday, seven hundred police
officers carried out a bus that netted more than one
hundred thousand pounds of contraband tobacco, eighteen hundred pounds of cocaine,
and millions in cash. Nearly sixty people across Canada and
the US were arrested on narcotics, smuggling and money laundering charges.
(04:51):
It was the biggest bust in years, and Derek was
accused of being a major figure in the criminal organization.
Then I learned that Eric was taking his case all
the way to Canada's Constitutional Court. This rookie race car
driver who was accused of being a major player in
a criminal operation was taking on the Canadian government for
(05:12):
his rights as an Indigenous person, and it looked like
he actually had a case. So I started looking into
Derek's story and put thousands of miles on my car,
tracking down indigenous leaders, undercover investigators, and contraband smugglers. And
what I learned was that this story is about much
more than race cars and a drug bust. It's about
(05:33):
what it means to be indigenous in the modern world.
I knew that the first step to telling the story
was to find Derek and find out who he really was.
So that's what I did. Back in twenty nineteen, shortly
after he appealed his case. I packed my car and
spent three days covering the fourteen hundred miles from Florida
to Montreal. When I got there, it turned out to
(05:55):
be a lot easier to find Derek than you might think.
I knew that, aside from racing, he ran a grocery
store and gottawauge the Mohawk Territory where he lived. So
I left a message for him at the Mohawk Market
and he met me in the parking lot about twenty
minutes later. How's it going right? All right? Oh? Yeah,
up to running all yeah, he just came a yeah,
(06:21):
just last Night's gonna be here for a month, a month?
Yeah what? Derek hopped out of a black workman wearing
roughed up boots, some old jeans, and a dusty car
Hart jacket. He looked like any good old boy I'd
seen down at the track in my hometown. I made
my pitch, said I wanted to tell his story. He
crossed his arms and chewed on a toothpick while I talked.
(06:42):
He was just totally unreadable. He didn't seem too happy
I was there. But then Derek saw my Florida plates.
He seemed impressed that I'd driven all the way up
just for him. He got back in the van, popped
the door and told me to get in. Hey, you
on New year seagull unders, and you're with me. So
I'm gonna need a seat Bill, I put my seatbelt on. Anyway,
(07:06):
where do you want to go? I wanted to see
Gonawage through Derek's eye, so I asked him to give
me a tour of the place he called home. Oh,
we could start off at Reverening started off with my
grandmother starting up her own little smoke shop right in
her yard. Boa Boah by there right now and have
(07:28):
a look at it. On the way there we passed
a microbrewery, a cigar lounge, a golf course, a bunch
of mom and pop restaurants, and of course a Tim Horton's.
This is one of my buddies. He's opening up some
kind of I'm not even sure what it is, a
juice place or juice or some kind of healthy store.
(07:51):
Gonawage didn't look like the stereotypical reservation I'd seen in movies,
some dusty, barren piece of land with tumbleweeds and mobile homes.
Gonawaga to well off. The houses were big, the yards
were tidy, and there seemed to be a new pickup
truck in just about every driveway. If you go by
the statistics, I think we're one of the wealthiest reserves
(08:14):
in Canada. What do you think that is? If you
look across, you see the bridge there, Montreal is there.
This is the main artery to cross and you have
to come through Gnawaugus. So whatever we sell on the reserve,
people are gonna buy because we're always our prices are
always better than the outside. So you have a lot
(08:34):
of traffic control. The reason prices are better in Gnawogue
than in Montreal comes down to one simple fact. Gnawogue
is a sovereign nature, separate from Canada. They have their
own flag, their own laws, and their own government. When
you cross the bridge from Montreal to go to Gnawage,
(08:54):
there might not be a customs agent or a passport check,
but you're essentially leaving the country of Canada and stepping
foot onto the independent Mohawk territory of Gnawauke. And one
thing you'll notice right away when you cross into Gonawauge
is that sales tax is not collected here, so tax
free shops line the main roads. You got all smoke
(09:14):
shops all down here. That's one, two, three, four five
in a road that are within one two hundred feet.
It's impossible to miss the smoke shops in Contawauge. There's
ubiquitous as beer bellies at a NASCAR race. You can't
go more than a few hundred feet without running into one.
(09:35):
There's mc Smoky's with the golden arches. Then there's Best
Butts on the yellow best Buy logo. There's Smoke King,
Crazy Horse, Burning Leaf, Redman's, and so anymore. These smoke
shops range from the size of a tool shed to
a full sized truck stop, and inside you can get
any cigarette you can imagine, plus a bunch of local
(09:56):
brands you've never heard of. They come in boxes of twenty,
car of ten boxes, and cases of fifty cartons. You
can even buy them in ziplock bags of two hundred.
On average, almost half the price of a pack of
cigarettes that you might buy in New York or Quebec
is just tax. That's not material cost, that's not the
cigarette company's mark up. It's just tax. But here in
(10:20):
Gonawage you won't find those pesky tax stamps on any
cigarette packs. And what's the price difference between buying a
carton on the other side of the bridge vers over here. Well,
you got the cartons on the outside, the name brands
Damie or Export and stuff like that. They go for
about one hundred and twenty dollars per carton two hundred cigarettes,
(10:44):
and you can buy two hundred cigarettes in a bank
for twenty bucks, so you're saving one hundred dollars per
two hundred cigarettes. You can see how cigarettes sold on
a tax free reservation would be pretty good business and
It's one that Derek's been involved in since he was
a kid. Derek's pulled off the main road and pointed
(11:09):
through a window at a gas station with a turquoise
blue awning over two pumps. Off to one side, there
was a car wash that said ocr gas Bar. It
was a logo I'd seen plastered over a lot of
Derek's race cars. The gas station looked like any Shell
or Sinocco you've ever seen, except for the fact that
it was attached to a house with a two car garage.
This is what Derek wanted to show me, his grandmother's
(11:32):
place where he got a start. My grandmother opened up
her first, first and only basically cigarette store, was righted
into this little car poort here where you see this car.
That was a small little store. She was a school
bus driver for the kids, so she would do her
run in a morning, like seven o'clock in the morning.
When she would drop the kids off, she would get
in her nineteen eighty money Carlo and she would drive
(11:56):
down to Cornwall. She had enough money for half a
case smokes, and then she would drive it all the
way back herself, put it in her store, try to
sell it off and the next day she would turn
the profit over and that and then she'd have enough
to buy a whole case, and then so on and
so on like that. That's where she started out. This
(12:17):
road here, like I said, was the main artery to
get to Montreal, so there was traffic all the way
down this road. So this little store was pretty that busy,
you know. Ever since he dropped out of high school,
Derek had worked odd jobs on and off the reservation.
He tried his hand at high rise construction, concrete pouring,
(12:39):
even had a stint shipping vehicles internationally. Eventually, he decided
to follow its grandmother's example. Tobacco and gas and gnawage.
You couldn't go wrong. When we opened this place. I
went to borrow the money at the bank and they
wouldn't lend it to me because they wouldn't They said
there's not enough community members in the reserve for a
(13:00):
gas station. So she kind of they kind of thought
that it wouldn't work, but I showed them I borrowed
the money off my groundlar at the time to open
this station. And she asked me, she goes where you
gonna put it? I told her, so I'm gonna put
it right in your yard. I had no other land,
So I mean this is what started everything in the
ninety six. From that little gas station in his grandma's
(13:22):
front yard, Derek built an empire. I have three gas stations.
I have the Momauk Market, the only grocery store under reserve.
I got a car wash, the only car washing under reserve.
I also got a construction company back hole was dump trucks.
And in the same area and my property there I
(13:43):
have a garage, a small garage that I do tires
and oil changes for locals and non locals. Also, Derek
had an entrepreneurial savvy that I found remarkable. He was
constantly wheeling in dealing, looking for the next opportunity. His
brain was wired for it, and it served him well.
Eric had gone from constantly looking for work and getting
turned away from banks to calling the shots. You speaking
(14:06):
of French a little bit. I can understand a little bit,
but not much. The people I deal would all speak English,
so if they want my business, they'll talk English. Derek's
success was built on the foundation that Mohawks don't pay
sales tax. It was a fundamental fact of life on
(14:27):
the territory, but on the outside. That exemption can be
a bit more contentious coming up after the break. They
see who're making money, boom, they want to tax us, Like,
just leave us alone. Just bother your own people on
the outside and let them collect the taxes from them,
and just leave us alone. Hold on, we'll be right back.
(14:59):
You're listening to And when I met Derek in twenty nineteen,
he was out on bail in the middle of one
of Gonawoge's most watched court battles. He was facing off
against the Canadian government. He was hemorrhaging money to legal fees,
couldn't lea Quebec without permission and had to check in
at a police station on a regular basis. He was
simply trying to spend time with his wife and his
(15:20):
two sons, run his businesses, and keep a low profile.
He had no reason to talk to a journalist. But
as I started to learn, there's more to it. Derek
had his walls up for a reason. Folks in Gnawoge
were tired of having their story told by outsiders and
having it told wrong. I think the thing that people
are wary about is they get burned by the French media,
(15:44):
who would just come in, you know, spend a couple
of seconds here, get a bullshit story, and then view
of their narrative and their skewed view of us said,
they're ignorant viewlests, you know, kind of pointing at all
of us as criminals. Steve Bonspiel is the editor and
published of the Eastern Door Newspaper, one of the bigger
papers serving Mohawk territories across Canada. Steve is Mohawk himself
(16:06):
and is reported on these communities for nearly twenty years.
It'll be actually nineteen years in January. Could you meet
just like the barest overview of what Gottawaga is like,
how would you describe this community? How many people are here? Like?
What's it like? Well, you know, it's funny because even
just the question of how many people are here is
open to interpretation, because I think right now there's sixty
(16:29):
five hundred people on the Gohaga of Gonawaga Registry, apparently
there's eight thousand people that actually live here, and apparently
on the Federal registry there's ten thousand. So your guess
is as good as mine. It seems like every part
of your existence here is open to your interpretation. And
is just like this gray area. Well, I guess that's
(16:50):
the kind of you know, the intro to this. You're
you're right, I mean, it's it's unfortunately, there's so many
things that have been left like that, you know, and
and the ones doing the interpreting is not us, you know,
it's usually the outside governments and non Native people. One
major stereotype that Gonawaga deals with is this idea that
(17:11):
Indigenous communities are lawless places that are totally run by
organized crime, that their sovereignty is really just a cover
for illicit activity and provides a safe haven for the
criminal underworld. I think it's a narrative that fits the
running narrative of mohawks or outside the law, you know,
are doing things in a gray area because they don't
(17:34):
understand their rights. You know, they don't understand why we
have quote unquote special rights. It's also the reason Steve
says that Gonawage faces so much scrutiny from law enforcement.
I mean, you know, it's sad to say, but you know,
any kind of police operations, it's it's just so normal
to us. They're always looking for ways to get in
(17:55):
the community, they're always working, looking for ways to nail people.
So were always vulnerable. They're always watching us. When I
tell people like our phones are bugged, people will say, oh,
is it always crazy? He's conspiracy there, No, it's just reality.
Just in the last few years, there's been several stories
(18:15):
of folks in Gonawage being busted in high profile police
operations that involve wire taps and undercover officers, like the
case of Floyd Lahtch, a former pro hockey player who's
taken down for selling wine illegally, or Wendy Mayo, a
grandmother who's arrested in a sixteen person cigarette smuggling operation.
And there's the case of Gnandio Ross, who was accused
(18:37):
of working with the Italian mafia to finance tobacco operations.
By and large, these are cases related to Gonawage's tax exemptions,
and depending on which side of the border you're on,
those exemptions are often seen in radically different perspectives. What
mohawks see is tax free trade. Outsiders see his tax evasion.
(18:57):
What mohawks see is sovereignty. Outside signers see as a
free pass for criminality. As a businessman, Derek knows that
double standard. Well, every time we try to do something.
The government always has something to say or do they
try to throw They threw a wrench in our spokes. Basically,
we get something going and then right off the bat
(19:18):
they see who're making money, boom, they want to tax us.
So that's what we're kind of fighting for, is you know,
like just leave us alone. Just just bother your own
people on the outside and let them collect the taxes
from them and just leave us alone. So when Derek
chose to put the mohawk flag on the hood of
his car in that NASCAR race back in twenty fifteen,
(19:39):
it was more than just a sticker to cover up
a blank body panel. It was a bold statement and
an attempt to redefine Gnawage for the outside world. M
proud of who we are and where we were from.
We're not We're not Canadians, we're not Americans. We're North
Americ natives. Yeah, I live in Quebec, but I'm not
(20:02):
a quebecerum, born and raised in Gunnawage, and we are
native people. We are our own people. We were doing
our best to cover you know, every race he was doing,
and it's something you have to give the people. You
(20:23):
have to give them something to look forward to, you know,
and and make them understand or you may just be
some kid from the rest, but you don't always have
to be, you know. So you have to fight against
that narrative, to fight against that view, and that's what
he did. Racing made Derek an inspiration for his community
and offered an alternative for the harmful stereotypes that have
(20:45):
played Native communities for generations. But racing would also eventually
lead Derek into a gigantic web of organized crime, making
him a target for the DA, Homeland Security and Canadian
police that's coming up after the break. Derek's garage is
(21:13):
right next to his house and almost exactly the same size.
Inside pack like sardines, are race cars, vintage vehicles, and
power sports toys. It's a site that would make any
season podcaster forget to ask every single question. He driven
all the way to Canada to ask. Gorgeous, Oh my god,
you got an eight seventy one blow around it. It's
(21:34):
like twelve hundred horsepower nineteen seventy Chevy pickup. There's a
seventy five buick. That one's ready to go through. That
one's ready to race tomorrow if you want it. Though,
that are drag car back there, a sleep or four
door Bonville, got old ashfall car, Nova, got a drag
(21:56):
car Malibu. What's the car in here that you've had
a long all right? I go through so many cars,
you know, I don't even Derek led me up the
stairs to his man cave, a beautifully appointed room covered
an oak paneling, sports memor abielia and a polar bear
rug on the floor. Oh, this is where we hang
out and watch racing or fully, we've got a full bar,
(22:20):
they say. By some people over they say it's one
of the nice as far as even in Montreal. Well,
I just wanted to ask you a couple questions when
we had a quiet place. I wanted to understand how
a guy like Derek ends up being accused of being
the leader of a criminal organization. As it turned out,
it actually started with a trip to Disney World. So
(22:41):
were you into Nascar as a kid too? No? You
know what, It's it's kind of funny that, Uh, I
never really liked Nascar. I was more like, uh, into
drag racing and doing the burnout. It's the smoke and
the loud noise, and you know, and after a while
(23:02):
I kind of got boring a little bit. And then
we were in Florida and Orlando with my son Jeremy,
and they wanted to go to the Team Park and
there's a track right outside Universal Studios, and I hear
them ripping, you know, like revving like like constantly, So
holy shit, what the hell is that going on over there?
(23:24):
So what Derek was hearing was the Walt Disney World Speedway,
basically a go cart track for adults, but you get
to race real deal race cars. I dropped them off
at the gate. They went into the studio Universal Studios,
and I just took the car and I went follow
the sound and I come out there's a big tractor.
(23:44):
I think it's a five eight mile track. So I
pulled up there. I went inside and I said, uh,
who are these do guys driving? Or? They tested, No,
you could rent this? What I said, where do I
sign up? So I walked in there and I never
drove a NASCAR before, I mean like a stock car before,
and signed the waiver, put the race suit on, the
helmet on, and they drew me in a car. I
(24:06):
was like, oh. I got in there and we went
around the track. You do one and one or two
laps slow you and you got to stay behind the
pace car and stuff like that. But then after two
three laps, I was like, wow, okay, I could get
used to this. I saw a little picture plaque from
his first day at the track. It's a photo of
(24:26):
him almost twenty years ago, wearing a red and blue
fire suit and sunglasses. That's what started it right there.
Two thousand and six was, yeah, that's me. I got
in for the four laps, and then I went again
and then again and again, and I was just so
holy shit, I'm still really just more hung up on
the mustache and then go tee. Oh yeah. Derek made
(24:48):
it sound easy, just getting behind the stock car and
turning a few laps. But racing is incredibly physical. NASCAR
drivers will pull more g's than an astronaut on launch,
and they can lose up to ten pounds in a race.
They're sitting inside of a car that'll get up to
one hundred and sixty degrees, and even though the cars
don't have windows, they're moving so fast that the air
just glides over the opening. The only air conditioning drivers
(25:12):
have is their helmet. It's an incredibly grueling experience. But
as soon as Derek left the racetrack, he knew he'd
found his calling and he was ready to go all in.
So Derek started asking around to see if anyone would
sell him a race car. He went all the way
down to just before a border of Michigan, somewhere somewhere
(25:36):
way out in Ontario, and the guy was closing down
his sudden lost interest in it, and he was selling
two cars with all the tools and everything. So I
went down there and I bought everything. That's where it started.
Racing works like any other sport. You work your way
through the leagues until you make it to the big time.
(25:56):
First you work your local tracks Frogtown, a Stash and
other short ovals around Montreal. Then once you've got enough
experience and enough money, you break into the lower regional
and national leagues. Derek started out in the Penties Canada
Racing series and you can hear how much he loved
it in this old interview he did with the Aboriginal
People's TV Network. It's the adrenaline, you know, it flows
(26:21):
sort of veins, the blood discuts pumping, and once you
get behind that wheel, it's a whole different world. In
owners you don't think about anything else. You just want
to get on that track in that car that's ahead
of you. You want to just get in front of
that car. And there's another car ahead of that car.
You want to get in front of that one. Derek
(26:41):
showed promise right away, and in twenty ten he won
Rookie of the Year. Not long after that, he graduated
to the NASCAR Truck and Exfinity Series. The last two
runs before the big time, Derek was on his way.
He was brokeering sponsorship deals and buying faster, better built
race cars. Now, racing is pensive. There's not many people
(27:01):
that can afford to buy a race car, or staff
a team or build a garage. So it's not uncommon
for people who can afford that stuff to rent it
out to people who just want to race here and
there weekend Warriors, which is how Derek met a French
Canadian racer named Paul Jean who was interested in striking
a deal with the racing. I met a guy that
(27:22):
wanted to come and race, and I had cars for rent.
So basically this individual came see me and he said,
I want to rent your car. This is fine, I said,
you got to bring some money, no problem. Derek's deal
was simple, you want to race one of my cars,
pay me thirty thousand dollars, and you've got it for
the weekend. For the first couple of races, things went well.
(27:46):
Paul Jean brought Derek the cash, put on a fire suit,
and hopped in the car. Everything was paid up, and
then he got into maybe two or three different races,
and he was kind of behind in his payments. To
me said listen, I said, you're behind in payments. I said,
I can't put you in the car. I said, I
have somebody else that's who ready to pay. No, no, no,
(28:09):
don't worry. So he offered it. He goes, my friend
has tobacco, really, I said, he goes, you interested, I said, well,
if it's landed on my door, bring it. So that's
where it basically, that's where it started. He brought He
brought some in and then uh start paying off his
(28:30):
bills and he kept on racing and it just kept
on going like that. For Derek, tobacco is as good
as cash. He'd grown up in the business. He knew it. Well,
can you focus on other mohawk territories who could take
raw tobacco and turn it into cigarettes, and they'd pay
a pretty penny for a steady supply. In Derek's eye,
there wasn't anything illegal about it. Sure, Kennedy usually levied
(28:53):
heavy taxes on tobacco, and there was even a special
police force in Quebec dedicated to intercepting untaxed tobacco shipments.
But that wasn't Derek's problem. Tobacco was something Mohawks had
smoked for thousands of years, and buying it and selling
it was their right as native people. He brought in
tobacco and asked them where it came from or who
he got it from. Or do you regret ever making
(29:16):
a deal with him? Yeah? I do. Should have never
got I shouldn't not never bought anything off those people.
I mean, I only deal with my own people. I
don't deal with the outside. It's just that it's hard
when you deal with somebody you don't know who the
heck they're dealing. That's exactly how it is. All this
bullshit happened. You know. If I would have known that,
(29:39):
believe I would have stayed ten miles away from all
this crap. You know, And when did you find out
the Hell's Angels were involved in all this. The day
we got arrested, coming up on this season of Running Smoke,
you know, our elders told us, they warned us, don't
(30:00):
do this. These people are doing international money laundering, and
we thought we could control it. We were wrong. Bikers
showed up and killed him dead right on his front porch.
You know, the right people, you can get anything into.
Gonna waga. I mean, look at Nascar. I mean it
was it was built off bootlegging, you know, with the
Moonshiners and all that. When I was smuggling, it was
(30:23):
like almost a free for all. I loved it. We
were met with two Maudu's fifty caliber machine guns on
the roof of that casino. I had no choice. I
had to pay them whatever they wanted if he did
a comparison between the wealthiest Native person the wealthiest white person,
that's not even close. He's not Robin Hood. They're doing
it for the fucking money, period, end of story. We
(30:47):
have helicopters over my house. They're just hovering there. They're watching. Yeah,
I guess we could say it was a trapdoor that
bagus just walked down. Someone had to do it and
I said, you know what, it's time someone fight discoverment
and see what happens. They know that if this case
goes in any way our way, they got a whole
(31:07):
new story to rewrite. And I'm William, I'm ready to
go to jail. I don't care if we lose. It's
going to affect the Mohawk Nation. Running Smoke is a
production of Campside Media, Dan Patrick Productions and Workhouse Media.
Written and reported by me Roger Gola. Our producers are
(31:29):
a Lea Papes, Laine Gerbig and Julie Denichet. Our editors
are Michelle Lands and Emily Martinez. Sound designed and original
music by Mark McAdam. Additional sound and mixing by Ewen
Lyon Tremuwan. Additional reporting by Susie McCarthy. Our executive producers
or Dan Patrick, Josh Dean of camp Side Media, Paul Anderson,
Nick Vanella, and Andrew Greenwood for Workhouse Media. Fact checking
(31:51):
by Mary Mathis, artwork by Polly Adams and additional thanks
to Greghorn, Johnny Kaufman, Sierra Franco, Elizabeth van Brocklin, and
Sean Flynn. Well. I hope you enjoyed that, and if
you want to hear more, follow along at the Dan
Patrick Show website, or wherever you get your podcast. Thanks
We interrupt your usual DP show feed. Do introduce you
to Running Smoke. It's a new show on my podcast network.
It's a white knuckle true story about fast cars, organized crime,
and a NASCAR driver fighting for the future of his nation.
Here's the first episode. I hope you enjoy. Campsite Media
(00:23):
race fans a moment has a ride Drivers Shia. It's
July nineteenth, twenty fifteen, and we're in Loudon, New Hampshire
at the Magic Mile. We're going racing baby, who will
(00:45):
hoist the lobster at the end of three hundred and
one laps from Hampshire over speedy Forty three of the
country's best drivers have gathered here for the NASCAR Sprint
Cup Series five hour Energy three oh one. On the
line is a check flag, a quarter million dollars purse,
and NASCAR's only living trophy, a twenty pound lobster named Loudon.
(01:08):
I want to take a look at our starting grid
as the car's about to roll off of Pitt Road.
On the front row Carl Edwards with its first Magic
Mild Pole and first since twenty thirteen. He's next to
two time New Hampshire Winter Joey Logano and then way
Way in the back. Starting in forty second place is
the Jet black number thirty three Chevy driven by a
(01:29):
man named Derek White. Even though Derek is forty five
years old, he's a rookie here in New Hampshire. It's
his first time ever racing in the NASCAR Cup Series,
his first time running with the big dogs. For a
guy that's been racing since he was a teenager, this
is a dream come true. Bands are on their fadeer
in New Hampshire Water Speedway. Green flating is in the air,
(01:53):
getty up and go the green flag. To call Derek
an underdog wouldn't be totally accurate because as Derek doesn't
stand a snowball's chance and how at winning this race.
He's starting last in a car that's a few miles
per hour off the pace even on its best days.
I'm behind the side candy making snake. In the end,
(02:18):
he finished in thirty ninth place, ten laps behind the leader.
The TV announcers never mentioned his name and the cameras
only showed his car for a split second. But that's
a damn shame because Derek is making history here. Derek
White is a Mohawk from Canada, and he's the first
Indigenous person ever to drive in the NASCAR Cup Series.
(02:39):
Instead of putting up ads for Oscar Meyer or Viagra
on his car, he chose to paint the Mohawk Warrior
flag on his hood. Derek was a real hero back home,
an inspiration for his community. What he didn't know was
that police were watching his every move. They were wired
tapping his phone, tailing his vehicles, and intercepting all his
(03:03):
messages because they believed Derek was a major figure in
a criminal organization made up of South American drug cartels,
Canadian gangsters, and outlaw bikers. Just a few months after
his NASCAR debut, Derek White would go from being the
pride of the community, someone the entire Mohawk Nation could
(03:23):
stand behind, to the person splitting it. Apart from Campsite
Media and Dan Patrick Productions, this is Running Smoke, the
story of a race car driver taken down in an
international police stay and how he might change the future
(03:46):
of Native rights. Episode one, Welcome to Ghanawage. My name
is Rodigola and I grew up in Florida between the
(04:08):
Volucia County dirt Track and the Daytona Speedway. If I
hadn't been blessed with severe motion sickness and a voice
made for podcasting, I might have become a race car
driver instead of a journalist. So you can understand why
I've been hooked on Derek's story since it made headlines
back in twenty sixteen and what had called the largest
rate of its kind in America, Quebec Provincial Police carried
(04:28):
out Operation Mygale, aimed at dismantling what they called a drug,
tobacco and money laundering ring. On Wednesday, seven hundred police
officers carried out a bus that netted more than one
hundred thousand pounds of contraband tobacco, eighteen hundred pounds of cocaine,
and millions in cash. Nearly sixty people across Canada and
the US were arrested on narcotics, smuggling and money laundering charges.
(04:51):
It was the biggest bust in years, and Derek was
accused of being a major figure in the criminal organization.
Then I learned that Eric was taking his case all
the way to Canada's Constitutional Court. This rookie race car
driver who was accused of being a major player in
a criminal operation was taking on the Canadian government for
(05:12):
his rights as an Indigenous person, and it looked like
he actually had a case. So I started looking into
Derek's story and put thousands of miles on my car,
tracking down indigenous leaders, undercover investigators, and contraband smugglers. And
what I learned was that this story is about much
more than race cars and a drug bust. It's about
(05:33):
what it means to be indigenous in the modern world.
I knew that the first step to telling the story
was to find Derek and find out who he really was.
So that's what I did. Back in twenty nineteen, shortly
after he appealed his case. I packed my car and
spent three days covering the fourteen hundred miles from Florida
to Montreal. When I got there, it turned out to
(05:55):
be a lot easier to find Derek than you might think.
I knew that, aside from racing, he ran a grocery
store and gottawauge the Mohawk Territory where he lived. So
I left a message for him at the Mohawk Market
and he met me in the parking lot about twenty
minutes later. How's it going right? All right? Oh? Yeah,
up to running all yeah, he just came a yeah,
(06:21):
just last Night's gonna be here for a month, a month?
Yeah what? Derek hopped out of a black workman wearing
roughed up boots, some old jeans, and a dusty car
Hart jacket. He looked like any good old boy I'd
seen down at the track in my hometown. I made
my pitch, said I wanted to tell his story. He
crossed his arms and chewed on a toothpick while I talked.
(06:42):
He was just totally unreadable. He didn't seem too happy
I was there. But then Derek saw my Florida plates.
He seemed impressed that I'd driven all the way up
just for him. He got back in the van, popped
the door and told me to get in. Hey, you
on New year seagull unders, and you're with me. So
I'm gonna need a seat Bill, I put my seatbelt on. Anyway,
(07:06):
where do you want to go? I wanted to see
Gonawage through Derek's eye, so I asked him to give
me a tour of the place he called home. Oh,
we could start off at Reverening started off with my
grandmother starting up her own little smoke shop right in
her yard. Boa Boah by there right now and have
(07:28):
a look at it. On the way there we passed
a microbrewery, a cigar lounge, a golf course, a bunch
of mom and pop restaurants, and of course a Tim Horton's.
This is one of my buddies. He's opening up some
kind of I'm not even sure what it is, a
juice place or juice or some kind of healthy store.
(07:51):
Gonawage didn't look like the stereotypical reservation I'd seen in movies,
some dusty, barren piece of land with tumbleweeds and mobile homes.
Gonawaga to well off. The houses were big, the yards
were tidy, and there seemed to be a new pickup
truck in just about every driveway. If you go by
the statistics, I think we're one of the wealthiest reserves
(08:14):
in Canada. What do you think that is? If you
look across, you see the bridge there, Montreal is there.
This is the main artery to cross and you have
to come through Gnawaugus. So whatever we sell on the reserve,
people are gonna buy because we're always our prices are
always better than the outside. So you have a lot
(08:34):
of traffic control. The reason prices are better in Gnawogue
than in Montreal comes down to one simple fact. Gnawogue
is a sovereign nature, separate from Canada. They have their
own flag, their own laws, and their own government. When
you cross the bridge from Montreal to go to Gnawage,
(08:54):
there might not be a customs agent or a passport check,
but you're essentially leaving the country of Canada and stepping
foot onto the independent Mohawk territory of Gnawauke. And one
thing you'll notice right away when you cross into Gonawauge
is that sales tax is not collected here, so tax
free shops line the main roads. You got all smoke
(09:14):
shops all down here. That's one, two, three, four five
in a road that are within one two hundred feet.
It's impossible to miss the smoke shops in Contawauge. There's
ubiquitous as beer bellies at a NASCAR race. You can't
go more than a few hundred feet without running into one.
(09:35):
There's mc Smoky's with the golden arches. Then there's Best
Butts on the yellow best Buy logo. There's Smoke King,
Crazy Horse, Burning Leaf, Redman's, and so anymore. These smoke
shops range from the size of a tool shed to
a full sized truck stop, and inside you can get
any cigarette you can imagine, plus a bunch of local
(09:56):
brands you've never heard of. They come in boxes of twenty,
car of ten boxes, and cases of fifty cartons. You
can even buy them in ziplock bags of two hundred.
On average, almost half the price of a pack of
cigarettes that you might buy in New York or Quebec
is just tax. That's not material cost, that's not the
cigarette company's mark up. It's just tax. But here in
(10:20):
Gonawage you won't find those pesky tax stamps on any
cigarette packs. And what's the price difference between buying a
carton on the other side of the bridge vers over here. Well,
you got the cartons on the outside, the name brands
Damie or Export and stuff like that. They go for
about one hundred and twenty dollars per carton two hundred cigarettes,
(10:44):
and you can buy two hundred cigarettes in a bank
for twenty bucks, so you're saving one hundred dollars per
two hundred cigarettes. You can see how cigarettes sold on
a tax free reservation would be pretty good business and
It's one that Derek's been involved in since he was
a kid. Derek's pulled off the main road and pointed
(11:09):
through a window at a gas station with a turquoise
blue awning over two pumps. Off to one side, there
was a car wash that said ocr gas Bar. It
was a logo I'd seen plastered over a lot of
Derek's race cars. The gas station looked like any Shell
or Sinocco you've ever seen, except for the fact that
it was attached to a house with a two car garage.
This is what Derek wanted to show me, his grandmother's
(11:32):
place where he got a start. My grandmother opened up
her first, first and only basically cigarette store, was righted
into this little car poort here where you see this car.
That was a small little store. She was a school
bus driver for the kids, so she would do her
run in a morning, like seven o'clock in the morning.
When she would drop the kids off, she would get
in her nineteen eighty money Carlo and she would drive
(11:56):
down to Cornwall. She had enough money for half a
case smokes, and then she would drive it all the
way back herself, put it in her store, try to
sell it off and the next day she would turn
the profit over and that and then she'd have enough
to buy a whole case, and then so on and
so on like that. That's where she started out. This
(12:17):
road here, like I said, was the main artery to
get to Montreal, so there was traffic all the way
down this road. So this little store was pretty that busy,
you know. Ever since he dropped out of high school,
Derek had worked odd jobs on and off the reservation.
He tried his hand at high rise construction, concrete pouring,
(12:39):
even had a stint shipping vehicles internationally. Eventually, he decided
to follow its grandmother's example. Tobacco and gas and gnawage.
You couldn't go wrong. When we opened this place. I
went to borrow the money at the bank and they
wouldn't lend it to me because they wouldn't They said
there's not enough community members in the reserve for a
(13:00):
gas station. So she kind of they kind of thought
that it wouldn't work, but I showed them I borrowed
the money off my groundlar at the time to open
this station. And she asked me, she goes where you
gonna put it? I told her, so I'm gonna put
it right in your yard. I had no other land,
So I mean this is what started everything in the
ninety six. From that little gas station in his grandma's
(13:22):
front yard, Derek built an empire. I have three gas stations.
I have the Momauk Market, the only grocery store under reserve.
I got a car wash, the only car washing under reserve.
I also got a construction company back hole was dump trucks.
And in the same area and my property there I
(13:43):
have a garage, a small garage that I do tires
and oil changes for locals and non locals. Also, Derek
had an entrepreneurial savvy that I found remarkable. He was
constantly wheeling in dealing, looking for the next opportunity. His
brain was wired for it, and it served him well.
Eric had gone from constantly looking for work and getting
turned away from banks to calling the shots. You speaking
(14:06):
of French a little bit. I can understand a little bit,
but not much. The people I deal would all speak English,
so if they want my business, they'll talk English. Derek's
success was built on the foundation that Mohawks don't pay
sales tax. It was a fundamental fact of life on
(14:27):
the territory, but on the outside. That exemption can be
a bit more contentious coming up after the break. They
see who're making money, boom, they want to tax us, Like,
just leave us alone. Just bother your own people on
the outside and let them collect the taxes from them,
and just leave us alone. Hold on, we'll be right back.
(14:59):
You're listening to And when I met Derek in twenty nineteen,
he was out on bail in the middle of one
of Gonawoge's most watched court battles. He was facing off
against the Canadian government. He was hemorrhaging money to legal fees,
couldn't lea Quebec without permission and had to check in
at a police station on a regular basis. He was
simply trying to spend time with his wife and his
(15:20):
two sons, run his businesses, and keep a low profile.
He had no reason to talk to a journalist. But
as I started to learn, there's more to it. Derek
had his walls up for a reason. Folks in Gnawoge
were tired of having their story told by outsiders and
having it told wrong. I think the thing that people
are wary about is they get burned by the French media,
(15:44):
who would just come in, you know, spend a couple
of seconds here, get a bullshit story, and then view
of their narrative and their skewed view of us said,
they're ignorant viewlests, you know, kind of pointing at all
of us as criminals. Steve Bonspiel is the editor and
published of the Eastern Door Newspaper, one of the bigger
papers serving Mohawk territories across Canada. Steve is Mohawk himself
(16:06):
and is reported on these communities for nearly twenty years.
It'll be actually nineteen years in January. Could you meet
just like the barest overview of what Gottawaga is like,
how would you describe this community? How many people are here? Like?
What's it like? Well, you know, it's funny because even
just the question of how many people are here is
open to interpretation, because I think right now there's sixty
(16:29):
five hundred people on the Gohaga of Gonawaga Registry, apparently
there's eight thousand people that actually live here, and apparently
on the Federal registry there's ten thousand. So your guess
is as good as mine. It seems like every part
of your existence here is open to your interpretation. And
is just like this gray area. Well, I guess that's
(16:50):
the kind of you know, the intro to this. You're
you're right, I mean, it's it's unfortunately, there's so many
things that have been left like that, you know, and
and the ones doing the interpreting is not us, you know,
it's usually the outside governments and non Native people. One
major stereotype that Gonawaga deals with is this idea that
(17:11):
Indigenous communities are lawless places that are totally run by
organized crime, that their sovereignty is really just a cover
for illicit activity and provides a safe haven for the
criminal underworld. I think it's a narrative that fits the
running narrative of mohawks or outside the law, you know,
are doing things in a gray area because they don't
(17:34):
understand their rights. You know, they don't understand why we
have quote unquote special rights. It's also the reason Steve
says that Gonawage faces so much scrutiny from law enforcement.
I mean, you know, it's sad to say, but you know,
any kind of police operations, it's it's just so normal
to us. They're always looking for ways to get in
(17:55):
the community, they're always working, looking for ways to nail people.
So were always vulnerable. They're always watching us. When I
tell people like our phones are bugged, people will say, oh,
is it always crazy? He's conspiracy there, No, it's just reality.
Just in the last few years, there's been several stories
(18:15):
of folks in Gonawage being busted in high profile police
operations that involve wire taps and undercover officers, like the
case of Floyd Lahtch, a former pro hockey player who's
taken down for selling wine illegally, or Wendy Mayo, a
grandmother who's arrested in a sixteen person cigarette smuggling operation.
And there's the case of Gnandio Ross, who was accused
(18:37):
of working with the Italian mafia to finance tobacco operations.
By and large, these are cases related to Gonawage's tax exemptions,
and depending on which side of the border you're on,
those exemptions are often seen in radically different perspectives. What
mohawks see is tax free trade. Outsiders see his tax evasion.
(18:57):
What mohawks see is sovereignty. Outside signers see as a
free pass for criminality. As a businessman, Derek knows that
double standard. Well, every time we try to do something.
The government always has something to say or do they
try to throw They threw a wrench in our spokes. Basically,
we get something going and then right off the bat
(19:18):
they see who're making money, boom, they want to tax us.
So that's what we're kind of fighting for, is you know,
like just leave us alone. Just just bother your own
people on the outside and let them collect the taxes
from them and just leave us alone. So when Derek
chose to put the mohawk flag on the hood of
his car in that NASCAR race back in twenty fifteen,
(19:39):
it was more than just a sticker to cover up
a blank body panel. It was a bold statement and
an attempt to redefine Gnawage for the outside world. M
proud of who we are and where we were from.
We're not We're not Canadians, we're not Americans. We're North
Americ natives. Yeah, I live in Quebec, but I'm not
(20:02):
a quebecerum, born and raised in Gunnawage, and we are
native people. We are our own people. We were doing
our best to cover you know, every race he was doing,
and it's something you have to give the people. You
(20:23):
have to give them something to look forward to, you know,
and and make them understand or you may just be
some kid from the rest, but you don't always have
to be, you know. So you have to fight against
that narrative, to fight against that view, and that's what
he did. Racing made Derek an inspiration for his community
and offered an alternative for the harmful stereotypes that have
(20:45):
played Native communities for generations. But racing would also eventually
lead Derek into a gigantic web of organized crime, making
him a target for the DA, Homeland Security and Canadian
police that's coming up after the break. Derek's garage is
(21:13):
right next to his house and almost exactly the same size.
Inside pack like sardines, are race cars, vintage vehicles, and
power sports toys. It's a site that would make any
season podcaster forget to ask every single question. He driven
all the way to Canada to ask. Gorgeous, Oh my god,
you got an eight seventy one blow around it. It's
(21:34):
like twelve hundred horsepower nineteen seventy Chevy pickup. There's a
seventy five buick. That one's ready to go through. That
one's ready to race tomorrow if you want it. Though,
that are drag car back there, a sleep or four
door Bonville, got old ashfall car, Nova, got a drag
(21:56):
car Malibu. What's the car in here that you've had
a long all right? I go through so many cars,
you know, I don't even Derek led me up the
stairs to his man cave, a beautifully appointed room covered
an oak paneling, sports memor abielia and a polar bear
rug on the floor. Oh, this is where we hang
out and watch racing or fully, we've got a full bar,
(22:20):
they say. By some people over they say it's one
of the nice as far as even in Montreal. Well,
I just wanted to ask you a couple questions when
we had a quiet place. I wanted to understand how
a guy like Derek ends up being accused of being
the leader of a criminal organization. As it turned out,
it actually started with a trip to Disney World. So
(22:41):
were you into Nascar as a kid too? No? You
know what, It's it's kind of funny that, Uh, I
never really liked Nascar. I was more like, uh, into
drag racing and doing the burnout. It's the smoke and
the loud noise, and you know, and after a while
(23:02):
I kind of got boring a little bit. And then
we were in Florida and Orlando with my son Jeremy,
and they wanted to go to the Team Park and
there's a track right outside Universal Studios, and I hear
them ripping, you know, like revving like like constantly, So
holy shit, what the hell is that going on over there?
(23:24):
So what Derek was hearing was the Walt Disney World Speedway,
basically a go cart track for adults, but you get
to race real deal race cars. I dropped them off
at the gate. They went into the studio Universal Studios,
and I just took the car and I went follow
the sound and I come out there's a big tractor.
(23:44):
I think it's a five eight mile track. So I
pulled up there. I went inside and I said, uh,
who are these do guys driving? Or? They tested, No,
you could rent this? What I said, where do I
sign up? So I walked in there and I never
drove a NASCAR before, I mean like a stock car before,
and signed the waiver, put the race suit on, the
helmet on, and they drew me in a car. I
(24:06):
was like, oh. I got in there and we went
around the track. You do one and one or two
laps slow you and you got to stay behind the
pace car and stuff like that. But then after two
three laps, I was like, wow, okay, I could get
used to this. I saw a little picture plaque from
his first day at the track. It's a photo of
(24:26):
him almost twenty years ago, wearing a red and blue
fire suit and sunglasses. That's what started it right there.
Two thousand and six was, yeah, that's me. I got
in for the four laps, and then I went again
and then again and again, and I was just so
holy shit, I'm still really just more hung up on
the mustache and then go tee. Oh yeah. Derek made
(24:48):
it sound easy, just getting behind the stock car and
turning a few laps. But racing is incredibly physical. NASCAR
drivers will pull more g's than an astronaut on launch,
and they can lose up to ten pounds in a race.
They're sitting inside of a car that'll get up to
one hundred and sixty degrees, and even though the cars
don't have windows, they're moving so fast that the air
just glides over the opening. The only air conditioning drivers
(25:12):
have is their helmet. It's an incredibly grueling experience. But
as soon as Derek left the racetrack, he knew he'd
found his calling and he was ready to go all in.
So Derek started asking around to see if anyone would
sell him a race car. He went all the way
down to just before a border of Michigan, somewhere somewhere
(25:36):
way out in Ontario, and the guy was closing down
his sudden lost interest in it, and he was selling
two cars with all the tools and everything. So I
went down there and I bought everything. That's where it started.
Racing works like any other sport. You work your way
through the leagues until you make it to the big time.
(25:56):
First you work your local tracks Frogtown, a Stash and
other short ovals around Montreal. Then once you've got enough
experience and enough money, you break into the lower regional
and national leagues. Derek started out in the Penties Canada
Racing series and you can hear how much he loved
it in this old interview he did with the Aboriginal
People's TV Network. It's the adrenaline, you know, it flows
(26:21):
sort of veins, the blood discuts pumping, and once you
get behind that wheel, it's a whole different world. In
owners you don't think about anything else. You just want
to get on that track in that car that's ahead
of you. You want to just get in front of
that car. And there's another car ahead of that car.
You want to get in front of that one. Derek
(26:41):
showed promise right away, and in twenty ten he won
Rookie of the Year. Not long after that, he graduated
to the NASCAR Truck and Exfinity Series. The last two
runs before the big time, Derek was on his way.
He was brokeering sponsorship deals and buying faster, better built
race cars. Now, racing is pensive. There's not many people
(27:01):
that can afford to buy a race car, or staff
a team or build a garage. So it's not uncommon
for people who can afford that stuff to rent it
out to people who just want to race here and
there weekend Warriors, which is how Derek met a French
Canadian racer named Paul Jean who was interested in striking
a deal with the racing. I met a guy that
(27:22):
wanted to come and race, and I had cars for rent.
So basically this individual came see me and he said,
I want to rent your car. This is fine, I said,
you got to bring some money, no problem. Derek's deal
was simple, you want to race one of my cars,
pay me thirty thousand dollars, and you've got it for
the weekend. For the first couple of races, things went well.
(27:46):
Paul Jean brought Derek the cash, put on a fire suit,
and hopped in the car. Everything was paid up, and
then he got into maybe two or three different races,
and he was kind of behind in his payments. To
me said listen, I said, you're behind in payments. I said,
I can't put you in the car. I said, I
have somebody else that's who ready to pay. No, no, no,
(28:09):
don't worry. So he offered it. He goes, my friend
has tobacco, really, I said, he goes, you interested, I said, well,
if it's landed on my door, bring it. So that's
where it basically, that's where it started. He brought He
brought some in and then uh start paying off his
(28:30):
bills and he kept on racing and it just kept
on going like that. For Derek, tobacco is as good
as cash. He'd grown up in the business. He knew it. Well,
can you focus on other mohawk territories who could take
raw tobacco and turn it into cigarettes, and they'd pay
a pretty penny for a steady supply. In Derek's eye,
there wasn't anything illegal about it. Sure, Kennedy usually levied
(28:53):
heavy taxes on tobacco, and there was even a special
police force in Quebec dedicated to intercepting untaxed tobacco shipments.
But that wasn't Derek's problem. Tobacco was something Mohawks had
smoked for thousands of years, and buying it and selling
it was their right as native people. He brought in
tobacco and asked them where it came from or who
he got it from. Or do you regret ever making
(29:16):
a deal with him? Yeah? I do. Should have never
got I shouldn't not never bought anything off those people.
I mean, I only deal with my own people. I
don't deal with the outside. It's just that it's hard
when you deal with somebody you don't know who the
heck they're dealing. That's exactly how it is. All this
bullshit happened. You know. If I would have known that,
(29:39):
believe I would have stayed ten miles away from all
this crap. You know, And when did you find out
the Hell's Angels were involved in all this. The day
we got arrested, coming up on this season of Running Smoke,
you know, our elders told us, they warned us, don't
(30:00):
do this. These people are doing international money laundering, and
we thought we could control it. We were wrong. Bikers
showed up and killed him dead right on his front porch.
You know, the right people, you can get anything into.
Gonna waga. I mean, look at Nascar. I mean it
was it was built off bootlegging, you know, with the
Moonshiners and all that. When I was smuggling, it was
(30:23):
like almost a free for all. I loved it. We
were met with two Maudu's fifty caliber machine guns on
the roof of that casino. I had no choice. I
had to pay them whatever they wanted if he did
a comparison between the wealthiest Native person the wealthiest white person,
that's not even close. He's not Robin Hood. They're doing
it for the fucking money, period, end of story. We
(30:47):
have helicopters over my house. They're just hovering there. They're watching. Yeah,
I guess we could say it was a trapdoor that
bagus just walked down. Someone had to do it and
I said, you know what, it's time someone fight discoverment
and see what happens. They know that if this case
goes in any way our way, they got a whole
(31:07):
new story to rewrite. And I'm William, I'm ready to
go to jail. I don't care if we lose. It's
going to affect the Mohawk Nation. Running Smoke is a
production of Campside Media, Dan Patrick Productions and Workhouse Media.
Written and reported by me Roger Gola. Our producers are
(31:29):
a Lea Papes, Laine Gerbig and Julie Denichet. Our editors
are Michelle Lands and Emily Martinez. Sound designed and original
music by Mark McAdam. Additional sound and mixing by Ewen
Lyon Tremuwan. Additional reporting by Susie McCarthy. Our executive producers
or Dan Patrick, Josh Dean of camp Side Media, Paul Anderson,
Nick Vanella, and Andrew Greenwood for Workhouse Media. Fact checking
(31:51):
by Mary Mathis, artwork by Polly Adams and additional thanks
to Greghorn, Johnny Kaufman, Sierra Franco, Elizabeth van Brocklin, and
Sean Flynn. Well. I hope you enjoyed that, and if
you want to hear more, follow along at the Dan
Patrick Show website, or wherever you get your podcast. Thanks
Hosts And Creators
Todd "Fritzy" Fritz
Dan Patrick
Patrick "Seton" O'Connor
Paul Pabst
Marvin Prince
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