916: Jim Latrache | How a Drug Dealer Became an Agent in North Korea

27:42But, I mean, this guy, he definitely saved my ass. And also knew, like, in the evening, what things we should train to keep in shape. And within one and a half years, of course, you have to put in mind, from when you are 19 until you're 21, as a man, you're still in a growing phase. but for one and a half year I went from 69 kilo to 89 kilo oh wow I gained 20 kilos in one and a half year yeah so you're basically at that point like 200 pounds and I would imagine you're not just getting fat because you're walking 19 miles a day or whatever it is that you're doing not that much but one thing is that when you have ADHD your motor week I mean your movement skills is not 100 % perfect.

28:29And when you're not good with authority, make you do a lot of pull-ups and sit-ups and push-ups. I mean, all those things together put me in a really good shape. Wow. Yeah, that makes sense. I'm exaggerating at 19 miles per day, but I would imagine you do quite a bit of marching and walking in the French Foreign Legion. But yeah, I guess a lot of sit-ups, a lot of pull-ups. Did you have to learn French? It's probably a dumb question. No, no, you have to learn. And it's kind of surprising how fast you learn. I would say within one month, I could understand like the basic things, right? And within four months, I could have a conversation.

29:09Yeah, that's like when I was an exchange student living in Germany, I was like, I'm never going to get this. And then you sit in enough chemistry and math classes and you're like, oh, I understand what they're talking about, even if I can't put it into the same words. And then one day you're in a taxi and the cab driver's asking you something and you You just start talking and you're like, wait a minute, I can speak German, right? But what also helped you in Germany, as it does in France, because if you look at something that's quite interesting, all countries that used to be an empire, they only speak their own language.

29:40Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's like all the film you see is in French. I remember when Terminator 2 came out, I saw it in French. And all the music they hear, they are a little bit American, but they mostly hear French songs. So wherever you are, you're just surrounded by friends. Because if you come to Denmark, you would never learn Danish. Because everybody under 70 in Denmark speak English. That makes sense. And our film is in English. Our music is in English. And if you start to speak English, it's really hard for you to say, speak Danish to me, because everybody here is so happy that they can practice their English, so they will speak English to you.

30:23That makes sense. When I went to Yugoslavia, it was, at Serbia, it was really tough to learn Serbian because most people wanted to speak English and the people that couldn't, you just weren't around them as much working in a professional environment and things like that, like I was, and also being an English teacher didn't help. I heard they made everyone sing, though, in the French foreign language. Were you singing in French? When you say, was I? No, I was not, but everybody else was. And a lot of people, do you know this horrible program called X Factor? Yeah, like the singing? Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah.

30:57And one of the judges there once said, everybody can learn to sing under the right circumstances. And I totally disagree with that because if you can imagine a company in French where like 75 % speak really a horrible, Eastern European strong accent. If you're in that setting told to shut up because you sing horrible. I rest my case. So everybody else was singing. I was listening. So you're the one guy who's not allowed to sing, even though there's a bunch of, I don't know, Czech people singing in French or whatever, and they're like, wow, but this guy, this Danish guy, we're drawing the line at that.

31:39Yeah, yeah. Wow. Jeez. I don't even want to know how bad that must have been. Oh, no, no. I'm used to not being good at a lot of stuff. I mean, same with a ball. Everything that is round, that either you should throw it, kick it, whatever, I'm horrible. I'm so horrible that I'm not allowed to throw a hand grenade. They don't get fired up. They banned you from grenades? That's probably a good idea. Yeah, they 100 % banned me from grenades. So when we had practice, they just gave me a stone. The other thing is too dangerous for the rest of us. That's funny. The thing is, it's really funny because my oldest son is playing American football on the Danish national team.

32:27Wow. So he's athletic. He gets it from his mom. And he can play basically all positions. So he doesn't have my skills in being an idiot with a ball, no. That's so funny. Ban from hand grenades actually sounds like a pretty good policy for a lot of folks. You mentioned that the Legion would never take you only if you were wanted by Interpol. What happens if they find out they are wanted by Interpol? Because usually, do they just check that, or do they just find out after? They check it. They have their own intelligence service. They will check that straight away. So, I mean, first you have to find a recruitment place.

33:04I was in Paris. You know, in all cities, you have this information house and stuff like that. I found one of those and say, where can I join the Legion? They look at you like you're a completed retard. And say, yeah, you just go to that place. I went there, and there they just put people together. When they had people enough, they sent them to southern France, outside Marseille. And there you have a recruitment place where you are for two or three weeks, where they check your health, and you do an IQ test, and you do a physical test and stuff like that. And when I was there, there was a German kid where they found out that he was wounded by Interpol.

33:45But what they do, they don't turn you over. they say you have 24 hours to leave the premises and good luck. Oh, wow. So they just let you escape as opposed to turning you over. Yeah. Wow. Wow. Okay. There's a lot we can obviously talk about the French foreign legion. That stuff is super interesting. It makes sense to talk about how you discover the drug business because that turns out to be kind of a big part of your life at some point. Yeah. So when I came home from the legion, at that point, the techno era hit Copenhagen. And at that time, I mean, it's not because people didn't take drugs in Copenhagen, but it was not like a mainstream kind of thing.

34:27You have heard about people smoking weed and stuff like that. But like cocaine was basically people up north in the wealthy area, like who travel to expensive places and stuff like that. But it was not like an everyday thing. So when the techno music came, it kind of exploded on Copenhagen. And in this techno environment, I was kind of introduced to the underworld, if you can say that. And at that time, it was not because I had a dream about being a criminal, but for the first time in my life, I met this group of people that was basically like myself, because a lot of criminals also have ADHD.

35:11And are also different. And this is why, like, changing the school system have been a big part of the things I'm doing now because I think if we rethink the way we treat people as a society, a lot of those people, because a lot of those people I've met in that world are really clever, intelligent, and if they have had another chance, they could have done something completely different with their lives. But it was in that environment that I was introduced to cocaine. And how do you get started trafficking, right? Right. Put it a little bit up your nose. Okay. You're at a party. I guess that's sort of self-explanatory, but how are you then like, I need to start buying and selling this and making money with it myself?

35:55So it just started with that. I'm quite extrovert and I looked at how the business was going and I was like, I think I could do this. You have to think about a kid that have never really been good at anything. And suddenly you show this thing. And I mean, I have ADHD, so cocaine doesn't really work on me. I mean, I've not really been addicted to anything in my life except cigarettes. Cigarettes have been really difficult for me to let go of. But anything else, I've never really, because if I take cocaine, I become introvert. So, I mean, it was not because I could see what all the fuss was about.

36:34And in my mind, actually it still is, alcohol is way more dangerous. So it's not because I saw what I was doing as like this horrible, horrible thing. And at this time, you didn't in Denmark had all the side effects that is to doing a lot of cocaine. So I just saw that I think I could be really good at it. And it also started opening a whole new world for me because suddenly, I mean, I'm not born in Copenhagen. I'm coming from a small town 60 kilometers outside, a working class area. And suddenly, I mean, when I was a kid, I was told that the people you wanted to look up to were doctors, politicians, lawyers, engineers, shit like that.

37:23And suddenly all those people becomes your clients. So it's also in that way a little bit difficult to see what you do is so horrible wrong. Interesting. Yeah, because you're like, oh, I'm hanging out with all these people. I must be doing something right because these are the people that I was told to emulate when I was younger. Exactly. And none of my clients, I've never sold cocaine to a lone mom who had to spend all her welfare on that and not be able to give her child food. I mean, this was people who called me because they had made a deal on 200 ,000, 1 million and celebrate that. So it's just like really difficult to see it was so bad.

38:08I did that for some time, and then I start to think about it because at that time, I just bought it from another guy in Denmark. And perhaps I could tell myself what I was doing is not that bad, but it was still illegal. And the punishment for dealing drugs is they don't take lightly on it. So at one point, I had to think about my security. And so I was like kind of thinking, okay, I'm buying from somebody in Denmark. I don't really know who he is buying from. And I don't know who he's selling to besides me. And so you can actually see you're caught in some kind of pyramid because if the police catch one and the police have a lot of time, then they start to look at the rest of the network and you can be caught in that.

38:59So I was like, okay, what about if I take it home myself and instead of selling it to other people who can sell it, get it into the country and only sell to the end users and make sure that the end users is not the usual suspect the police look at as the people I told you about before.

39:21You're listening to The Jordan Harbinger Show with our guest, Jim Latresch. We'll be right back. This episode is sponsored in part by 1-800-CONTACT. You know that last pair of contacts panic? My wife Jen knows it way too well. She's had these mornings where she's out of contacts and stuck wearing these old glasses. She's got to keep wiping clean with her sleeve. But now she makes sure to load up ahead of time because her next set is always on the way from 1-800-CONTACTS. They're the only major retailer that lets you renew your prescription online. So Jen gets her same doctor-prescribed contacts fast with free shipping without leaving the house.

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40:59This episode is sponsored in part by LinkedIn. If you've ever hired for your small business, you know how important it is to find the right person. That's why LinkedIn Jobs is stepping things up with their new AI assistant. So you can feel confident you're finding top talent that you can't find anywhere else. The best part is that these great candidates are already on LinkedIn. In fact, employees hired through LinkedIn are 30 % more likely to stick around for at least a year compared to those hired through the leading competitor. That's a big deal when every hire counts. Early on, I learned that hiring isn't headcount.

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41:55Hire right the first time. Post your job for free at linkedin.com slash harbinger. Then promote it to use LinkedIn Jobs' new AI assistant, making it easier and faster to find top candidates. That's linkedin.com slash harbinger to post your job for free. Terms and conditions apply. Right back. If you're wondering how I managed to book all these great authors, thinkers, and creators every single week, it is because of my network. And I'm teaching you how to build your network for free over at jordanharbinger.com slash course. It'll help you build your cocaine mercenary nanny business. But the course really is all about improving your relationship building skills and inspiring other people to want to develop a relationship with you.

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43:02Now, back to Jim Latresch. so you go from being a middleman to smuggling the cocaine into the country yourself but instead of selling to other dealers you're like hey if i only sell to doctors lawyers and famous people i'm not gonna probably get caught doing this and it does have some logic to it because it it is more dangerous with drugs right to buy small amounts at a time because you're at the bottom of the food chain the quality's low there's a lot of moving parts up in the supply chain but if you buy larger amounts, you get better stuff at a better price. You get to know your network more because more money is being transacted.

43:37So people are vetting you and each other probably a little bit more. It sounds like it goes from a sort of party business or like a lifestyle business to a real business for you. It did. And I also tried to keep it on a level not to be too greedy. So I didn't want to escalate it too much. I really wanted to know who my client was. And since I bought it from the beginning. There was a very, very high profit on it. So I didn't even have to sell that much for having a decent living. You write in the book, never base your standard of living on criminal earnings. That's rule number one. Tell me about that rule.

44:16Yeah, because then you are controlled by something you cannot control. You mean like the supply chain? Yeah, I mean, you don't know if at one point shit can happen. Your career can be caught. A lot of things can go wrong in a business like this. You don't have insurance and stuff like that. And that was actually why I got caught, because I broke that rule. And I did that. I just spent way more money than I could provide legally. Because at one point, I started washing my money. Okay. How? A lot of people, they use like pizzeria, sunbed places, candy stores and stuff like that. But I like suits.

45:06I started importing suits from Italy. Then I sold them to myself. Okay. And then I've sold them back again to people out the back door. but in that way I had a big cash flow because the times where you could say your BMW was owned by your grandmom was kind of over so I had to have like a way to wash my money so I used that one but it didn't generate enough money for the lifestyle I had so when my connection was put to jail I should have taken a break just stop up go down and find a new connection, try it out, give it good time, look how it works. Instead, I had a good friend over here who brought it home himself.

46:00And I convinced myself that it would not be a problem because he was a very close friend of the family. And we saw each other on a lot of other occasions with children and stuff like that. So I say if I didn't rush it and only put our meeting in like kids' birthdays and stuff like that, I could definitely keep it under the radar. So you're like sitting there grilling hot dogs and chatting with parents, and kids are on a bouncy house outside, and you're doing a deal for like six kilos of cocaine from Colombia or whatever. Let's not go into numbers, but...

46:44All right. But let's just say we discussed the terms and condition in very calm surroundings. You say, let's not go into numbers, and I get it, but you did get caught for this. How did you end up getting caught? Because one of his employees had a piece of paper with my name on and, stupid enough, not with my company phone numbers on. So when they were caught, I was dragged into that. Got it. So they started to look at you, and did they catch you selling drugs? Because just having a paper is not a crime, or being on a paper. Yeah, I know it's not in the States. It isn't in Denmark. So they can go into a drug dealer's house, find your name and information, and that's a crime in Denmark?

47:30Yeah. Without catching you selling drugs? Yes. What? How? Because it's so difficult for them to catch people. So they give the police a lot of slack. Whoa. How could that not get misused all the time? I'm not saying it's not. As an attorney, I'm just like, how on earth is it a crime for my client's information to be in someone's desk when the house is raided by the cops? Even if it says I sold Jordan Harbinger six kilos of cocaine on January 12th, 2023, and here's the money he paid me, that's still not enough. I mean, there's still got to be, that could be fake. How do they know that it's legit?

48:05Yeah, it's called Indision and it works pretty much in Denmark. Wow. In my first case, they didn't find one penny on one gram of cocaine, either in any of my properties or in my store. Well, man, if you'd been selling drugs in the United States, you would have sued the police for even talking to you about this and won money, I think. I mean, at least with any attorney that has two brain cells. Wow. Okay. That's really something. I want to hear from... I know that we have Danish lawyers who listen to the show. Somebody email me and explain this to me. Is this really how it works? I can't, I almost can't even believe it.

48:40It's crazy how easy that would be to misuse that government power. Wow. Yeah. What the hell? Okay. So you go to prison. Yeah. But in Denmark, I got sentenced five and a half year. Wow. That for having your name on a piece of paper and somebody else's desk. I can't even believe it. Tell me what prison is like in Denmark though. You should not be afraid of being raped. Let me put it in that way. Yeah. It sounds like there's not a lot to be afraid of. I read Xbox. They got an Xbox. Take out food. Yeah. You can work. I mean, that makes sense, I suppose. All those things is correct. For some people, of course, it's dangerous.

49:18But I would argue if you don't cheat anybody, if you haven't given anybody up, and if you basically take care of yourself, it's all right. But that's not the thing, because I normally explain prison with a fairy tale I heard when I was a kid. And it's about this doctor. He wants to be the most wealthy and powerful doctor in the world. So he wants to make a contract with the devil. So he makes a ritual, and out of hell comes a demon. And they sit down and start to negotiate. They meet each other on one thing, that is, he gets his wishes, but when he dies, he has to play backgammon with the devil for eternity.

50:07He goes in on those terms, and his wish is granted. He becomes the most powerful and rich doctor in the world. And on his time on the planet, he starts studying to be prepared. What does hell look like? What is he going to face? What does the devil look like? Just to be prepared. He dies of natural causes in the age of 100. The demon comes up, picks him up. They go down to hell. Yeah, it's bad, but not even as close as he had imagined. And then he meets the devil. And yeah, he's bad, but not even close to what he had imagined. Then they start to play backgammon. Then he finds out the devil is stupid.

50:46That's how it is to sit in prison. You might have to explain that one a little bit, because that is a good example of something that's probably in the book that doesn't translate well at all. Like, it's a funny story, but I have no idea how to relate that to prison. No, see, the thing is, because I didn't know how Danish prison was, so I had to watch a lot of films, see what prison is in the States. Oh, gosh, yeah. So I come in and see, holy shit, I have an entire cell for myself. there's a closet there's actually a television with a lot of channels i was like that's pretty neat and i just had two months in isolation first right but okay that doesn't sound fun but okay no no no they do that to pressure you to talk okay so when i was out of isolation and met the other prisoners i was like okay most of them are new already and the other one was like okay this is just like being in a kind of summer camp but then i realized how the whole system works you're surrounded by stupidity and it's still your freedom that has been taken nothing happens nothing develops you.

52:08And that's the same no matter where. I said the only difference between an American prison and a Danish prison is that in American prison, you have to be aware of that you can be faced with violence and rape. But the main thing, what it does to your head, is the same globally. I talked to my friends who have been sitting two years in a Brazilian prison, where you struggle with the same insanity as you do in the States. And he said, besides the violence and the mosquitoes and all those horrible other things, it's still the same thing it does to your brain, that nothing good comes out of it. And the thing is, if you don't have this development as we talked about, then it doesn't matter that there's flowers and there is a television, or you can make your own food or anything.

53:00It will set you back in the same way as it will do in the States. Of course, in the stage, you will, of course, have a way bigger pro-traumatic stress than you are in a Danish prison. But basically, it's the same thing, if that makes any kind of sense. It does, right? Because you're surrounded by people who have also committed crimes. Maybe they're not the smartest. Maybe they're not doing anything. And you're thinking, oh, man, at least when I'm out, I can learn skills or develop a network or further my career. But when you're in prison, you're just stuck. And it doesn't matter what the conditions are like because you're still stuck.

53:34Yeah, but it's also the prison guards, the social workers. It's like everybody have given up. I mean, they've given up on you. There's nothing in the prison who want you to think, I have to change my life. And the thing is, if you have been punished your whole life, punishment, as we know, it doesn't apply to you. Because I've been institutionalized my whole life. I've been in prison since I was 12. There's nothing new in it. There's nothing that wants me to change myself. So I continued dealing drugs while I was in prison. Most people say, you've got five and a half years. That must have been a shock.

54:13It's like, oh, I knew it could happen. It didn't stop me. And the reason why I've changed is because when I met my wife, suddenly a person who saw me as a person and saw that I had the ability to do something else. So there has to be a person looking at those individuals and say, listen, you have such a creative mind. Let's try to get something out of it. So you have to pull people out of the mental context and put it into something else, if that makes any kind of sense. You mentioned in the book that kids can visit, the kids can even spend the night in the prison, but time actually goes faster in a closed prison than in an open one.

55:01What do you mean by that? The thing is, when you are in a closed prison, you can leave out all your thoughts because this is where you are and this is how it's going to be. Time stands still, right? But when you are When I open prison, you start to come out a little bit. You have a little smell of what the outside looks like. And then you start to try to live your life outside while you're actually in prison. That's the most dangerous part. And that's what actually makes people insane. I normally say it takes me three to six months to adjust into prison because you have to start to live your life in prison.

55:41You have to give up everything on the outside. If not, you will go insane. That one is way easier when you have walls all over and you are just there and you're not getting out on any kind of things. That actually makes a lot of sense. It's not quite the same thing, but when I was an exchange student, they warned us. They said, don't try to live the life that you had in America while you're also living in Germany. And it was easy enough to do because we didn't have, like, internet and cell phones and stuff like that that we could readily use. But now a lot of exchange students, they go abroad, but they're still following all their friends on social media, sharing videos, talking in English.

56:19They never really adjust because they're living in two places at the same time. They don't have that identity shift. And it sounds like that's the same thing that's happening or not happening in prison. And in the book, you say that there's a lot of danger from having power and money and possessions because once you take them all away, who are you? and when you base your self-worth on superficial accomplishments, it leads to a lot of uncertainty and instability. Did that make it harder to get away from crime, do you think? Were you attached to the identity? The material things that came with crime, of course, but were you also attached to the identity that those things came with, having not come from that?

56:59I have never felt so naked in my life when I made that promise. And it took time. It took time because, like, one thing is that you agree that you will stop being a criminal, but to understand this concept, you have to understand first, why the heck did you become a criminal? And why did you keep on being a criminal? And in my case was about low self-esteem. And I think what started making me believe myself is because my wife is really beautiful and she didn't give a shit about any of the money. She was willing to give up everything. And even that, most of my adult life, I've always had like a gym bag with money close to me.

57:45So I always had money. And suddenly you go from that to just have enough to stay alive. And she never complained. And having like a Tim wife that most people would die for, really intelligent, came out of university with the highest grade. Like this superwoman wants you and believing you. I normally say if I was a racehorse, I wouldn't have bet on myself because when I went to jail for the second time, when I was 37, I had a child from an earlier marriage. I was about to serve my second drug convention on eight years this time, and I had no education. Why would a 24-year-old beauty, intelligent woman bet her entire life on that person?

58:42Did you think there was something wrong with her maybe? Like, what's wrong with your judgment? No, she's too clever for that. But I mean, in the beginning, I just thought that, yeah, yeah, she say that until she realized how hard it is to have a man in prison. But as she kept on staying, it raised my confidence at myself while I started to like, look at small thing. I mean, when was her most happy for my car? I had, I had a huge car. It was like, when was that? That was when I thought about buying it. From the day one, I had it. It just went downhill. Like every time you park it and you hear this sound, that's$3 ,000.

59:23And I mean, all those small things. And like, why did you have it? Why do you have an SUV in Copenhagen? I mean, that's ridiculous. It's difficult to power. It's because you need a powerful car to people to see how brilliant you are. So this whole process, just to find out, I mean, if you just are you and not trying to be something you're not, then you relax more on yourself. And when you start to have this thing, and this is actually my drive today as well, is that I don't need that much today because it's just like, why should I have it? And it makes you really more calm when you actually just meet people as you are instead of something you think they want you to be.

1:00:09That is interesting. and I would imagine a tough lesson or a great lesson or both to learn. I know once you got out of prison, your wife essentially made you go back to school, which must have been tough with dyslexia, ADHD, and a prison background. And your wife says, if you want to stay with me, you have to go to school. That is a tall order, man. Yeah, I mean, we worked on that in prison. We had to find a system because I barely got ninth grade. So we started to find out that I was dyslexic. The first year I was in prison, we only saw each other one hour a week in 60 square meters with a cup inside.

1:00:48We could only communicate by letters, and those letters had to go through the cups. They had to read them. I read her, really horrible. She read me back, but she also returned my letters with corrections of misspellings and grammar errors. And we found out that it was in that way we found out I was dyslexic. But we found out I have a pretty good memory. it. So if there was word I didn't understand, if people read them loud to me, I just repeat them many times and look at it. And then I start later on with audio books. That was how I learned how to read English because now I could see what the word looks like.

1:01:24I did that process, start reading a lot of books and start to understand a lot of things. I was waiting for my sentence for one and a half year. And when I got my sentence, she said, you know, you're ready now to take your high school diploma. So with her help, I took my whole high school diploma from prison and got out with one of the country's highest average grade point average. And I was accepted to study psychology at Copenhagen University. That's fantastic. I mean, that is no small accomplishment. And I know you started an educational corporation, had to raise money for that, learned how wealthy people and investors act, which will come in handy in your North Korea operation later on.

1:02:08I will say one thing people say about you. I've talked to a couple of your friends and I read your book, obviously. Well, the Google Translate version of your book. People say that you have a high mastery of social situations. You can make people feel comfortable. You can make jokes. You can redefine the social space while you're in it. And that's not only good for raising money like you did for Education Corporation, but also I would imagine in high stakes situations like what you were experiencing later on in North Korea, which I'd love to get into if you're up for that. Yeah, yeah. So tell me about the North Korea operation.

1:02:42This is such a weird thing to get involved with, as I'm sure you've heard before. Tell me what that's all about. I mean, the way I got into it was because that my case, my prison case was a high profile case. So when I got out of prison, a lot of reporters wanted to make a story about me. But it was all like they wanted to know how much money I'd made, who my client was, and stuff like that. And I was not interested in that because I was like, what would that change? Would that make the world a better place? No, it would hurt a lot of people, but that's it. And then a guy I studied psychology with, he said, my wife is working at Danish radio.

1:03:23That's the biggest broadcast we have in Denmark. and she makes this radio program and she would like to make you tell your story as you want it. And I said, if I should make a program, first of all, I want all editing rights because I want to make sure that you don't put it in another context. It's not because I will change a lot. I just want what I say to be the thing you use and you cannot change it and stuff. And they agreed on that. And then I said, what I want to do is make it as a love story. I think it's most important to tell why those people become criminal. But what's more and more interested, what does it take for people to stop being criminals?

1:04:05And that process. And they said, yes. And we did the show. The 18th of September, 2015, we were nominated for Best Feature of the Year at an award show. I remember I was really, really looking up for that. Being an award show, I had been at many times, but for the first time I was standing on the stage and selling cocaine in the bathroom to famous people. So we won, and at that award show, I met the director of the mall, Max Brueger. We met each other in the bar. While I was in prison, I had seen some of his documentary. So we started to have a conversation, and one day he invited me. He had a radio station at that time, and he invited me up there for coffee, and we became friends.

1:04:53And then, like, six months later, he rings me up and he said, Jim, have you ever heard about the Danish North Korean Friendship Association? In my mind, I couldn't imagine that anybody in a country like Denmark, in any shape or form, could believe that there would be anything good in North Korea. But there was. So he explained quite quick how Ulrich at that time had been there for seven years, how he had raised in the grades, and he had been in North Korea. And now the president, Alejandro Caudibana, suddenly three years prior start asking him if he could find some investors. Let me give a little background.

1:05:39So Ulrich, who you just mentioned, that's episode 527. He was the mole, which is that film from the director that you met that you are also in. And Alejandro is this kind of like weird Spanish guy who is an honorary North Korean citizen or whatever. And he's just like a super fanboy of the Kim Jong-un regime and of North Korea. And he's just kind of a weird dude. And he wants you to find investments for North Korea, which is super illegal because it's a sanctioned regime. And what kind of investments is he having you look for? Like anything or what? No, it was Ulrich. He was asking Ulrich if Ulrich knew anybody who could be interested.

1:06:20I see. Right. Okay. And then Maths, the director, he start first looking at actors. But the North Koreans have internet as well. So it would come up bad if they suddenly saw a guy who was an investor one day and play Hamlet the other day. Yeah. Then he... And then he looked at businessmen, but no businessman in the right mind would go into a project like that. Right. And then he thought about me. And in the beginning, I have to say, it was not that dangerous, because, okay, it has something to do with North Korea, but the first scene we did was in Norway, Oslo. That's Scandinavia. That's pretty safe.

1:07:02Mm-hmm. So we are still in an area where we can have the situation under control. So I say, give me five minutes. I talk to my wife and explain it to her. She thought it sounded nuts, but she also thought it sounded exciting. So she said, yeah, go do it. Called Matt's back, and two days later, I meet Ulrich in the airport. In the airport. Are you going somewhere at this point? We went to Oslo. Oh, I see. I was going to meet Alejandro in Oslo. So we fly up there. They have rented a presidential suite up there. Yeah. And putting hidden cameras, hidden microphones all over. They have a guy that's an expert on this.

1:07:46And for people who doesn't know this, I didn't know that either. A hidden camera today is so small that when you see how small they are and how powerful they are, that will make you paranoid for life. Yeah, it blows your mind. Like this little button, and you're like, wait, this is a high-res camera? Like I'm never going to the bathroom again. Exactly. I mean, I had a computer back, and in the button of the computer back, there was like four screws, and there were star screws, and the screws were black, and in that hole, in one of the screws, there was a camera. And I'm talking about you had to put it up and put lights on to see that was a camera.

1:08:32And if you put that back over here, it could film an entire room. 100 % sharp. Jeez. Crazy. Yeah. And you're, what, talking with Alejandro and getting him to sort of, who is, again, the liaison with North Korea. Yeah, yeah. I mean, at this point, Ulrich hadn't had any pointers of what he was interested in. He just said he looked for investment. So when he starts to come out at this meeting, I mean, I talked to master director and said, I mean, which direction should I go? And he just said, just try to open it. All right. So in the beginning, I said, I represent this hedge fund, the family hedge fund, and we do different kind of investment.

1:09:17We invest in pharmaceutical, we invest in weapons, and so on, just for him to feel relaxed of whatever. And then he just started blabbing out that it starts with weapons. And when he starts to be hot, he ends up by telling about they had made methamphetamine for some people in Canada. And I was like, all right. Okay, that sounds interesting. And at this point, when we had been in Oslo, I kind of thought the movie was done. Because, I mean, you have to think about at this time, Ulrich, he had done that for seven years. And Ulrich, he started just to prove that all this friendship association, there was something not right about it.

1:10:01After Oslo, we had to prove that no, there's not. They're using this to get money from people in the West to send to North Korea. So in my mind, the movie was kind of done. So I didn't give it more thoughts at this point. and alejandro's pitch is like what let's make methamphetamine or maybe we can sell some tanks i mean you're showing off as you're showing up i should say as this investor you know like yeah i'm an oil guy we got to do something that's at least what was it like 50 million dollars or it's not interesting to my investors i mean you're really like laying your balls on the table so to speak and using your skills to make people feel safe relaxed really interesting it's quite funny about this.

1:10:44It's 50 million euro, and it's really funny because this exact line, as you said before, that when I came out of prison, I was trying to raise money to do online coaching for kids in Africa. So no matter where you were in Africa, you had access to the best teachers around the world in a digital platform. So while I was working on that, I was in at a Vesta meeting in London. I'm sitting in this Michelin restaurant. In front of me sits a kid, 25 years old, running this hedge fund in a 10 ,000 pound suit. And I'm doing my whole thing on Dan's show, explaining my ideas and stuff like that. And he's just nodding.

1:11:30And then he said, Jim, I really love what you're doing, I must say. But I have to be honest with you. My minimum investment is 50 million euro. And I'm like, you mean your maximum? He said, no, my minimum. And at that point, I thought that was the most coolest shit I've ever heard in my life. How can you, as 25 years, sit down and throw that number if it was like, oh, you have to know it's 500 bucks? So I had to say to him, you have to explain this to an idiot like me. I mean, I don't understand those numbers. How are they so big? How can you say it like that? He said, no, it's easy. We invest two billions a year.

1:12:08We just five people at the office. It's too many contracts. I remember at that point, I was like, one day in my life, I would love to just sit back and throw out a number like that, like it was that. And then we come to this situation, and it was like, okay, I just use it up there. This is The Jordan Harbinger Show with our guest, Jim Latresch. We'll be right back. If you like this episode of the show, I invite you to do what other smart and considerate listeners do, which is take a moment and support our amazing sponsors. All of the deals, discount codes, and ways to support the show are at jordanharbinger.com slash deals.

1:12:48You can always search for any sponsor using the AI chatbot on the website as well over at jordanharbinger.com slash AI. Thank you for supporting those who support the show. Now for the rest of my conversation with Jim Latresch. so you're just taking this line that blew you away five years ago and throwing it out to this north korean agent and you know when you say it this guy is going to have a reaction like what he's gonna have the same reaction that you had those years ago except he's going to go back and tell whatever some arms dealer in north korea or kim jong-un's people and he's gonna have the same reaction.

1:13:25That's so funny. You kept that in your pocket for years for this exact occasion. This is one of those gold cards you just have for the right situation. Wow. Wow. Okay. And then his eyes lit up, I would imagine, at that point, because he just saw dollar signs. Oh, yeah. You can see he say, five zero, and then drink his water.

1:13:51what happens after that right because it seems like you end up at some point going to north korea because he brings that back up and drops that number probably to them too and they're like wait a minute we got to meet with this guy as i said in my mind i thought this was it the film was done we have proven that then there's kind of radio silence from maths and stuff so and in my I just thought, okay, we did that at one point. They will come and say, oh, we have the film. It will come out. And so this was in May 2016. And I think in August, coincidentally, I meet Matt in this town. So it's funny.

1:14:30I just talk here to the producer and we talked about, couldn't it be funny for you to meet him again and just see what's happening. If you say, yeah, yeah, I want to invest in this. Are you up for that? I say, sure. So I'm going to Madrid with Ulrich and meet him again. And at this time, I'm saying I know some people in Yemen that's quite interested in this. In what weapons and stuff from North Korea? Yeah. Wow. And as I said, I watched a lot of documentaries while I was in prison. A second time, because now my brain become a sponge to learn shit. I remember I saw this documentary about Adolf Hitler.

1:15:13He had an idea during Second World War that he wanted to produce fake pounds and fly them over London and drop them down to break down the British economy. And I thought that was a really great story, really interesting. It never happened, but he was really close to accomplish that. And I said, I can use that story as well.

1:15:39So I'm talking and saying, okay, we have some people in Yemen. They're quite interested in the weapons. So we can definitely find out of some business in that account. And the metafetamine, they're quite interested in that as well. They have an idea to put it inside some plane, fly it over to L 'Aviv and drop it down. And he just loved that idea. And he said, okay, the next time you have to go to North Korea and meet with the right people down there. Wow. That's fascinating. So you play the angle of let's make some money, but also let's screw up the West by doing this sort of cultural attack that maybe is deniable by them that they don't have to take responsibility for doing.

1:16:22And your trip in North Korea, man, in the mole, the movie, it's so bizarre, right? You go to this disability center, you're going to this water park, and it's like the stuff in North Korea, I've been there a few times. There's no white people. So when you're around normal folks, they either ignore you like they don't even see you, like you're a ghost, or they can't stop staring at you and it creates a crowd. And it's got to be very odd, you walking around, even with your minders, at a water park, because there's not a lot of tourists that go to these things, as you might imagine. No, no. I mean, I had real fun in that water park.

1:16:56So the thing is, one day we sit and drink. There's a lot of drinking out there. And the reason why there's that, in all business-wise, because what does people do when they drink, they talk too much. But since I've been in the criminal syndicate for so many years, it's a dead thing to talk. The second thing is, like, I'm 90 kilos now. Yeah, 200 pounds or something. They're like 50, 60 kilos. And you know a lot of Asians, it's hard for them to break down alcohol. Right. That's why they turn red sometimes. Exactly. So that in mind, so when we drank in the evening, I was good. And so one night we sit and have a lot of drink, a lot of sake.

1:17:38We have two agents that follow us around all the places we go. And at this time, it's nothing that bothers me because it's minus 20 degrees Celsius outside. So you don't really want to go outside. So it's not like they have to follow me. Why are we sitting and drinking this kiyogi bar? And it's so bizarre because it's just me and the two agents alone in this kiyogi bar, except two waitress in the bar. There's no guest. We're just sitting there alone. And we sat there basically every night, alone. So he picks up his phone and said, Oh, I have to show you the great leader. He had made this water park for$100 million.

1:18:15I will take you tomorrow and show it to you. What he doesn't know is that I love water parks. I just love it. I actually went to Dubai just because they have a water park. Because, I mean, the downside of a water park is like you have to walk so many stairs to go up to the big sleigh. And I guess there must have been some sheiks down there who say, I'm not walking. So in Dubai, they have a water park where they shoot you up. And so I went down there. But this is just to explain how much I love water parks. So when he say, I want to show you, I'm saying, what are you talking about? You're going to show me.

1:18:51I want to try it. I say, what? I want to try that one. Otherwise, I don't want to go. So Kang, he goes out, makes some phone calls. I think perhaps Ulrich, he might think it's a little bit embarrassing because he didn't want to go. It was just me and one of the agents. And at this time, as you said, I hadn't been alone with any local people. And I thought to myself, I mean, how can I accomplish that? without causing any kind of problems. So when we go to the waterpark, Ulrich and Kang, they go upstairs. Kang's English is actually quite good, but Mr. Ri, who went with me, really poor. So when we go down to the changing room, and I have to say, even after our standard, this waterpark was really nice.

1:19:33When we come down and we start to get undressed, I start to ask Mr. Ri some random questions, like, Mr. Ri, between you and me, where does the great leader lives? and he goes, oh, I cannot tell you. And I just come up with all kinds of stupid questions. So I just take a quick shower and then I jump into the water park. This is Sunday in the prime time and it's packed. And when I come in, I mean, my beer at this time is even larger than now. I have tattoo on most of my upper body and it's just like silence. Like the whole water park. Everybody's just looking. It's like, what the heck is this Arab guy doing here?

1:20:14I mean, people are just losing their mind. And I'm coming out, and there's this like 25 meters pool. And next to it, there's sunbeds where people are just laying. And I'm like, howdy, man. And just go down, take a swim. And when I come up, one of the agents is there. There's no panic or anything, because they trust me at this point. and then I see above his shoulder, there is this amazing water slide. And I have to say, I don't think this guy had been in a water park before, but there is like, you know, this rubber ring you can sit in, but there is one so you can be two persons. So I just drag him under my arm.

1:20:53I mean, I think this guy's nearly 60, right? So I pull him and we go all the way up. I sit down, put my legs good up, lean back, hold his legs. And in my mind, I thought, okay, everybody have tried a water park. So I didn't want to tell him any security things or anything. So we just said, but he forgot to hold on to the handles. Oh, no. So at one point, we take a hop, and this old North Korean guy just fly over my head. It was hilarious. So I had the time of my life, and I really wanted to go there because I would love to come home and say, I mean, okay, I did a lot of shit in North Korea, but I did something nobody can say they did.

1:21:37I did a water park. Yeah. It's such a ridiculous visual, this tattooed dude with a giant beard in North Korea with all these folks who've never seen a foreigner, many of them in their entire life in the flesh, like only just people in movies and not even foreign movies, domestic propaganda consumption only. And even then it's rare. And there you are just hanging out, tubing at the water park. It's such a funny juxtaposition. How do you then continue making deals, right? You're drinking and they're what? Trying to get you to buy arms, weapons, meth. In the beginning, they're taking us on all kinds of tours, but we're not really getting the thing we were promised.

1:22:19So when there's like two days left, I think, okay, of security reason, I don't think they will let us back into North Korea. And I know like a lot of Asians, they first want to learn to know you and stuff like that. And I knew we didn't have that time. So I had to come up with something. So I talked to Kang one of the days. I said, listen, first of all, I want to thank you. I had a great time out here. But to be out here had cost me 200 ,000 euros. For people to grasp that number I came up with, of course, it's bullshit. But what people have to understand is that when you fly into North Korea, you fly into a black hole.

1:22:58Your phone stopped working. There's no internet. You cannot communicate with anybody outside. So if I had been the real Mr. James for one week, I wouldn't be able to do any kind of business. so that number is not totally insane. So I said to him, if we don't come up with something close to a deal at this point, I have to tell you I'm not coming back. I literally cannot do that. And that's when things changed. Yeah, so they start, what, talking business, talking guns, missiles, and methamphetamine? I mean, they kind of shocked us because the next morning while we were eating breakfast, They say, okay, let's go.

1:23:43And at this point, we've just been downtown. They wanted to show me because people are like, tell me about North Korea. That must have been horrible. This must have been this. And I'm like, no. That was exciting. Good food, beautiful places, because they wanted to show me a country in progress because they wanted me to invest in it. They don't want to show me working camps and shit like that. They just wanted me to show me the absolute best. Took me to the best restaurant. the best shows. I went to see the opera, like, and the water park, and stuff like that. So I hadn't seen anything. And then suddenly we start to drive outside town, and suddenly the car turns into a ghetto area.

1:24:26I'm like, hmm, could I have said something that had lead them to think anything else? And the car suddenly stopped in front of a building that looked like something that should have been torn down 10 years ago. Uh-oh. Yeah, you're thinking like, we're going to get killed here. Yeah. I must have slipped up on my cover or something somewhere. What keeps me a little hope is that I knew if they thought I was a spy, they would not kill me straight away. They would be the living crap out of me to know what I knew. So that gave me a little window. I knew it's not like you're going down that stairs and then you get shot in the neck.

1:25:03You get down that stairs and then you go in and you will go into a room that looked something like the hostel where a guy with a leather sleeve and two knives will be waiting for you and with handcuffs and shit. And I took comfort in that because then I said, okay, if this is happening, what would be, if I was Mr. James and if I had nothing to hide, how would I react in a situation like that? So I started to think about all the time that my wife had tried to piss me off and find that anger. And I was like, okay, when you open that door, you will be angry and insulted. That's the slightest thing that can save you.

1:25:44And then we go down the stairs, and I'm like, remember? Angry, not afraid, angry. And then we open the door, and suddenly we are in a very beautiful restaurant. What is going on? What it turns out to be is that as paranoid as they are from people outside, They are as paranoid from the people inside as well, because what people also have to know, in North Korea, you don't decide where to live. It's decided from you. So, I mean, all the people who live in Pyongyang is people that are very close to the system. And for the people who brings in a deal as big as the one that they thought I was coming with, that will change their life.

1:26:32Mm-hmm. So where they brought us had nothing to do with them not trusting us. They brought us to a place that were controlled by them, the people we were out with, so nobody else would steal me from them. I mean, not steal me like that. Right. But, like, people higher-ranked than them come in and take the deal off their hands because this could be a game-changer in the lifestyle as the nerd. Right. Right. So they think, OK, this guy's going to bring a lot of money. If somebody gets wind of this, they're going to steal the deal and I'm going to get cut out of this because I don't have enough power.

1:27:09So they want to lock it in while nobody else in another camp, another power broker, another arms dealer, whatever it is, can do anything about it. And that's very classic with authoritarian regimes, right? There's a lot of cronies and there's a sort of top down management. and the left hand never knows what the right hand is doing by design because you don't want to share anything because if somebody else gets more, it means you get less, right? It's like a zero-sum game. Yeah, and it also adds up because when you see later on, I'm going to Beijing, the people out there, I think I'm in Beijing to talk about how to transport weapons to Syria.

1:27:49And there, I basically have to start all over again because nobody has handed them over the whole situation. and they totally freaks out because I start talking about Syria. So the first day is like you have this whole class thing. Can we trust this guy? What's going on and stuff? And then they fly one of the other guys who was down in the basement with me to Beijing the day after to verify, oh, this is what we're about. And it happens quite frequently when we meet these people. They really, really keep information when they cannot meet me in person if they send other people that basically have no information.

1:28:29Interesting. It's all compartmentalized. And you're meeting with these folks either in North Korea or Beijing, and you're talking about, it's a little bit fuzzy, but was it setting up a fake aid organization to smuggle North Korean weapons into Syria? Was that kind of the premise of this? I mean, so in the basement, if we write a little bit, in the basement in North Korea, the thing is to get weapons out of North Korea is way more dangerous than get cocaine out of Colombia. You have so many satellites and intelligence service watching that country. What North Korea do is they send a lot of North Koreans outside the country for cheap labor.

1:29:09So doing that, it turned out it would be way easier to make a weapon factory in another place. And so the idea was they should come up with a place. And first they came up with Namibia. But due to the sanction, Namibia pulled in the plot, so they didn't want to touch North Korea at that time. And then they came with Uganda. So when they said Uganda, I started to look at lands I could buy down there. I found a broker who dealt islands. And I remember I found an island in the Victoria Lake. And I remember calling the producer and the director and said, I found a secret island in the Victoria Lake.

1:29:54I mean, nothing is more Dr. Evil from Jim Spahn and that. Yeah, man. And a secret island factory that makes weapons and methamphetamine is pretty much straight out of a spy novel. Yep. So I thought we'd go with that. So I started to negotiate. And in the Legion, I was, as you know it, four months in Djibouti in Africa stationed out there. And I know on that continent, if you want to do any kind of business and keep it, you have to have a silent partner from the government. So I already said that when I talked to the broker that if this should fly, we needed to have a partner from the government in.

1:30:37And they said, no problem. So we had a sit down. What's quite interesting about this is like, this is one of the part in the movie that's not even filmed with hidden cameras. Because when we have this meeting, I'm saying to them, listen, I think all you say is incredible good, but I have to present it for my board, and I have a cameraman with me already to film the island. Let's film the meeting, because then there's nothing of what you said I'm leaving out. And I just said, all right. And at this meeting, I'm saying, okay, I cannot tell you what I'm using the island for, but I want 100 % privacy, and I want a permission that I can land Boeing 747 on the island and take off without customers look what's inside the plane.

1:31:25Oh, my God. And they agreed to that. They could even provide customs to sail around the island and make sure nobody interfered at what was going on. This is in Uganda? Yep. Wow. So they basically just agreed to be a completely illegal meth and weapons factory for the North Koreans for just purely for profit. Yep. Wow. And not only that, because it turned out there lived people on the island. Nobody had told me that. People lived on the island. Oh, so what were they going to do? Just get rid of them? Yeah. It was so bizarre. So as I said, we didn't know there were people on the island. It didn't say that anywhere.

1:32:04So before the North Korean arrived, we had rented a boat with captains and stuff like that. And we were going out there with the real estate agent and the representative of the landowner. And we're standing near the lake, and I'm talking to the captain. And I brought the producer. The producer of the movie, he's a reporter. And at this time, because I know nothing about journalism and, like, you know, ethics and stuff like that. And I knew in Uganda it would be kind of complicated. So I needed somebody I could answer. So he came with me and as cover as my accountant. He was standing and talking to the representative of the landowner while I was talking to the captain.

1:32:47And at one point, he comes over to me and he said, just for the record, the left people on the island, I said, okay, the representative of the landowner have told them that you are there to build a hospital. I said, what? Yeah. Do you have a mic on? And he said, no, we need to have that on film. We need to have a recording of that. Otherwise, everybody else who will watch the film think we have put it up to get a nice setup. And suddenly, I mean, the fate of those poor people, it seemed like we just misused them to get a good story. Yeah. Oh, man. So we sail out there, and the way we are welcome is so crazy.

1:33:31And while I'm out there, I know in America they don't know Tintin probably. Yeah, I've heard of it. Is it like a dog? No, no, Tintin. Cartoon? Tintin, because in Belgium, there's a famous cartoonist, like Asterix and Obelix, and Tintin, he's an agent, a detective who solved some kind of crimes and stuff like that. There is a very discussed cartoon called Tintin in Congo, but I just looked down at myself at what kind of clothes I had on. Like, holy shit, I look like Tintin in Congo. And that was like what I thought when I was going into that island, and when we come towards the island, you have like hundreds of people with music, welcoming the white messiahs who's going to build a hospital.

1:34:19It was so bad because like, one thing is that you're an arms dealer, but here it's like innocent people. At some point, it's caught up in this lie. And I said to the producer, I would not confirm all these people are there to build a hospital. And he said, just avoid that one. Just avoid it. go around, see the island, let's get out of here, let's get something on camera. And we go onto the island, and then we got pulled off. I meet the mayor, I meet kids, and then we go into a church, and it becomes more and more bizarre. The representative of the landowner goes up and have the mess where he asks everybody to pray for me because I'm there to build a hospital.

1:35:01Oh, my God. And meanwhile, you're really, in theory, what's really going to happen is you're going to build an arms factory and a meth lab and kick everyone off their home. Yeah. We come to that because I'm sitting there and say, I need on camera that this guy said that was his idea. So when I'm out of that church, I'm just going to the captain and say, do you know any kind of five-star resort on the coastline when we get back? I say, yeah, let's go there. And on the way, I'm calling them and I will serve a meeting room where we can have a meeting, a book, a table in the restaurant, and I say to the guy, I really love the island.

1:35:39It seems really good. Let's have a follow-up meeting, and then we go on dinner on my account. And when we are at that boardroom, I'm just saying, you told the people on the island I'm there to build a hospital. Why? Just so it was really clear that this crazy idea didn't come from us. And he said that it's because it won't cause any friction. So they could start working on the island while getting people off. I see. Because, as I understood it, I mean, they live there illegally because they're so poor, they just need some place to stay. But if they start to build houses in another way, you cannot just kick them off.

1:36:23So if they had any idea what was going on, then they will start to build in that way and they couldn't get rid of them. Oh, I see. since they were in more or less temporary circumstances, they figure, okay, we can tell them we're building a hospital. They won't know. We could even ask them to leave and say, oh, you know, we need you to leave temporarily while we build this hospital, and then you can go back. And then they just won't ever let these people come back to the island. Jeez. And they're celebrating this. It must have felt so gross to have them celebrating this. But it's also proving to me, and this is what I hope people understand when they see it, is that they're so open about this, that this is not a one-time thing.

1:37:01This is just what's happening down there. The corruption, you mean? Yeah, yeah, because if we had an idea of by doing that, we would never let anybody have that on camera. We would have been like, okay, all phones out, all phones out. Okay, by the way, we're going to tell them this and this. This is going to happen. Right. To be so casual about it, I can imagine that the guy is a Christian man. And if you, as a Christian man, actually can stand in a church and use your God's word while doing this, then in your mind, you're not doing anything wrong. Not even close. Or is it just a complete sociopath and doesn't care?

1:37:41That's also possible. Yeah. Take a pick. Yeah, man. So, look, I know we're sort of running up on time here, and the story has been amazing. People can find the rest of the story in our episode with Ulrich the Mole, episode 527. And I'll link that in the show notes as well. We'll put a trailer here in this one. But what was the final outcome of this, right? Obviously, there was no arms factory. There's no meth factory. But are you worried about the North Koreans coming after you? I know Alejandro is currently missing the Spanish guy. He's basically on the run. His passport's been revoked by Spanish authorities, but he's in the Schengen EU area, right?

1:38:16So he could get out by train. Nobody seems to know where this guy is. Are you worried about people being upset with you? I mean, you're in a movie that clearly you raked North Korean intelligence and arms dealers over the coals in a public way. Does that bother you at all? Or do it keep you up at night? No. No, it doesn't. And I think the reason why it doesn't is because the North Korean have done what I kind of expected they would do, is that they say this is propaganda. It never happened. I can understand that because react on it would be way more embarrassing that a former chef and a former cocaine dealer have over the whole regime.

1:39:00So just saying propaganda is what keeps us safe. That's true, right? If you end up dead as a result of North Koreans, then it gives credibility to the idea that a former chef and a former cocaine dealer ran their arms dealers around for months and months and months or years even and embarrassed the whole regime and got it all on camera for mass consumption. And I love them all. I thought it was an amazing movie. I hope it gets released in the United States soon because people keep asking me where they can watch it. But it's just so ridiculous how these guys plan on selling you missiles and then they're going to get to Syria and they're going to drop methamphetamine in the cities in the West and ruin the civilization.

1:39:39And it's like two dudes who are essentially not even employed, right? Like two unemployed dudes running through your water park and drinking at a restaurant and filming the whole thing for a documentary. It's just absolutely bananas. as I think the MI6, former MI6 agent says at the end of the mole, is one of the greatest civilian-led intelligence operations that she's ever seen. Yeah, it was such a psychedelic rush. Yeah, I guess I can see what you mean. Like, were we ever in North Korea with arms dealers? Because that's weird, and I can't imagine that that really was a real thing. But here's the photo.

1:40:19My wife knew everything I was doing. Because every time I'd been on a mission, I told her, and explained her in details, but when the movie was in the editing room, I brought her to see it. It took us five hours because it was just, can you pause it for a second? What is that? Can you pause that for a second? What is that? And see in the end, you are insane. And it is mind-blowing. It's just, it's really crazy, yeah. I know Ulrich's wife was not super thrilled when she found out that he was undercover as a North Korean Friendship Association dude, potential arms dealer, or hooking you up with an arms dealer.

1:41:01She was not thrilled about that whole adventure either. Look, man, you've exposed a lot about North Korea and you've led a really interesting life from the French Foreign Legion to pretending to sell methamphetamine and missiles to the Syrian regime. But I also heard that someone hired you to take care of their kids out here as an au pair in Redwood City. Is that before or after your Coke dealer stint? That's before. Okay, that makes more sense. Yeah, yeah. Thank God. I was like, how do they vet these people? That was before. I came home from the Legion, and then I was just six months in Spain where I was a manager for a nightclub, and then I thought that sounded exciting.

1:41:39To be a babysitter, basically. Yeah. A male nanny in a suburb of San Francisco. Well, man, you're full of surprises, Jim. I hope I get to meet you in person one day, and I really appreciate you coming on the show, dude. This is a hell of a lot of fun and a long time coming. Thank you so much. You're about to hear a preview of the Jordan Harbinger show with a retired chef that somehow infiltrated the illicit North Korean arms trade. There was a meeting where people can come and see how North Korea is the propaganda way. It was like three hours praising Kim Il-sung by what he did for the country.

1:42:15When people ask me, how is it to go to North Korea? Well, it's quite difficult to describe because it's like your whole body is on overtime. You know you are being followed and what do I say and what do I do? How do I react to things? I'm going to the U.S. to meet up with a CIA agent. I was like, wow. And I find out how that agent thinks. One of the most important things he taught me was to be a perfect mole or undercover agent is that you have to be 95 % yourself and then 5 % mole. The last 5 % is the one who observed and I was really good to networking with people without people actually know I was networking with them.

1:42:59Everything was recorded. So I just literally took the pants down on a whole regime exposing their weapons program. It's a never-ending story. For more on how Ulrich the Mole, a Danish chef and family man wound up working undercover in North Korea to expose its illicit arms trade, check out episode 527 of The Jordan Harbinger Show. Like I said, Jim has had a life. One of the most interesting guys I know, and I'm glad that I could introduce him to y 'all. We didn't even get to him getting into it with a big time Jordanian smuggler or meeting Mark Zuckerberg or hanging out with Puff Daddy's crew and some bikers and some other businessmen.

1:43:37And, you know, part of this is just Coke dealer stuff. You just run into a lot of people not saying that Zuckerberg does Coke. He might be more interesting if he did, but that's a complete coincidence that I happen to mention these things together. I'm just gonna stop talking now. Jim was very clear that you can add him on Instagram and he will answer questions if you want. I thought that was pretty cool. Guests have never really done that in my memory here. We'll link to that in the show notes, of course, along with all things Jim LaTrache, which will be over at jordanharbinger.com, or just ask the AI chatbot on the website, transcripts in the show notes, advertisers, deals, discounts, ways to support the show, all at jordanharbinger.com slash deals.

1:44:15Please consider supporting those who support the show. And yes, our newsletter, We Bit Wiser. Every week, the team and I dig into an older episode of the show. We take the lessons and takeaways from it. If you are a fan of the show, and I assume you are, and you want a recap of important highlights and takeaways, something from the back catalog, maybe you want to know what to listen to next. The newsletter is a great place to do that. We're going to be doing giveaways on there as well. jordanharbinger.com slash news is where you can find it. Don't forget six minute networking over at jordanharbinger.com slash course.

1:44:43I'm at jordanharbinger on Twitter and Instagram. You can connect with me on LinkedIn as well. Leave a note if you do. This show is created in association with podcast one. My team is Jen Harbinger, Jace Sanderson, Robert Fogarty, Millie Ocampo, Ian Baird, and Gabriel Mizrahi. Remember, we rise by lifting others. The fee for this show is you share it with friends when you find something useful or interesting. The greatest compliment you can give us is to share the show with those you care about. So if you know somebody who is interested in a wild tale or two or can resonate with somebody like Jim, definitely share this episode with them.

1:45:13In the meantime, I hope you apply what you hear on the show so you can live what you learn. And we'll see you next time. This episode is sponsored in part by Everything Everywhere Daily. You've heard the phrase learn something new every day. Sounds nice, but do you actively do it? That's where Everything Everywhere Daily comes in. This podcast makes it effortless. Just 10 minutes a day, you'll walk away with a fascinating fact, a slice of history, a science gem. It's no wonder the show has climbed up to the top as the number one history podcast. It covers history, science, technology, geography, and stories of remarkable people, always in a way that keeps you hooked.

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1:46:20It's called the Conspirituality Podcast. The hosts, a journalist, cult researcher, and a philosophical skeptic, dive deep into how this stuff spreads from Project 2025 and the Heritage Foundation's dystopian vision of the future to how former leftists get pulled into far-right conspiracies. An interesting episode to check out is called Speaking Truth to Goop, where Jen Gunter breaks down the pseudoscience behind the wellness industry in a way that is super entertaining and eye-opening. It's sharp, funny, and makes you a lot harder to fool, which if you listen to the show, you know I'm all about that.

1:46:49From exploring cults to analyzing our cultural and political landscape, the Conspirituality Podcast will help you stay informed against misinformation and resist fear tactics. Find Conspirituality on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and wherever you get your podcasts.