Retired Intelligence Detective Gary Jenkins brings you the best in mob history with his unique perception of the mafia. In this second episode of the six-part series documenting the life and crimes of the marijuana smuggler kingpin Jimmy Chagra, Gary interviews one of Chagra’s low-level smugglers. Kermit Schweidel tells about the famous Folly Cove operation. In this famous operation, Jimmy Chagra partners with two other El Paso smugglers, and they orchestrate an entire sea-gong freighter load of Colombian marijuana. After an adventurous trip up the Atlantic Coast, they arrive off the Massachuttas coast at Folly Cove. Here Kermit Schweidel and others off-load the post and distribute it to hiding spots throughout the United States.

Click here to buy Folly Cove: A Smuggler’s True Tale of the Pot Rebellion written by my guest Kermit Schweidel.

This episode is brought to you by BetterHelp. Remember to click on www.BetterHelp.com/gangland for 10% off

Subscribe to the Podcast for a new gangster story every week.

Support the Podcast.

Hit me up on Venmo for a cup of coffee or a shot and a beer @ganglandwireClick here to “buy me a cup of coffee”

To go to the store or make a donation or rent Ballot Theft: Burglary, Murder, Coverup  click here

To rent Brothers against Brothers, the documentary, click here. 

To rent Gangland Wire, the documentary, click here

To buy my Kindle book, Leaving Vegas: The True Story of How FBI Wiretaps Ended Mob Domination of Las Vegas Casinos.

To subscribe on iTunes click here. Please give me a review and help others find the podcast.

Donate to the podcast. Click here! 

SPEAKERS

GARY JENKINS, Kim Schwiedel

 

Kim Schwiedel  00:00

Well, of course everybody started out using it, smoking it and liking it. The whole trick was, hey, I can I can buy half a pound or a pound or a kilo. I can break this down and sell it to my friends and then I can smoke for free. That’s probably how 90% of the people that were in it started. Just wanted some good good old free pot, our geographic location on the border being what it was. It was very tempting to take that pound and turn it into five pounds or 10 pounds and the border was wide open.

 

GARY JENKINS  00:38

Welcome while you Wiretappers out there. Back here in the studio Gangland Wire. I have a most interesting show today. Kim Schweidel I pronounced that right Kim? Yes, sir. Well, thanks a lot Kim. You know, guys, I’ve started down a path. You know, I like to do stories and take deep dives on the things and into the eggs that I started looking at this whole you know, the killing of Judge woods and by Woody Harrelson, his dad, Charles Harrelson and the Jimmy Chagra thing. And so I started looking at this guy named Jimmy Chagra and he was as he was Lebanese heritage out of El Paso, and he was supposedly this huge drug smuggler, and then I find out he has this whole life up in Las Vegas. And he’s, he’s spending millions and millions of dollars gambling in Las Vegas, I thought this is a heck of a story. And I got into it. I was noodling around on the internet and, and he’s supposedly Jimmy and his brother Lee had something to do with it may we’ll find out today. They made some huge score, bringing really a high quality Colombian pot from Colombia and a freighter of some kind, semi big ship, one of the early examples of this kind of smuggling in the narcotics business, clear up to Boston. And then the mothership has the little baby ships that bring it on to the shore, and they hide it up in Boston and then go from there. That was it was a big deal. And I found Kim here who wrote a book on that was part of that. So Kim, welcome. I really appreciate you coming on the show. Well, thank

 

Kim Schwiedel  02:19

you, Gary. It’s nice to be here.

 

GARY JENKINS  02:21

So can you tell us the name of your book and show that show that to us?

 

Kim Schwiedel  02:25

That’s the book Folly Cove A Smuggler’s Tale of the Pot Rebellion. And it really it really kind of takes place in the in the y...