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[00:00:00] I I found I found the I found the [00:00:03] funniest plane and we're not going to [00:00:04] get deep into the planes because I found [00:00:06] the funniest plane and it led to like [00:00:08] one of the world's largest drug [00:00:09] trafficking rings like confirmed [00:00:11] reported on for sure. Um and it's in the [00:00:14] air right now and I kind of wanted to [00:00:16] get this stream out and done before this [00:00:19] plane lands. It looks like it's about to [00:00:21] land in Cypress. [00:00:22] >> Conspiracy [music] theories are entering [00:00:24] a danger [00:00:25] >> information is the oxygen at the [00:00:28] mission. There's so much evidence out [00:00:29] there that even if less [music] than 1% [00:00:32] is true, will that be enough to collapse [00:00:35] the current paradigm and change the [00:00:38] whole planet? [00:00:42] Um, and this is so weird and so funny. [00:00:47] [snorts] Um, [00:00:49] and it's I I did all kinds of technical [00:00:52] plane stuff this morning, but we don't [00:00:53] need to do a ton of technical plane [00:00:55] stuff for me to show you how we get from [00:00:56] this plane to this crazy drug [00:00:58] trafficking ring where this woman went [00:01:01] to prison for 16 years. She had all [00:01:03] these planes registered in Texas and [00:01:06] they were getting used by like cartels [00:01:07] in Central and South America and Mexico [00:01:09] to smuggle cocaine and they busted a [00:01:11] whole bunch of these planes and she went [00:01:13] to prison last year. And then today [00:01:17] I'm looking at [00:01:20] Egypt airspace as you know a boy does on [00:01:25] a Thursday morning at 7 in the morning, [00:01:27] 6:00 in the morning. And I'm just [00:01:29] trolling the Egyptian airspace and I [00:01:31] noticed this this plane that has no call [00:01:33] sign and no information in the Egyptian [00:01:36] airspace NA. And at first it was like [00:01:39] overlapping this other plane on ADSB [00:01:41] Exchange that I thought maybe I had like [00:01:43] located like one of these shifty [00:01:46] Egyptian planes. So I started looking at [00:01:47] it, but then the actual plane popped up [00:01:50] on ADSB Exchange as well. And between [00:01:53] the data on ADSB exchange and the data [00:01:55] on flight radar, I was able to pinpoint [00:01:58] what this thing is a little bit sort of. [00:02:01] Um, so we're going to learn a few things [00:02:04] and we're going to quickly jump, we're [00:02:06] not going to get too nerdy on it. We're [00:02:07] going to jump through these few things [00:02:08] that we've learned to who owns this [00:02:11] plane, who who is this plane registered [00:02:13] to. And when you look up who this plane [00:02:15] is registered to, you stumble across [00:02:20] one of the largest modern drug smuggling [00:02:22] operations [00:02:24] that's been confirmed in recent history. [00:02:28] So, [00:02:30] um there's I'm still not totally sure on [00:02:32] the flight data here because when I [00:02:34] first saw it, now we're over in my [00:02:36] notes. These are just screenshots of [00:02:37] notes cuz I I just wanted to record what [00:02:40] was happening when I first saw it. I [00:02:42] first found it tracking over the Sinai [00:02:44] Peninsula and I took the screenshot of [00:02:46] it just as it passed over the Gulf of [00:02:48] Suez into Egypt, Egyptian airspace and [00:02:51] it had no flight data on flight radar [00:02:54] right there. And then around that time [00:02:57] this other plane registered to Egypt [00:03:00] popped up with all this [ __ ] flight [00:03:02] data all broken up and it looked like it [00:03:04] was in the same place but it was two [00:03:06] different planes. So, I was like, "Fuck, [00:03:08] did I just find a plane that just jumped [00:03:10] call signs mid-flight?" [00:03:12] And I don't think that's what I did. I [00:03:14] think this SUBVF is flying some secret [00:03:17] Egyptian military operation with his [00:03:19] transponder all spoofy and it's just not [00:03:22] showing up on the other day. I I don't [00:03:24] know. I don't know what happened with [00:03:25] that. Maybe it did jump call signs. Who [00:03:28] knows? When you um when you look at who [00:03:32] who this plane is registered to, that's [00:03:35] maybe a possibility. I don't know. [00:03:37] [sighs] [00:03:38] But it went through a period of time [00:03:39] around Cairo where on flight radar it [00:03:42] was showing as this NA and on ADSB [00:03:45] exchange the only plane that seemed to [00:03:48] be in the same locations was this [00:03:50] totally different thing. This ATR72600 [00:03:53] that's registered to Egypt as SUBVF. [00:03:57] But then after a minute [00:04:00] on flight radar, I watched it turn to [00:04:03] the north and not land in Cairo. And [00:04:05] instead it went up here over the [00:04:08] Mediterranean. And now this is its [00:04:10] flight track over the Mediterranean. And [00:04:12] it's headed towards Cypress right now. [00:04:14] And it might land in Cypress or it might [00:04:16] pass over Cypress. I don't know. But we [00:04:19] get some information between the two [00:04:22] locations. Okay, you're late. What's [00:04:24] happening? We found one of the world's [00:04:27] largest drug smuggling operations on [00:04:28] accident. Um, and it's just so funny and [00:04:31] weird and I just wanted to stream about [00:04:33] it real quick before this plane lands [00:04:35] because it's currently in the air over [00:04:36] the Mediterranean. Some of the nerdiness [00:04:38] required here is that Can I zoom in? [00:04:43] Sick. The type of plane we're looking at [00:04:45] here on ADSB Exchange shows up as a 1998 [00:04:49] Saab 340. [00:04:52] Okay. And on ADSB exchange, it's just [00:04:55] says that it's a type is SF34, [00:04:58] which is normalish, I guess. We'll come [00:05:02] back to these full details in just a [00:05:05] moment. [00:05:07] On flight radar, though, it shows up [00:05:10] here as a Saab 340BISR. [00:05:14] And ISR stands for information [00:05:16] surveillance and reconnaissance, which [00:05:19] would usually be something that like a [00:05:20] spy plane would have, like an intel [00:05:22] gathering plane, right? Um, and it's [00:05:26] been flying kind of at lower than [00:05:29] lowish altitudes. I don't know if the [00:05:31] altitude is significant, but this is [00:05:33] weird. [00:05:35] It's a plane with weird data flying over [00:05:37] Egyptian airspace, ISR designation. So, [00:05:41] I just keep poking around and poking [00:05:42] around, asking Claude to clarify things [00:05:45] for me. I'm looking up other things. And [00:05:48] I go to [00:05:50] the aircraft details and the operator is [00:05:53] listed as aircraft guarantee corp [00:05:56] trustee. [00:05:58] Okay. [00:06:00] So, [00:06:02] let's hop into the claw exchange [00:06:06] [clears throat] and see what we can dig [00:06:07] up about aircraft guarantee corp [00:06:09] trustee. [00:06:13] And this is where [ __ ] gets weird. At [00:06:15] first, I fed it three different [00:06:17] screenshots and tried to get it to [00:06:18] clarify if the two planes were the same [00:06:20] or not. And I I was and I've learned [00:06:21] that I cannot trust Claude on flight [00:06:23] data. So, I'm like really [ __ ] [00:06:25] careful with it to double check itself. [00:06:27] Tell me it's a degree of confidence. [00:06:29] site cited sources if it can. And it's [00:06:32] like, wait, these are not the same [00:06:33] plane. And so then I I hone in on this [00:06:35] ISR designation with this Saab aircraft [00:06:39] for a minute. We look up a hex code [00:06:47] and we kind of zero in more on this Saab [00:06:49] plane. [00:06:51] I feed it the details about who owns the [00:06:54] plane, aircraft guarantee corp trustee. [00:06:57] And then [ __ ] gets weird. [00:07:01] And then [ __ ] gets weird, dog. [00:07:07] So, what is Aircraft Guaranty Corp? And [00:07:10] don't worry, we're going to get out of [00:07:11] clawed and into actual reporting here [00:07:13] and and um you know, actual sources in [00:07:16] just a second. But I just want to show [00:07:18] you the process that I went through. [00:07:20] [snorts] Aircraft Guarantee Corp., We're [00:07:22] going to call that AGC is a US trust [00:07:25] company that holds legal title to [00:07:26] aircraft on behalf of foreign owners who [00:07:28] cannot directly register aircraft with [00:07:30] the FAA. The foreign owner, the [00:07:32] beneficiary, remains hidden while AGC [00:07:34] appears as the registered owner with an [00:07:36] NATIL number. [00:07:38] Planes registered to the name of a US [00:07:40] trust carry the N tail number. It's a [00:07:43] distinction that experts say carries [00:07:44] advantages, including allowing planes to [00:07:45] receive less scrutiny than when carrying [00:07:47] foreign tail numbers. But [00:07:50] check this out. [00:07:53] The criminal case against AGC's owner. [00:07:55] Deborah Lynn Mercer Irwin, age 60, was [00:07:58] convicted of money laundering, wire [00:08:00] fraud, conspiracy to manufacture and [00:08:02] distribute cocaine, and conspiracy to [00:08:04] manufacture and distribute cocaine [00:08:05] knowing it would be imported into the [00:08:07] United States. Prosecutors describe [00:08:09] Mercer Airwin's drug trafficking [00:08:10] convictions as a landmark case, marking [00:08:12] the first time that an aircraft trust [00:08:14] company owner has been tried and [00:08:16] convicted of such charges. the scale the [00:08:19] scale of the operation. AGC acted as [00:08:22] trustee to over 1,000 aircrafts with [00:08:25] foreign owners. WFAA, which was I think [00:08:28] they're this journalistic consortium. [00:08:30] Their review found more than 1,000 [00:08:32] registered aircraft in On Alaska, a [00:08:34] Texas town with no airport and a [00:08:36] population of just over 3,000. [00:08:40] At the time of the reporting, the [00:08:41] population, they showed a population [00:08:43] sign that said population 1,700. So [00:08:46] that's one plane for every two people in [00:08:48] this little town in Texas that has no [00:08:50] airport. And I think that's what got the [00:08:53] journalists really like digging into [00:08:54] this case over the years. [00:08:57] What the investigation found the [00:09:00] investigation concluded last year and [00:09:01] this woman was convicted and sentenced [00:09:03] last year. Several of the illegally [00:09:06] registered and exported aircraft were [00:09:07] used by transnational criminal [00:09:09] organizations in Colombia, Venezuela, [00:09:11] Ecuador, and Bise, and Honduras, [00:09:13] Guatemala, and Mexico to smuggle large [00:09:16] quantities of cocaine destined for the [00:09:17] United States. Additional aircraft in [00:09:20] AGC's trust were found by foreign [00:09:22] officials destroyed or abandoned near [00:09:25] clandestine landing strips in several [00:09:27] South American countries. Some of these [00:09:29] wrecked or abandoned aircraft still [00:09:30] contained multi-tonon kilos of cocaine [00:09:33] on board. Mercer Irwin was sentenced to [00:09:36] 16 years in federal prison in November [00:09:38] of 2024. [00:09:40] After her indictment, there was a large [00:09:42] decrease in the amount of cocaine air [00:09:44] trafficking. High-ranking Latin American [00:09:45] officials testify that they saw drug [00:09:47] flights fall from hundreds down to a few [00:09:49] over a 2-day period. The number of jets [00:09:52] carrying drugs in the Caribbean dropped [00:09:53] 59% from 2020 to 2022. [00:09:58] What? [00:10:01] Dude, so this woman was operating the [00:10:04] front company for [00:10:07] like all of the cartels planes. [00:10:13] If it dropped by that much, [00:10:18] right? [00:10:20] They saw drug flights fall from hundreds [00:10:22] down to a few over a two-day period. [00:10:28] So this aircraft that we found N441 FFF [00:10:32] [snorts] is registered to aircraft [00:10:34] guarantee corp trustee meaning the true [00:10:36] owner is hidden. A holds the legal title [00:10:39] and AGC's owner is now in federal prison [00:10:42] for facilitating drug trafficking [00:10:43] through exactly this type of [00:10:44] arrangement. [00:10:46] Right now, the aircraft is operating in [00:10:47] the Middle East over the Sinai [00:10:48] Peninsula, the Mediterranean, Egypt with [00:10:51] anonymized transponder data on flight [00:10:53] radar 24, [00:10:55] and the trust structure exists [00:10:57] specifically to obscure ownership. [00:10:59] [snorts] [00:11:00] So, we dug a little deeper and they have [00:11:03] an active website right now with 2025 [00:11:06] copyright. [00:11:08] They have updated marketing claims. Now, [00:11:10] the site claims over 3,000 aircraft, [00:11:11] which is up 1,000 or more aircrafts from [00:11:14] the Mercer Airwin era. Their [00:11:17] phone number is now a Houston area code [00:11:19] instead of Oklahoma City [00:11:23] and it still has industry memberships. [00:11:27] So something changed when they put the [00:11:29] owner of this trust company in jail last [00:11:32] year. [00:11:33] But the founder Connie Wood, who is an [00:11:36] own Alaska resident, [00:11:39] the Houston based entities, so the new [00:11:41] entities after the boss got put in [00:11:45] prison, the new entity has Connie Wood [00:11:48] and Mary Wood as directors and officers, [00:11:51] suggesting that the original founder [00:11:52] either retained or reacquired control of [00:11:55] related entities. [00:12:00] Interesting. [00:12:05] So, we don't know if this aircraft is [00:12:07] from the drug smuggling days or if it's [00:12:08] a new aircraft that's in this trust [00:12:10] company recently. [00:12:12] The trust was moved to new management, [00:12:15] but we just don't know if this plane has [00:12:18] anything to do with that. [00:12:21] Um, but it's actively flying today, [00:12:22] which is wild. It took off from the [00:12:25] United Arab Emirates of all places. [00:12:28] Um, [00:12:32] interesting. So then I was like, "All [00:12:33] right, I want to learn more about this. [00:12:34] Can you dig up a bunch of sources? Let's [00:12:36] [ __ ] get into this. Let's get into [00:12:39] this." [00:12:41] Because right now, [00:12:44] this plane is coming into land [00:12:47] on Cypress. [00:12:49] And there's a lot of military bases on [00:12:51] Cypress. As far as I'm aware, [00:12:54] Cypress is a key hub for all sorts of [00:12:56] stuff in the Mediterranean. [00:12:59] And it looks like we're coming into land [00:13:01] at this airport right here. [00:13:06] We'll see. [00:13:08] Plane coming in, [00:13:13] right? Isn't that wild? So, check this [00:13:15] out. Check this out. [00:13:19] DOJ website having trouble [00:13:25] in a landmark case. Trust company owner [00:13:27] convicted of drug trafficking putting US [00:13:29] registered planes in hands of cartels. [00:13:32] Own Alaska, Texas is this tiny little [00:13:34] town, [00:13:36] not too far from Austin actually. [00:13:44] moneyaundering and wire fraud in [00:13:45] connection with a Ponzi scheme in which [00:13:46] investors claimed to have lost at least [00:13:49] $240 million. [00:13:56] During the trial, prosecutors told [00:13:58] jurors that Mercer Irwin deliberately [00:13:59] turned a blind eye to the criminal [00:14:01] activity involving the planes she [00:14:03] registered at her Oklahoma City based [00:14:04] company, Aircraft Guarantee Corp. [00:14:14] I think it is vital for them to know ex [00:14:16] who exactly where these planes are, [00:14:18] who's operating them, what's being done, [00:14:20] Gonzalez said after the verdict. [00:14:24] And the case stemmed from a 2019 WFAA [00:14:27] investigation into her company, Aircraft [00:14:29] Guarantee. So, it was actually [00:14:31] journalists that started this story. And [00:14:34] then the journalism was so strong that [00:14:37] the DOJ got involved and took down one [00:14:39] of the largest drug smuggling operations [00:14:43] that we know of [00:14:49] >> to drug trafficking and that led to a [00:14:51] federal investigation. [00:14:53] >> It's vital for them to know exactly [00:14:55] where their planes are, who's operating [00:14:57] them, what's being done. [00:14:59] >> Mercer Irwin's trial played out over [00:15:01] three weeks in Sherman. The jury got to [00:15:03] see how drug trafficking works. How [00:15:07] everybody plays a part? How the [00:15:09] facilitation of the aircraft is a [00:15:12] >> Did you see all that [00:15:16] on one flight? One little plane. [00:15:19] >> Facilitation of the aircraft is a vital [00:15:22] part of it and they understood it. [00:15:24] >> It featured testimony from highranking [00:15:26] Latin American and Central American [00:15:28] officials. As soon as this case was [00:15:30] indicted, the effect was immediate. The [00:15:32] number of planes with drugs diminished [00:15:35] considerably. [00:15:36] >> Lead prosecutor Ernest Gonzalez told us [00:15:38] the verdict sends a message to the trust [00:15:40] industry. [00:15:41] >> I think the message is we're looking at [00:15:42] these types of arrangements more [00:15:44] closely, that there needs to be some [00:15:46] changes. [00:15:47] >> Mercer Irwin now faces decades in [00:15:49] prison. [00:15:51] >> Interesting. [00:15:53] A [00:15:56] there's reporting on the IRS charging [00:15:59] for the tax stuff. There's reporting [00:16:01] from the Eastern District of Texas, [00:16:04] United States Attorney's Office. [00:16:13] Hey, right there. Here's where Claude [00:16:14] pulled this from, I would imagine. [00:16:17] Check this out. [00:16:19] In the aircraft world, planes registered [00:16:21] in the United States and displaying an N [00:16:23] tail number are coveted as being [00:16:24] properly vetted and trusted to legally [00:16:26] operate around the world. Mercer Irwin [00:16:28] found ways to exploit the registration [00:16:30] process in order to profit from [00:16:31] illegally obtained money being paid for [00:16:34] her services, said US attorney [00:16:36] Featherstone. Mercer Irwin became a drug [00:16:38] dealer when she became aware of planes [00:16:40] she had registered were being used to [00:16:41] transport large quantities of cocaine. [00:16:43] Mercer Irwin knew that many of her [00:16:45] clients were in the illegal drug [00:16:46] business and she'd hid their identities [00:16:48] and the sources of their money in order [00:16:50] to reap a large profit. She became a [00:16:52] money launderer when she created fake [00:16:54] sales of planes that were not actually [00:16:55] for sale in order to hide and move drug [00:16:57] money. Transnational criminal [00:16:59] organizations require assistance to [00:17:00] operate in the US and Mercer Irwin [00:17:02] facilitated the drug dealing by [00:17:03] exploiting the plane registration [00:17:05] process. [00:17:09] Okay, [00:17:11] party time. [00:17:19] So, where is our plane right now? Oh, [00:17:22] hey, it's not going into the big airport [00:17:24] there. It's going in over here. [00:17:29] It's coming in to land at PAOS [00:17:31] International Airport. [00:17:35] And who knows what they're doing because [00:17:36] again, not the whole trust company. The [00:17:39] whole trust company wasn't all drug [00:17:40] trafficking. It was that a bunch of drug [00:17:43] trafficking was hiding inside of that [00:17:46] trust company. So this plane could be [00:17:48] anything. It could just be a billionaire [00:17:51] that wants to hide their ownership of [00:17:52] this plane. [00:17:55] Maybe [00:17:56] um [00:17:58] it could be some intelligence operation [00:18:02] that's on the black budget that's [00:18:03] operating in the you know covert private [00:18:05] sectors. It could be arms trafficking, [00:18:08] you know, drug smuggling. It could be [00:18:10] anything. Who knows? [00:18:12] But I just thought that that was wild. [00:18:15] And that's the kind of thing that [00:18:16] happens when you get curious and you [00:18:19] look at planes apparently at 7 in the [00:18:23] morning. [00:18:25] >> [clears throat] [00:18:25] >> What if it's the trafficking of humans? [00:18:27] It could be. [00:18:29] Human trafficking is a enormous [00:18:31] industry. And it did come from the [00:18:33] United Arab Emirates this morning early. [00:18:37] This is where it took off from from Abu [00:18:39] Dhabi [00:18:42] from their main air airirstrip. [00:18:46] So, [00:18:49] the other thing I like about doing this [00:18:50] is that I learn every in every time I do [00:18:52] this, I learn new things about aircraft [00:18:55] registration and about how the data [00:18:57] shows up and how transponder data works [00:18:59] and how to use these different tools for [00:19:01] different different things. Um, [00:19:05] oh, here I'm tracking another one. [00:19:08] What's this one all about? [00:19:11] See, I'll just keep a couple of [00:19:12] different planes on track. Oh, this is [00:19:14] from Saudi Arabia. This is the Saudi [00:19:16] Arabian flight that came and did a [00:19:17] little loop over Lebanon, over Beirut, [00:19:20] and kind of did some funky transponder [00:19:23] stuff, and now it's back out. Um, [00:19:28] so yeah. [00:19:30] Uh, there's also a couple SAM flights [00:19:32] that were out over the United States. If [00:19:33] you know about the SAM flights, there [00:19:35] were some SAM flights up this morning [00:19:36] over the United States. Not triple [00:19:38] zeros, quadruple zeros, but you know. [00:19:41] So, [00:19:46] That's interesting. [00:19:48] That's some funky [ __ ] [00:19:51] I don't know what it means. [00:19:54] But now our plane is coming in for [00:19:56] landing [00:19:58] in Cypress, registered to AGC, [00:20:03] a shell company that housed what looks [00:20:06] like the vast majority of transame [00:20:11] drug smuggling operations for the last [00:20:13] lord knows how many years. [00:20:16] It's crazy world out there, folks. [00:20:21] >> [clears throat] [00:20:22] >> So, that's the I just wanted to get that [00:20:24] out of the way this morning early. Is [00:20:26] AGC a Japanese company? No. It's [00:20:28] registered to a small town in Texas. [00:20:31] A town in Texas that doesn't have an [00:20:33] airport and has like one plane for every [00:20:37] three people in town. [00:20:40] [laughter] [00:20:44] Karen was my bag supplier. That's crazy, [00:20:46] right? [00:20:49] quite the quiet place to land if you've [00:20:51] ever been to Cypress. I have never been [00:20:52] to Cypress. [00:20:54] My understanding is that Cypress has a [00:20:55] lot of um [00:20:58] it's it's an important stopover and my [00:21:01] understanding is that it has a lot of [00:21:02] military operation and intelligence [00:21:03] operation that kind of bops through [00:21:05] Cyprus um on its way across the Med. [00:21:11] But I don't know, who knows what this [00:21:13] plane is, but she landing [00:21:20] Watching Egyptian airspace is such a [00:21:22] trip because there's so many funky [00:21:25] planes that fly over Egyptian airspace. [00:21:28] And I've learned, boom, sniped it. I've [00:21:31] learned how to spot the ones that are [00:21:32] likely to be weird because they have [00:21:34] different uh indicators. These bombader [00:21:37] globals often have their data hidden. [00:21:41] Oh, yeah. This is the Saudi Arabian one. [00:21:43] I think that came from Beirut. [00:21:46] Holy [ __ ] Its flight data got super [00:21:49] weird here. [00:21:51] We're not going to stick with it for [00:21:52] forever, but that's interesting. [00:21:55] It's flying high and fast from Beirut to [00:21:59] who knows where. [00:22:02] That would be enough to collapse the [00:22:04] current paradigm and change the whole [00:22:07] planet.