Joe Rogan Experience #1340 — John Nores Transcript

Transcript

0:00 Thanks, bud. How are you doing? You were a game warden, or you are a game warden. of work we were doing when it come to the the trespass gross and the cartel issue you know and So I was all in the woods, you know, the woods are my church. guys out there and some problems. And then in 1995, I got to go back home toward the Silicon land as well. And on that situation, I had a good friend of mine that I grew up with that was doing his master's thesis at San Jose State University, both of our alma mater, on steelhead trout,

3:21 And all the fish, the steelhead fry are dead. don't have any cell phone coverage, and I have an unarmed civilian, they're not the growers I'm typically, you know, that I would have suspected. These guys are, you know, they got I started to bring in other agencies, narcotic groups, task forces, the sheriff's office, don't normally do this type of stuff. So, so go for it. So we were the bird dogs. We kind of guided

6:29 And that was out there in some extent, but it was so early when we weren't really aware of the environmental damage? And nobody was reclamating the damage or, or, or cleaning up any of this chopped all the plants up or did what they did did they try to reclaim the the creek did they So I wasn't going to make waves. long academy. That's all wildlife specific, wildlife forensics, wildlife ID, weapons

9:35 how would you how would you fix that we would have got with him and it's what's called a stream precedent right exactly it was it was completely brand new and this was you know one of the first War in the Woods. So you wrote War in the Woods and then Hidden War is the new one? We're not in Kansas anymore. that seems so crazy to me it does it was one of those things that it was it was based on the fact

12:36 to catching bad guys, to catching some of these guys that were doing the damages. So Yeah, right. Okay, well, we've got to resume the creek yeah wouldn't that be like part of the plan I had promoted to be the lieutenant for two and a half counties, game wardens, three sheriff's officers, good sheriff's officers that we had met on that first we chase them around, they'd run away. Sometimes we'd find weapons. Oftentimes we wouldn't.

15:38 We can't do this as standard patrol game wardens. and also restore waterways and all the different absolutely yeah absolutely and so now there's like the 50s for legitimate agriculture and then they found out how toxic it was and epa banned it And it gets smuggled across the border with the grow groups, the drug trafficking groups, And I was explaining these grow-ups that for the rest of the country

18:11 south dakota wherever it's i don't even know it's legal in south dakota wherever it's illegal marijuana laws that came about that same time. And I was talking to anybody, conservation groups that you and I would be part of, preservation animal rights groups, high school kids, So public land cultivation went to, like you said, a felony to a misdemeanor.

20:15 it's highly likely that they're going to have some of that pesticide on it. They do. communities and the cartels are everywhere across the country with this stuff, but they'll go the cannabis issue because that's what's affecting our wild lands and our waterways it's right at the So we have a passionate interest in protecting, you know, those resources and not to mention keeping our public safe in the same breath.

23:06 Explain a punji pit for people who don't know. bacteria, induce infection, and basically take our soldiers, the dog stories, right? We talked about that, but Phoebe, amazing dog. She had been trained to sniff for wildlife and these big you know wells they're digging in cisterns and they're doing this to the Sacramento Delta and the lowlands. And they, even if they, you know in the delta region in sacramento delta and the lowlands and they even if they you

26:24 on who you catch or who you've been able to debrief. And the reason we say that, and I always go very conservative because it's such a kind of a silent enterprise and it's really hard to get some of this data, but we've just validated it through the numbers of things we run across. They're covering their tracks. book and also in the powerpoint when i when i teach to this throughout the country, um, cow hooves actually carved out of wood because a couple of years ago we were, you know, the U S forest

28:44 Now we've been trial and error in it for a lot a lot of years um but we're seeing a lot of It's a mix of all of that. We get a lot of reports from people in the ground and our, our best reporting parties So the people that are going the deepest into the back country. on to hone ranch really yeah yeah a few years back and uh i didn't think anything of it i thought

30:40 It's like 270,000 acres. We've done a lot of good stuff with Tohono Ranch and supported good hunting programs there. We weren't sure what other agencies were doing, but we knew what we were doing now. And so I'm keeping that data. And it's funny you mentioned the reporting parties. safely. And we're fired up enough not to wait. You know, we're, we're calling people to say,

33:01 Yeah, it was horrible. Is there an area where they i mean the formative years of learning this shot in 05 and we were doing 25 public and private land cartel gross in the Silicon Valley, at least 20 to 25 a season. And I mean, there's some wiggle room on both ends of that, team, our fish, you know, our agency specific team, we would, we have guys covering every part

35:48 the stalking to catch these guys with our canines and with our tactics, It's that dangerous. So these guys putting this It could be, I mean, it could have been applied that day. talking in i mean would guys have to camp there sometimes yeah sometimes so your park and hike Well, you hear the term, the thin green line, right? those problems aren't going away right so we still have to check you know the night hunter we still

38:59 Yeah, we have teams now in our agency, and most of the states do, called wildlife trafficking teams. from abalone to sturgeon roe to black bear gallbladders and now ivory especially. Yeah, but it's not. So you can eat the bear, but you can't even open up the cavity, the body cavity. i can't get black bear so horn that kind of thing yeah exactly right like like rhino horn things so

41:08 That's no exaggeration. NUWIA conference, which is basically the annual game wardens conference for all of us from all horrible information, right? own thing for a couple of years. And then we start to find the people that have the motivation or that's crazy. we run across that a lot. And so they're off fishing. They'd kill rabbits, they'd kill coyotes they'd kill deer they'd get to the end of like a canyon that has like a an outlet of a dam

45:04 i just retired with well like you're marshall a Marshall. I have Apollo, yellow lab, English lab. She's I don't have a lot. Oh, shit. a handheld spotlight a flashlight whatever and you go into remote areas and you look to find we focused on that was like if i can cut my teeth and get you know become a a reputable game warden Once we got to know each other and they realized, who is this game warden?

47:43 So the reason why you're patrolling by yourself is because they didn't anticipate anything like this. One game warden? all of San Benito County, which is huge Hollister, Gilroy, right where I'm from in Gilroy, And I said, we're going to catch a spotlighter every night this week. Like, would you get to a vantage point in glass? Yeah yeah it's just like glass in a big basin for elk right

50:15 And seeing where this road goes and how does that canyon look. in district a year down here, I pretty much had my spots figured out, my partners in other parts of Riverside did too. Don't worry about it. They're great. But that's crazy. That you would be able to even find these folks in this enormous area. kind of maintain as covert as we can. You know, we're known in the neighborhood. And the thing is

52:31 I didn't get a spotlighter every night that week, but I got six out of seven. was recreational it might have been to sell the meat i couldn't prove that or it was just to go and they're it's a whole different game and we're gonna be fair about it or we should be fair but And I remember one case down here that was a pretty crazy one. you do it you have unlimited resources man that's a great question and i'll do go into the bottle

55:03 This is the going rate. We've been really pushing that for 15 years, plus or minus. is it you get into the marijuana stuff too we do actually get into the marijuana stuff something stuff through the show and that's what got the ratings. That's what, you know, that was worldwide broadcasts and number one hit on that geo for three years and that opened the door, you know, we needed that exposure and it's the same thing with like writing these books and doing the TV. I do. It's, it's a fine line between risking some exposure or getting the message out. And like I said, we're so thin on the thin green line, we need all the exposure we can get.

56:59 to hopefully help with things like salary and numbers. I got to go to Butte County or I got to go to Shasta County. It's not just about saying it's let's do it smart you know let's for one everything we we really tried to push here in california was we can even take cannabis out of the equation, Joe, and we have to break the black market. But what I've seen, and I go into the last chapter of my new book, hidden work extensively on this is what are the challenges moving forward after seeing

1:00:26 saw everything coming and the cost to do it and being on big brother's radar or law enforcement's being from a marijuana enforcement team to go into these California Grower Association hosted And I'm just like, guys, everybody breathe. And so I was on- Were these guys aware of how big the situation was before you show them i would have thought so because they're in the

1:02:16 I mean, these guys literally would back in hundreds and hundreds of yards of pipe and of tubing like for hoses on their back. They're tough. We are not about that. you know to to do anything negative from an enforcement standpoint to suddenly having real talks of what was going out. help the cannabis program, whatever we can do and no charge. And, and that was genuine, man. I was

1:04:35 I mean, there's extremely high taxes on cannabis as it is. there doing but um the money's starting to come back to us now so we're starting to get equipment Alert the press. I'm a convert now. market you know and and the thing right now because we're not regulating federally and so like where i'm at montana now tight little growing window, early winters, late thaws.

1:07:17 that this is the number one problem with the border the number one problem with the border where some states are legal and some states aren't. federally not but when you get to the border issue you brought up that good point of it's not just that cartel element for this can this poison cannabis stuff or this toxically tainted cannabis If the world was even and there was, you know, there's like extreme crime right below us.

1:09:30 you would kill a percentage at least it would make it a little bit better and it would stop that even know i don't think no but i mean don't get a chance to experience what it's like to actually You know, it brings us back to our center. Yeah, I just think that's a big part of it. this crime problem is very similar to what they faced during Prohibition with alcohol,

1:12:15 dialoguing earlier this week and he said you know um he's kind of looked at things from the border because they have the pipeline. especially particularly violent crime when you get caught doing something like that i mean it We know your team's been in like six gunfights, man. Your partner was almost killed in 05 in the first one. You guys take these guys head on,

1:14:24 And that's where I say here, we get to the, we can unify and not worry about where we sit And it's an arduous end around. It depends. Does that always happen? in northern california we've had some situations where we've we've seen the same guy really for 20 times what no joke so you've busted them how many times we did or in do they use boats do they use tunnels all of it

1:17:15 Mazatlan Peninsula and they're loaded up with 6,000 pounds of tainted weed, but grown in Mexico. Same There it is. And then that boat's just disposed of. And they would, but, you know, obviously they're still selling fentanyl Yes. That dude on the right, I say just shoot him. I mean, obviously, I'm kidding about shoot him, but their situation is just as grave.

1:19:30 How do you get out of that? for people to make things illegal that are legal or make things legal that are illegal and you would you to deal with this, this grow mess going on in predominantly California and all this stuff getting out to our public and being tainted. but putting up some pretty you make the task force how much would you branch out your operation i'd make the tactical unit

1:22:36 And we hadn't gotten into this grow mess yet, Joe, you know, to the level of the cartel front. Same type of deal. powerful dogs man they are amazing they're so smart yeah you look in their eyes and they're Yeah. program in agency going kind of full speed around 2008 ish and we had three we have three levels of canine we have like the companion ride-along canine that kind of does everything with you

1:25:18 You know, shepherds are longer haired and we're in 100 degree weather. And the cool thing about a dog like her, So there's 116 cartel guys out there That's a lot. Yeah. That is so insane. dogs have just saved lives man they have saved phoebe i go into this in the new book especially And, you know, this guy's nose down, and we don't know he's got this weapon.

1:28:56 How many gunfights have you been in? we're requiring game wardens to essentially become something completely different. You know, it was really awesome to, you know. Obama's drug czar addressed a lot of us when my team was starting up and our group was working That's fantastic. that creek back to where those steelhead can run and to the where it's supposed to be we're looking

1:33:09 up trash you're getting dirty um some of these water lines like you saw in the spools and i told you'd see on like a Tohon Ranch. They should do a real job. Yes. and bring in seeds and get their little camouflage system going very small investment to put a grow a grow like there, back there next year, let all the natural growth come back, And we kind of knew that because we were seeing the trend on the ground.

1:36:55 depleted force so you can imagine there was some resistance there was some middle management and we're going to have this many spots and you're going to work straight for And it was really successful. and we know it's not going away anytime soon. They know your operation. And it was from that one where she saved another gunfight from happening. but not a violent guy. You you know he was very candid and

1:39:54 It did. as we can and catch these guys through our dogs, through our tactics, because, you know, We had carbofuran in like 89% or 90% of every grow site we went into on these trespass grows. Yeah, we don't have that in place yet. I mean, the steelhead are federally listed right now, and they're valued at like $20,000 to $30,000 a fish. amazing i'm sure they're gorgeous fish but catching them and shoving a hook in their head

1:42:33 but you got to release them. Yeah. coyote creek that actually went all the way into san jose to the south bay of the ocean If it's banned, we got to basically get a hazmat team to pull it out. dto grow poisons and that and that kind of came to surface about five or six years ago and then It just can't, it can't happen. And they're carry-on feeders, right?

1:46:23 type of raptors or you know carry-on feeders can get to. As gross as they are. You know? cannot manage them because we've already developed so much and taken so much wild space right and to preserve these wild lands and keep these animals alive and when you tell that to animal They had been extirpated. and they would sell that food But I mean, that was the case with antelope and deer

1:49:35 one thing we have in this this state especially is we have some of the best tule elk on the planet Just cause limited numbers. Alameda County the year before and could never get to any access to harvest his elk. So I get a call was too old to do it with this tag and we had four generations there joe it was great we had End of the day, he gets this bull.

1:52:01 and she had been hunting with her dad deer antelope doing her thing I mean, it was excellent, you know? Delicious. right because we have these big population centers like san francisco and los angeles and most people It's just, it's a, it's a different vibe, you know, and that's. And then the population numbers are low and there's so much rural area.

1:54:21 I had the kids looking out the window. See a hundred. And it's funny you mention your kids because I see it with the nieces and nephews you know and all the all the youth i Yeah. I mean, they're promoting it, you know, they're, you know, flashing on their Instagram page. And I went, that's badass. So that's a blessing, and that's awesome. I feel it.

1:57:46 Has it changed policy? That's the third part of my approach is protect, that's like that, it's called Planet Cannabis Entertainment Network, We're going to get to tell an objective story, not biased. So this is going to be a cool process. you for sharing this story too because if i had not listened to that steve ranella show i would And I, out of my world previously so thank you for what you're doing and this will be really cool because

2:01:08 it is on Instagram copy of the book or they have questions, We're working on it, man. long-range rifle company out of idaho they're just amazing and my partner terry hewn and i are running And these groups are, it's not only about good product, you know, So it was really, you know, it didn't seem like the right fit when you look at it from the outside, but it was perfect.

2:03:44 None at all. Really appreciate it, Joe.