Ep 89 – George Floyd’s Murder Was A Hit I realized that the facts did not add up, especially when I learned that the two men knew each other and had worked together at the same nightclub. Listed below are my notes for the podcast. Please do your homework and see if you come to the same conclusion. SUMMARY 1. George Floyd, a black man whose death Monday sparked ongoing protests, and Derek Chauvin, identified by local media as the officer who was videotaped kneeling on Floyd’s neck for minutes shortly before his death, worked at the same nightclub Maya Santamaria owned El Nuevo Rodeo Club in Minneapolis’ south side until selling it just months ago, and confirmed to local media outlets that both Floyd and Chauvin worked security at the establishment. Chauvin worked outside the club while security guards, like Floyd, worked inside. They had overlapping shifts. They had to have known each other. El Nuevo Rodeo Club, where Chauvin and Floyd both worked, is just down the street from Minneapolis’ Third Precinct. 2. Chauvin married a Hmong woman, and two other arresting officers are of Hmong descent. 3. Hmong Gangs are very active in the Northeast, including the gang Menace of Destruction (MOD). MOD is known for prostitution, drugs, and counterfeiting. 4. Despite having Chauvin as off-duty security outside the club, the police could never solve the crimes or connect the suspects to El Nuevo Rodeo Club activity. 5. In 2012, the FBI busted a drug ring that involved the Mexican gang La Familia (also known for drugs and counterfeiting) and the Hmong gang Menace of Destruction. The ring involved the selling of methamphetamine, a “Club Drug” being pushed by Mexican cartels. EL NUEVO RODEO CLUB – MAY HAVE BEEN GROUND ZERO FOR COUNTERFEITING. Owned by Maya Santamaria, a singer, waitress, and music promoter with a degree in anthropology. The city is pushing to shut down the Rodeo. The nightclub's future lies in the hands of a judge who is deciding whether to recommend that the City Council yank its liquor license. In 2006, the club got slapped with fines for violating city code: It had hosted more people than the fire code allowed, had advertised as a nightclub when it was licensed as a restaurant/nightclub, and was Questioned about selling more alcohol than food (the liquor license requires that 60 percent of sales be food). That December, city officials convened to determine whether El Nuevo Rodeo's liquor license should be renewed. Santamaria agreed to submit her food and alcohol receipts for the next year. In April 2008, three people were shot outside of Denny's, right across the street from the nightclub. A story in the Longfellow/Nokomis Messenger connected the shooting to nightclub patrons, though police were never able to prove it. On November 14, 2008 there were multiple police calls associated with the nightclub. Incidents ranged from shots fired (almost an officer-involved shooting), to several felony assaults (on patrons and staff), to numerous misdemeanors (obstructing, disorderly conduct, assault, theft The city compiled its case against the nightclub: a stack of 28 police call reports from 2008 and six from 2009. The city attorney on the case described the business as having "an inordinately high number of incidents of criminal behavior." DEREK CHAUVIN – MAY HAVE BEEN IN HMONG GANG Records show that the 44-year-old Chauvin initially studied cooking before taking courses in law enforcement and doing two stints in the Army as a military police officer in the late 1990s, serving at Fort Benning, Georgia, and in Germany. Chauvin became a Minneapolis police officer in 2001. He had 17 complaints against him, including one for pulling a woman out of her car during a speeding stop. He won two medals of valor, one in 2006 for being part of a group of officers who opened fire on a stabbing suspect who pointed a shotgun at them and another in 2008 for a domestic violence incident in which Chauvin broke down a bathroom door and shot a suspect in the stomach. Married to Kellie Chauvin, a Laotian immigrant who became the first Hmong winner of the Mrs. Minnesota pageant. In 2009, he single-handedly apprehended a group of gang members while working as an off-duty security guard at the El Nuevo Rodeo, a Minneapolis nightclub. (Chauvin shoots most suspects but apprehends an entire gang BY HIMSELF. This does not add up). HMONG GANGS IN MINNEAPOLIS - MENACE OF DESTRUCTION" (MOD), FORMERLY KNOWN AS "MASTERS OF DESTRUCTION – LINKED TO “CLUB DRUGS” AND COUNTERFEITING is a Hmong street gang created in 1988. Today, it is active in every state, with a large Hmong community in California, the Midwestern United States, known for prostitution, money laundering, the distribution of narcotics, and counterfeiting. A national drug ring based in Twin Cities was busted after months of surveillance and wiretaps in March 2012. The cartel La Familia ...