Lydia Bula: Dad, it's Paige...we really need to talk about the most beautiful place you've ever painted

Lydia Bulas is the president of Lydia Bulas & Associates, a firm she has led since 2002, conducting independent reviews of anti-money laundering functions for banks and money services businesses. Her career highlights include playing a crucial role in the investigation that led to the arrest of Pablo Escobar's right-hand man and the first indictment of the Great American Bank of Dade County. Lydia has also received several accolades for her contributions, including a Drug Enforcement Award and two South Florida Impact Awards. She is a graduate of the University of Miami with a BBA in accounting and is a certified anti-money laundering specialist. On this episode of Zoomers 2 Boomers we discuss the fascinating career of criminal investigator Lydia Bulas. We discuss her background growing up in Cuba and fleeing to Miami as a child and how that led her to pursue a law enforcement career with the IRS. Lydia shares some of her most challenging cases over 15 years, including stopping drug-running operations for Pablo Escobar's cartel through an undercover sting. She also gives insights into her experiences with interrogations and going undercover herself to help take down high-level cartel members.  “I saw so many drug addicts in hospitals dying, and I didn't want that for my daughter, so I made an effort to do whatever I could to stop it.” - Lydia Bulas This week on Zoomers 2 BoomersWhat made Lydia decide to pursue a career in law enforcementHow the drug trade is different today than it was in the 1980sWhether Miami is still ground zero for money launderingSome of the most challenging cases that Lydia worked on and how she and her colleagues helped damage Pablo Escobar’s operationsLydia’s experience acting as an undercover agent, along with other female agents, and how they infiltrated the money laundering gangs How agents hone their interrogation skillsLydia’s role in the operation against Luis Javier Castano-Ochoa,  a lawyer and politician believed to be the Medellin cartel’s frontmanWhat kind of tactics Lydia used to follow suspects without being detectedHow much evidence they needed to collect before making an arrest, and some examples of when Lydia was able to do that How Lydia’s job impacted on her personal life and her relationships with her familyWhy Lydia would recommend that young people go into law enforcementConnect with Lydia Bulas:Lydia Bulas on LinkedIn The three women who brought down the Medellín cartel Connect with Disarming Data: Paige Biderman on LinkedIn David Biderman on LinkedIn