Transcript of I Was a Pirate for Halloween Once | 4

Afghanistan felt like really far out there to me. I was like, Where's this coming from? Candice literally thought she could talk her way into Afghanistan when the Taliban was taking over. They bought a lot of weapons. There was lots of guns and money.

When I saw that duffle bag with that M4 in it, at that moment, we were in trouble. I've never been in a situation that my literal life flashed before my eyes. I didn't think I was ever going to outlive that.

This is Unicorn Girl, an Apple original podcast, produced by Seven Hills, hosted and executive-produced by me, Charlie Webster. Candice Rivera was starting to get a name for herself. She won the 100 Women Who Care Impact Award in Utah Valley, partnered with local TV station, KUTV, and she even started to give keynote speeches about her work, including this one at Brigham Young University.

My name is Candice Rivera.

One of the biggest things that I realized when I became an anti-trafficking abolitionist is that it had nothing to do with carrying an AR-15, wearing a cape, or knocking down a door somewhere in a Columbian jungle.

Candice may not have been working in the Columbian jungle, but her anti-human trafficking nonprofit, Exitus, was now well-established in Utah. Its logo was even flying high at the top of Mount Everest. It was 2021, and Exitus had been for a year now. Their tagline?

I exodus our motto is, We see you, we hear you, and we're coming for you.

Candice's life was getting so busy that just writing in the For the Love book group couldn't possibly cover everything that was going on, so she upped the ante. She started doing Facebook Lies for her book group besties.

I just was sitting here thinking about you all. You're just part of my heart, so I just I'm not going to talk to anyone. I'm talking to you guys.

This one was 17 minutes long and covered everything, from her recent award win to dating, clogged toilets, and imposter syndrome. The videos you hear throughout the episode are the actual videos Candice posted online.

I did just win the 100 women who impact still... Is it dating when you're in your 30s? It sounds like juvenile. My teenager called me on the phone and was like, Mom, you didn't flush the toilet? And it's really gross. And now it's clogged. The last 12 pounds last month. I'm just a hot mess with my Telemundo red neck ex-husband. God's really been talking to me a lot about being worthy and how imposter syndrome is just a tactic by the enemy.

With all the life updates out of the way, Candice had a big request for the women.

I need prayer.

We need people to pray.

Candice then revealed the next big thing Exitus was going to be a part of. And yes, this was all in the same Facebook Live.

Exitus has a really unique opportunity to help evacuate from Afghanistan individuals. And we've been working nonstop since Monday evening.

Exitus was going international in a way that was a bit of a shock for everyone in Candice's life, including her assistant, Aura.

The first big operation that I was a part of was in August 2021, and Candice approached me and said that the government had reached out to her and wanted her to go in and save individuals on the Taliban hitlist.

In August 2021, the US pulled their troops out of Afghanistan after 20 years of occupation. As they were withdrawing, the Taliban violently overthrew the government, shocking the world. They captured the capital, Kabul, and regained control of the country at a speed no one saw coming, causing widespread panic. There was a chaotic evacuation to get people out. The lives of countless Afghans who had worked alongside US and Allied forces, translators, security personnel, and government workers were now in danger under Taliban rule. In the midst of all this, Candice jumped into action. She said, Where there's chaos, there's human trafficking.

It was this built-up, I was asked by Hillary Clinton to get people out. Yeah, that one felt really left field.

Candice had told Aura that the US government approached her to get people out of Afghanistan. But she told her Mops bestie, Danielle, that it was Hillary Clinton who made the request. Either way, Candice was going to Afghanistan. She announced it on Exeter social media and was flattered with requests from those who were desperately trying to find a way to get out. Candice said she had the ability to rescue 300 people. One of the requests was from a woman called Anna. Her and Candice knew each other way back when from high school. Anna is not her real name. We've changed it due to the sensitive nature of her work. Anna has spent years in the humanitarian field working with Afghans who are now hiding from the Taliban.

I made a deal. I will help you out to the best of my ability and do everything I can to help this be successful. Will you take extra people? I have people that need to get out. That was the start button of what became a almost 24/7 for the next three weeks of trying to work on this project, Afghanistan.

Candice made a promise she would rescue Anna's people that were in hiding in Afghanistan. Candice started to put together a team that could pull this operation off. Her assistant, Aura, was in charge of the logistics.

I bought flights for the team. I had them write down what weapons they brought with them and their qualifications to go into a warzone, and I was blown away.

It wasn't just any old team. It was 10 Black Ops agents who flew in from all over the country. This sounded pretty bizarre to me. I had so many questions. Why does Candice need a Black Ops team to go on a humanitarian mission? And were these people really highly trained killers? Well, I got access to the operation documents, and it was called Operation Captain Morgan, like the spiced rum. There was an ex-Navy SEAL, a trained sniper, tactical helicopter shooter, and former Special Forces officers. We checked every single person out and verified they were all real.

The team combined had a total of at least 145 years of military experience.

We wanted I wanted to speak to one of these Black Ops specialists that Candice pulled together, but the nature of their work means that almost no one would talk on the record. But there was one person who would talk to us, Lisa. We can't tell you exactly what Lisa does for security reasons. But put it this way, when I sat in her office, there were knives on her desk, and not kitchen knives, a rifle propped up against the wall, and a live-size dummy wearing a bulletproof vest. Lisa has never spoken on the record about any operation she's been a part of before, but felt she couldn't stay quiet about this one with Candice. Lisa told me when I first spoke to her that what happened still haunt her. We sat in her office on the very couch where the entire thing started.

Afghanistan happened right on this couch, literally sitting right here. Candice got a call from somebody that was very well-funded, but going there under the banner of a humanitarian aid thing. But at the same time, let's get these guys who helped our men and women in Afghanistan that kept the landing strips safe and the interpreters and all those Afghans that we left there. So I'm like, Yeah, I mean, most of my friends are dead and they were killed over there. I'm not going to let this go. So I'm in, whatever. That's how we all felt.

The pull out from Afghanistan was so quick and emotions were heightened for so many veterans because the locals they'd fought with and become friends with were now trapped. There was a rush to do something, anything to get these people out. It's a threat. Candice promised Lisa and the rest of the Black Ops team that they would rescue those that America had left behind, as well as all the people she'd told Anna she would save. So the Black Ops team set up base camp in Candice's living room. First order of business, buy a load of guns and other tactical gear.

They started spending money, and they would just disappear during the day and start buying gear. They got helmets and radios and assault rifles and new electronics and just filled the house. I mean, one to the next. This was Candice's house. There were probably five guns just by Candice's feet when she was talking, to the point where I couldn't sit on the couch without scooting them aside to have a place to sit. You were walking on tiptoes around rifles.

Aura's 19-year-old daughter, Bayly, had started volunteering with Exitus and had come around to Candice's house to help her mom.

I was just walking around the living room, looking around like, Oh, my gosh, what is going on here? And then I just kept walking and I walked into the kitchen and there's a bag on the counter and it was just full of cash. And I was told that they sold out almost like all the gun stores in Utah.

I saw all of the ammunition.

Matt, Candice's bestie in Exeter's marketing guy.

In fact, I helped take tally of all the ammunition with one of the operators in the garage. I saw all of it.

Can you give us an idea of how much there was? I can't. There's that many. We had an armory.

The whole back wall of her garage was covered in armory things, whether it be ammo, whether it be Vests, guns.

It was a site that I can't even describe of how many guns.

A lot of ARs.

Most of them were ARs.

There was a lot of Glocks.

All the gear total, there a million dollars worth for sure.

There's no doubt in my mind. I've seen pictures and videos of all the guns lined up throughout Candice's house. I asked Lisa why they would need guns. Why would there be a collection of guns if you're going on a humanitarian mission?

This was going on a humanitarian issue, but it's a tactical mission to get the nationals who helped our military.

How are we going to get the guns passed inside of them?

We figured that there would be some setup where we'd be able to do all that.

The second order of business for the Black Ops team, find a way to make this work. Aura told us about how chaotic everything was.

It was terrifying because the more people came in, the more weapons that were in this house, the closer she got to the operation, the more people we were talking to, the crazier she got, and the more it seemed like she had no idea what she was doing. So I was trusting the team at this time more than I was trusting her. We would have a plan, and it would have changed. And we would have a plan, and it would change. We had a volunteer attorney come in and help them figure out their wills. A lot of times, I didn't understand what she was asking because this isn't my world. How's a former housewife just going to step into a military operation and know what they're saying. But she expected me to know, and she would introduce me as the person running the operation from Utah. Or knows what to do, or knows what to do. And so I'm frantically doing everything I can to figure out what's going on.

Candice said the US State Department and CIA gave her permission to charter a plane to Afghanistan. But getting there was only half the battle. She also needed to figure out where the people were going to go once she got them out of Afghanistan. Candice seemed to know everyone. So through a contact of hers in the Utah nonprofit scene, she solved the problem. She managed to get access to an unused student housing compound in South Africa to use as temporary housing. All she needed was permission from the South African government and a couple of million to chart her a plane. Thankfully, God was on Candice's side, or at least that's what she told her for the Love Book Group besties in another video she posted. Here's what she said.

I asked God for $500,000 to save 25 people. As of 3: 00 AM this morning, God had told me no, and he said, I'm not going to give you $500,000 to save 25 people. I'm going to give you $2 million to save I believe, over 400 people. And it's been confirmed just now. I just have to come to people that always support me. You guys always support me, and I just have to say thank you.

Candice secured the money. It came from a guy called Dan Laguna, a retired Green Beret and Special Forces pilot who was part of the Black Hawk Down rescue mission, Operation Desert Storm. He was in Utah hanging out with the Black Ops team, though Candice said there was someone else who also gave money, Hillary Clinton.

Candice said Hillary Clinton was one of the people that promised us a million dollars. And I was just floored. I'm like, Well, I guess that makes sense. Hillary Clinton would know the right people.

With the plane secured, Candice told Anna to tell her people who were hiding out from the Taliban in Afghanistan that they needed to run, get to the airport in Kabul by any means necessary and quickly. Candice was on a plane and was coming to pick them up. Anna relayed Candice's message.

They would be in Kabul really shortly. We're on our way. We are going to fly you to safety in South Africa. This area is now the Taliban are trying to take over this region. And so our folks are trying to navigate active civil war taking place between this terrorist organization and the nationals, in addition to trying to figure out what is the safe route out. And Taliban checkpoints were popping up left and right. You just didn't know from in a second to the next. So you have people that are trying to determine, how do I protect my family and get somewhere, knowing that I have a target on my head. And then communication conversation from Candice and her team went silent.

Anna's people in Afghanistan made it to the airport, anxiously waiting for Candice to arrive while battling through the thousands and thousands also trying to escape. But Candice wasn't there, and she was unresponsive. Where was she?

It's birthday week. I had to go to my birthday fundraiser tonight.

Even though she told Anna she was on her way, Candice wasn't on a plane. She was actually at her favorite place in Utah, the trendy brunch spot Sunday's Best, celebrating her birthday.

Donations are greatly needed. You can do that on the website. Let's make sure other people get to celebrate another birthday, too.

These are Candice's posts taken from her social media, and they're read by Emmy Jory. While people in Afghanistan were fleeing the Taliban, Candice Candice was in Utah sitting under a giant neon sign that says, Brunch Me Hard, celebrating her birthday with the Black Ops and Exeter's teams and her besties. Anna had been frantically trying to get in contact with Candice. Now that her birthday party was out of the way, Candice finally answered the phone. She told Anna she hadn't even left Utah. Anna was furious. She had to break the news to her people who were waiting at Kabul Airport that Candice was not on her way.

I'm telling people, get to safety. We'll be in contact as soon as we figure out something. It was madness, and it was so disgusting just to see what we were doing with these people.

It makes me think of those images that were all over the news. Mothers so desperate to save their children, they were lifting them in the air, handing them over to anyone who could get them to safety. These were real people that thought Candice was coming to save them.

They started getting nervous about, who really is this tactile team and are they truly qualified? Or is this just GI Joe kids thinking that they can go be American warriors, jumping into a country that don't know anything and get themselves and everybody else killed?

The tactile team was at Candice's house with Candice, Aura, and the guns.

We sat down at a table as a team, and two men on the team took off in the night because they're like, This woman is crazy. Her plan is crazy. And they disappeared. Candice is crying. I'm crying. And we hear her call people, saying that they can't save them. And then the next day, Candice was happy again. She was like, You know what? We're going anyways. And so plan was back on. I didn't question it because I didn't understand it. And I just said, You know what? If you believe this will work, I'm trusting you. But I also thought she was acting crazy. I really felt Candice has her head in the clouds, and And she is so desperate to make this work that she doesn't see reality. So I was terrified.

Candice had told everyone that the South African government gave her permission to bring refugees into the country, and she really did manage to get a request to the desk of the President of South Africa. Crazy, right? When he read the request, he denied it. But when Candice found out, she didn't tell anyone. So the team just carried on preparing with no clue that there were no permissions in place. Candice had come up with a new way to make it work, even without permissions. It was so bold and so risky, she just couldn't keep it to herself. Though she told everyone it was just a backup plan.

She would be responsible or held accountable for trafficking.

Yeah, her so-called backup plan was to just do it anyway. Candice was going to illegally smuggle the refugees into South Africa and then get herself arrested on human trafficking charges. Strange for the head of an anti-human trafficking organization.

She went in saying, What happens in South Africa if you're trafficking is 10 years in prison. She says, I'm going to do this anyway, knowing I might go to jail for 10 years. All of a sudden, she became the hero. We were all in awe, complete awe of her. But then also having the conflict in the back of my head of she's a mother. I was conflicted between the feelings of, how is this more important than your kids? And then this is the most heroic thing that she's putting all these people above her family. Really conflicted between those two things. But we all thought she was the bravest person in the world.

Sound familiar? Remember back in episode one when Candice went to Ukraine to help rescue two orphans and missed her court date for custody of her own two boys? Just like back then, Candice explained all to her for the love group. She went live on Facebook for the third time that week. Candice sat on her bed in Utah and spent another 17 minutes revealing her plan to be arrested on smuggling charges and saying goodbye to her friends who she may not see for 10 years. This is the audio of Candice from that life.

I'm about to get on a plane. We leave at around noon in Utah time, and I will escort multiple individuals across a country border. I will be charged with international smuggling, and I will take the fall for that. To be Jesus to these people, it was just an amazing opportunity. I don't want to die. I don't want to spend 10 years in prison, and I know those are both very I'm in very big risks. I definitely am seeing our mission statement firsthand. We saw them, we heard them, and we're coming. I'm going to be charged with international smuggling. That's actually really cool. It's like a pirate. I don't like pirates. I was a pirate for Halloween once, and it was really cute. Gosh, my hair has never been more gross. I have a really cool scarf that I'm wearing the whole time. So, anyways. Okay, well, I'm going. I may not see you for 10 years. I love you all dearly, and just be praying for us. I'll update you when I can.

She was going to be the sacrificial lamb that was arrested for trafficking these refugees. So I'm sitting here going, You were going to do what? She's talking about her kids of, This is one of the things that's delaying her. She has her kids this week. And I'm like, So you're going to fly around the world. You're going to get arrested. And what about your children? Your own very children? At which point she said, But it's worth saving the lives of all these people. And one day my children will be thankful that I did this.

This was now seven days after Candice originally said she was on a plane to rescue Anna's people in Afghanistan. Seven days they've been hiding from the Taliban, waiting for Candice to come. Now, Candice was finally getting on a plane, but it wasn't a plane that could fit 300 people, the amount she'd promised to rescue. It was a small private plane that could only fit 14. And it wasn't even going to Afghanistan. It was only going to Dubai, a three-hour flight away from Afghanistan. Candice said they would figure it out from there. But going to Dubai meant the armory of guns couldn't come with them.

Candice was like, Guys, we can't be armed. And so they frantically started moving all the equipment out of the house.

All of the guns disappeared rapidly, except for one that Aura saw inside a long army green rifle bag.

I remember seeing this bag on the floor, I think it was green, that had rifles in it. I'm thinking, I thought they could go in armed. Candice is like, Yeah, nobody will be armed. Everyone was terrified, of course, going in without their weapons. But everyone was still willing to do it. So morning comes. I go to the house early that morning to see, Are we ready to go? No one's packed. No one has even packed their bags. So they frantzuly gathered their things, and we got in Candice's Escalade and jam-packed the team in there. Candice was going probably 120 down the freeway. Nobody had their seatbelts on. I was like, this is how I'm going to die. Because Candice is a really scary driver as it is. So she's getting ready in the mirror, going like 120. But we made it to the Provo Airport, and we started unloading the stuff on the plane. And I pick up this big backpack, put it on my back, walk it up in the plane and set it down. And Candice was like, Do you know what was in there? And I was like, No. She's like, That was $50,000 in cash.

What was your reaction to that?

Just totally shocked. It made me feel icky.

Candice's mops bestie, Danielle, also popped by to see Candice off.

I'm like, This little private airplane is so cool. So we're star struck over this little private jet that they've got going. But yeah, then we're just... The pilot is really like, We got to go, we got to go. It's too hot. We're not supposed to be taking off when it's this hot. Like, your people need to get in this plane and go. So then it's just throwing bags into the plane. Like, he opens up the hatch at the bottom. Bags in plane, bags in plane. Candice is like, I want a picture. We need one more picture. So the pilot is just so irked. And finally, we get the picture, and they get on the plane. Candice had my face in her hands and started crying. And I was crying. And she's like, Exodus is yours. She's like, I might not come back. This is now on you to take over. She took off and had no idea what to do. We're supposed to save all these lives, and I'm going to ruin all of it because I don't know what I'm doing. Aura and I hug as it flies away. And then Aura and I were like, Gosh, I hope they make it back.

I mean, these people are no offense and I don't mean to condescend, or maybe I do, but obviously, they've never been on a private plane before. I've been on lots and lots and lots. That's not a big deal for me. I was embarrassed because Candice, we had all these fucking Walmart bags, plastic Walmart bags of feminine protection things, toilet, just all these bags. Go get duffle bags, at least. Have some class. I was just horrified by the whole thing.

Lisa from The Black Ops team was on the private plane heading to Dubai, surrounded by Walmart bags of donated supplies. But hidden amongst them was one more bag, a long army green one that truly horrified Lisa.

I recognized I saw it, and this is something that will haunt me till the day I die. When I went back there and used the lave and saw that, I was just sick.

That bag had a rifle in it, an M4 Army rifle, as well as what Lisa calls a full operator's kit. Thermals, night vision goggles, and armor. Lisa found out it was riding with them at 30,000 feet.

And I couldn't do anything about it. I was just sick the whole time because we can't open the door and pitch the thing. There's nothing we could do. Surrounded by all these Walmart bags, but I'm just staring at that fucking duffle bag because I know what's in there.

Lisa just had to sit there and wait to see what would happen when they landed. After a 16-hour plane ride, the team landed in Dubai, which is notorious for its strict regulations and zero tolerance. There was a nervous wait to go through security.

As that bag was going through the detector, and then they opened it up. I've never been in this situation that my literal life flashed before my eyes because we're in by. And here we are representing America at a very bad time for America with a rifle and all its components. I've never felt that feeling again, and I never want to ever, ever, ever feel it again. And then we are all shuffled into a room. Candice is taken away. She used the phrase, I am untouchable. I thought I would be I mean, I thought we were going to prison.

The Black Ops team was detained in Dubai, and Candice was taken away for questioning. But she still managed to tweak out an update to the For the Love Book group.

Pray, pray, pray. Currently being detained in Dubai. Hopefully, we'll talk out of it. Good news, free WiFi. Bad news, detainment is possible. Love you all.

Somehow, After 6 hours, Candice convinced the authorities to let everyone go.

Update. After 6 hours of interrogation, we are out.

She even secretly recorded the interrogation under the table. She showed the video to Lisa and the rest of the Black Ops team.

She was very proud of herself.

They all checked into a five-star hotel in Dubai. Candice had a room to herself, but everyone else had to share. Candice and her project manager, a guy called Dutch, who was an ex-Navy seal, sat in the hotel lobby together. Candice in her long black cardigan and Haviana flip flops, Dutch in blue shorts and wearing a tactical vest. Lisa thought they were planning their next move, but they were actually on FaceTime.

He's on the phone in the lobby of the hotel. We're going to be FaceTiming these people that we're trying to get out. We're coming to get you. Don't worry. Yelling in a public in a Marriott lobby. Facetiming these poor these families that we've promised to save.

The Black Ops team sat in the hotel for days waiting for Candice to find a way into Afghanistan. They were getting agitated. Nothing Candice was promising was materializing. She finally had to come clean to them. She told them that the South African President had denied the refuge WG request. And in fact, she didn't actually have any permissions in place. She never got permission from the US State Department or the CIA. Neither the US government nor Hillary Clinton asked her to help out. Hillary didn't pay any money. Candice never even spoke to her.

Those of us on that plane assumed that all these permissions and paperwork had been taken care of via the State Department. You can't just drop in to whatever country you want and do what you want to do. It was clear that Candice and Dutch are fucked. We had zero permission.

With nothing in place, In her voice, Candice went to the extreme of going on South African TV, begging from a hotel room in Dubai for the South African government to let her list of refugees in.

A lot of these individuals are high-priority individuals that have been allies to the UK, America, and they're individuals that are not safe. They will be killed.

Will you try and keep negotiations ongoing at a high level with the South African government to try and resolve the situation?

Absolutely. I'm asking right now for them to rethink their decision so that we can bring these people. They're waiting, and we need to do everything we can to get these individuals to safety. All we need is a landing certificate for them to land in South Africa so we can take care of them and get them to where they need to go.

That was Candice on E-News, South Africa's most watched TV news channel, although she told everyone it was the BBC. The TV plea didn't work. Candice would have to find a different way. And with no way to get into Afghanistan, her backup plan to illegally smuggle people wasn't going to work either. On her own back in Utah, Aura was scrambling to find a way to get the refugees waiting on Candice and the Exeter's team out.

Every time I was tasked with something, it was, Do this by this time or everyone dies. And at one time, Candice contacted me and said, We don't have this many green cards. It's 20 something green cards. And I was told, if you don't have these within the 24 hours, they will all die. Where do I go to find green cards? How do I find green cards for people I don't know exist? I don't have their names. It was just, Hey, we need 20 green cards in a day or they will die. Get it done.

An impossible task for Aura. You can't get one US permanent residency card in a day, let alone 20 of them.

I just felt the responsibility of these people lives, and there was nothing I could do about it. I also kept hearing stories about the people waiting for us because we told them we're coming. We said, be here by this time and run for your lives. And they left with their families and waited. Like, literally sat in hiding, waiting for us to come, and we didn't come.

As all this was happening, Candice was still in regular contact with her besties in the For the Love book group, although what she told them was going on was a little different. This is one of Candice's book group besties.

She said they landed in and they were trying to get all of the paperwork ready, and they were just waiting on the okay to get into Afghanistan. She said they needed to have enough money to bribe the officials at different checkpoints, and they needed safety guaranteed when they got them out. And in order to guarantee that safety, she met with the former general in the tele Leban that was no longer in Afghanistan. And in order to meet with him, they needed to give him a bribe. He is fascinated with Texas culture and with cowboys. And he said he's never had a belt buckle and really wanted a belt buckle.

Texas belt buckles are no ordinary belt buckles. They're big, usually made of precious metals and off family heirlooms, passed down from generation to generation.

And so I and a group of my friends that have been praying every day that she was there, we left and went on search for a belt buckle and ended up finding one from a woman that really felt like she was supposed to give it to help the Afghan refugees.

It was gold with red stones on it.

It was beautiful. And it was the only heirloom she had of her grandfather's. And we had to overnight it to Candice, and we got it to her in Dubai, and she sent us a picture of it in the briefcase with the crown for the general's daughter, which was the princess. And all of that it was going to be a gift in order to get safe passage for these refugees to come out of Afghanistan. Candice, for a few days, was in Afghanistan. She said they were stopped by ISIS. They were held and detained in Afghanistan. At one point, the group was all hold up in one apartment. They were all fighting about what they were to do next. And she said they had a knock at the door, and nobody wanted to open the door. So she went over and opened the door, and it was a man fully clothed in black to where only the eyes were showing. And he asked her if she believed in Jesus. And at that point, she felt like this was God telling her that she needed to either profess her belief in him and be prepared to die or lie.

And so she professed her belief in Jesus, and he said, Good, then follow me, and took them out and led them to freedom from that area. She said they all ended up getting out of Afghanistan without any of the Special Ops team dying or getting injured or hurt.

It was true. None of the Special the Lops team died or were injured or hurt, but that's because they were never in Afghanistan in the first place. While Candice was telling the For the Love group she was in Afghanistan, she was actually sitting in Dubai in a comfy Marriott hotel room with Lisa and the rest of the Black Ops team. She was even sending pictures of her lobster and steak dinners to her new boyfriend back home.

Every day, you just watch their soul deplete, and you watched them drink so much. I didn't drink. I'm not judging them, but alcohol really doesn't help the mental capacity. And we were just being lied to and gaslit. And every single day, the stories were more ridiculous. Candice and Dutch would have this plan of what we're going to do next. And I said, You're out of your fucking minds. Why are we moving this goalpost every time something happens? We are lied to. We are presented with these ridiculous plans. I'm just watching everybody psychologically just start to lose it. And then the ranger was like, I've been in some really fucked up situations. I've never been in a situation like this before. Candice Dutch, they went Rolex shopping, and they were all wearing Rolexes. And I said, Are you fucking kidding me? This was so beyond my scope of what's acceptable. One of the days we went shopping, I see Candice's door open and housekeeping is in there. I walk in. She has a lot of cash, 300 grand, as far as my eyes could see. I open the closet that has the safe. The safe isn't even locked.

This is her level of security.

This is our leader who is supposedly dealing with the heads of all these countries and getting permissions.

I have a picture that Lisa took at the time of the safe in Candice's hotel room. It looks like something out of a gangster movie. On top of piles and piles of $100 notes are three diamond-encrusted Rolexes, plus the gold and ruby belt and Princess Crown that Candice told the book group about. We know the Crown ended up with Candice in Utah, not with a princess. As for the belt buckle, Candice told Lisa she had given a Taliban general a belt buckle, although she had said it was her own grandfather's. Meanwhile, Anna was desperate for updates on the people she was trying to get out of Afghanistan. It was relentless trying to communicate back and forth. Anna was starting to panic about Candice's ability to deliver. She had people's lives in her hands.

Candice was sitting forever in Dubai, and anytime you asked her, We're working on it. We're doing this. We're doing that. We're going to be boots on the ground. We're going to go in and all this stuff, and you're just in there, Stop already. Be real. What in the heck is going on? She says, They all went out to the club last night because they needed to blow off steam. What the actual is going on there? Because are you kidding me right now? At one point, she tells me she needed some retail therapy. So she goes shopping a Burberry and gets a cashmere wool scarf to wear in a desert, which just makes no sense. That was when I had had enough.

That That was the breaking point for Anna. She cut off contact with Candice and got in touch with another organization who were on the ground in Afghanistan to help. They managed to get a family of seven across the border to Pakistan. But most of the people Anna was trying to save are unaccounted for.

And I will forever wonder, are these folks alive? Was any of this worth it?

The final thing was that Newsweek article.

The Black Ops team have been in Dubai for a week now, trying to figure out what to do. An article published by Newsweek popped up on their feeds. It was about them. I have the article right here. It says, Seven armed United States civilians attempting to make their to Afghanistan were arrested on August 31st. The FBI is aware of the matter but has no further comment at this time. Vice Chair of the Committee on Homeland Security said the Department of Justice must investigate who these people are and what ties do these individuals have to extremism here at home. For Lisa, that was the final straw.

I said, Okay, we're leaving tomorrow. I'm going to call the concierge, and we're leaving. We all get on this plane to Qatar, Atlanta, and then Salt Lake. I called my attorney and I said, Please meet me at the airport because I think I'm going to get arrested. I really felt we were done.

So we didn't.

We all went to my house, drank a lot. I encouraged the rest of the group to just, Don't talk about this with Don't think about it. Just try to decompress.

That's exactly what happened. When the Black Ops team got back from Dubai, they never spoke to anyone about what happened there. In their minds, this was never to be spoken about again. Even Aura didn't know what actually went down.

Candice never talked to me about what happened in Dubai. I later asked her a lot of questions about what happened there. Then she would say, We can't talk about it because we all have PTSD. They all went skydiving after thinking that that would help their trauma. I would bring it up here and there, but she would never gave me answers.

Candice made it seem like the Afghanistan mission was a huge success on social media. She posted a picture on Facebook of a group of young children in Afghanistan crammed together in a beat-up truck and wrote, The last three For three months, I have slept maybe six hours total.

I came home from the Afghanistan operation to be a mom.

However, working in four time zones has been so hard.

I am praising God that we have evacuated near 1,000 people, and now I may be able to sleep.

Yeah, even though Candice only ever claimed to be rescuing 300 people, she said she actually evacuated near 1,000 from Afghanistan.

Candice would just say that we saved people. There's story after story after story that I heard that I have no idea is true. I have no idea if there's people still waiting that didn't hear from our contacts, that never heard from Candice. And to this day, I have no idea. No idea what How many of these people?

I don't know if people died.

I don't know how long they waited. And then Candice put on social media that we saved thousands of people.

Aura isn't the only one who, to this day, doesn't know what actually happened during the Afghanistan operation. Candice's beloved For the Love Book Group, who she was keeping updated the whole time, were told many stories about her being on the ground in Afghanistan, actively working to help refugees escape.

Came out of Afghanistan, sharing the news of rescuing. Sometimes I hired 800 refugees. I think she posted at one point in time, 1,000 refugees, and everyone believed that that's how many got out.

She talked about how someone had broken their leg and they were having trouble moving through the mountains. They had to make deals with rebel fighters. They had to pay more money to the Taliban. Someone got a bullet wound to the jaw. 269 people across the border, 600 to go. Just so many dramatic details of live updates. This is what's This is what's happening five days later of this huge mission. It was incredible to know someone who is doing something of such massive scale.

One thing we know for certain, Candice never went to Afghanistan. And according to Lisa, Exodus never repatriated any US citizen or any Afghani national.

I don't know what happened. It's just so much to wrap my head around.

Because of the stress Aura was put under and the fact that she couldn't get any answers about Afghanistan after Candice returned, She was questioning her entire friendship with Candice and on the verge of quitting Exitus.

I was at the point of hating Candice because I'm like, How can you be so irresponsible and so flaky and just have your head in the clouds. And she was bragging about how she heard rumors of getting the Nobel Peace Prize for this. And I was so mad that she was talking like that when it was people's lives and just thinking, I cannot work for her any longer. I did not feel the friendship at all anymore. I just wanted out. But then as soon as that was over, there was something else and more people that needed me, real people in front of my face that I could see needing me, and I couldn't walk away. Right after Afghanistan, the war in Ukraine broke out. And once again, Candice came up to me and said, The US government has asked me to go in and save wave the orphans.

Candice is saying, Hey, look, we pulled in some favors with the Moldovan Mafia, right? This is this Moldovan Mafia house that we're going to stay at.

As I scanned my ID, all the sirens went off in the airport. Then they started asking me questions about, Was I ever in Afghanistan or in the Middle East?

And did I ever had guns over in there?

And I'm like, I don't know what you're talking about.

And security came and got me and took me to interrogate me. He wanted to know about Candice.

This has been Unicorn Girl, an Apple original podcast, produced by Seven Hills, and hosted and executive-produced by me, Charlie Webster. Unicorn Girl is produced by me, Charlie Webster, and Jackson McLennon. Original score and theme music by Ryan Sorenson. Editing and sound design by Nico Palela. Assistant producer and fat check-in by Emi Jory. Candice's social media posts are also read by Emi Jory. Mixed by Little Big Room. Additional production support by FunMeter. Follow and listen on Apple Podcasts.