until you figure out what's wrong with the parts that are underlined, don't give up your day job.
1. trust your gut. your fight-or-flight instincts are hardwired into your reptilian brain (ie. the ancient, survival-oriented part) which makes them more dependable than you might think.
2. don't go behind *anything that ain't yours to do business. remember the random fuck factor: even if these guys hadn't jacked you, some random might've popped their head out a window at a bad time and you all risk exposure.
3. don't show up with the product to a first meeting. if it turns into a first meeting and it wasn't supposed to be, LEAVE. *NOW*. or if a buddy you haven't seen in a LONG time suddenly shows up with a too-good-to-be-true deal. remember the movie "BLOW".
4. don't deal with anybody you'd have reason to mistrust afterwards if shit goes down. think about it: if your friend *really didn't know what was going on, he should, by all rights, be even MORE pissed off than you are right now. they jacked *you and that may seem bad enough but they made *him look like the guy that set one of his friends up to *get jacked (we have names for those types around here - none of them complimentary). on a street cred level i'd much rather seem like an easy mark than a fucking rat. easy marks get jacked (but they wanna keep you alive so they can keep jacking you). rats get disappeared. big difference. if these guys, as your friend's "friends", hung him out to dry like that and he's kinda okay about that, take it as a good hint that he knew what was what.
5. HOW do you know one of their names? i have a guess... which brings us to....
6. logic dictates that one can't be loyal to both the jackers and the jacked. your friend not telling you where/how to get your money back = not loyal to you. the fact that you know one of your jackers names = not loyal to them. guys like that are like a dog that bites the hand that feeds them: dangerous to be around. best cut loose before he gets you both dead. keep in mind it is fuckers like this who will sell you down the shit river with no paddle to save his own ass.... which might even be what happened to you already. you never know.
7. if you were gonna, you would have by now.