The Fall of El Mayo (2026) s01e02 Episode Script
A Matter of Blood (Un Asunto de Sangre)
DOÑA ANA COUNTY INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT,
NEW MEXICO
JULY 25, 2024
[man 1, in English]
It was a quiet afternoon.
Not a lot going on.
6 MILES NORTH
OF THE MEXICAN BORDER
Not much going on at all.
AIRPORT MANAGER
I was sitting here,
looking out the window,
and, uh, a customs, uh, vehicle came by.
Then another one,
then another one, and then another one.
And then all kinds of other vehicles
started showing up.
[clears throat]
Got me a little… interested,
so I went out and, uh, talked to one
of the customs agents that was there.
And he said there was a VIP coming in.
That was it.
-[radio chatter]
-[intense music playing]
[man 1] The pilot that radioed in,
he was, uh, to the south of the airport.
And his intention was to land
on runway 1-0
and to set up for a right base,
which was a right turn to final.
[indistinct radio chatter]
[man 2] Roger that.
[man 1] And when this airplane
did report in,
we checked the N-number,
and we couldn't see it on the Virtower,
which shows up on our computers.
And so, we were a little…
a little curious about that.
[intriguing music playing]
Came in and landed.
So I went outside
and walked down the road towards the gate.
And there were some people in suits.
FBI, DEA, Border Patrol, Customs…
And I saw a… an individual
come off the airplane.
Shook hands with him, and he went inside.
Then the next one got off and shook hands
with the people in the suits.
And they put his hands
behind his back… in handcuffs.
Yeah, he walked off, shook hands,
and then he just went like this, and…
Then they walked
into the, uh, customs building.
That was it.
[reporter 1, in Spanish]
Good afternoon.
Completely unexpected news.
Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada
has been detained.
-[reporter 2] El Mayo Zambada.
-[reporter 3] El Mayo Zambada.
[López-Dóriga] Mayo Zambada,
seemingly falling from the sky.
The world's most wanted drug trafficker.
[reporter 4] It's sending shockwaves
through Mexico.
Mayo Zambada
had never been arrested before.
[López-Dóriga] Did he turn himself in?
Was he betrayed? Or was he captured?
[reporter 5, in English]
This sounds like the plot
from a movie
or an episode of Breaking Bad.
It's a… it's a huge victory for the US
in their war against the drug cartels.
How did they pull it off?
[reporter 6 on radio, in Spanish]
…questions so far…
We have very little information
from US authorities…
[man 1, in English]
In the middle of nowhere.
A place called Hope, New Mexico,
of all places.
And I get the first alert on my telephone.
Says "Ismael 'El Mayo' Zambada captured."
Once we were able to get here,
I was surprised because the plane
was literally right in front of everybody.
National media, international media.
But that was it. It was just the airplane.
There was nothing else.
[low, somber music playing]
El Mayo had been hiding
in the mountains of Sinaloa for decades.
You don't expect that someday
he lands in an airplane
in Doña Ana County.
That's just, like… It doesn't happen.
[camera shutter clicks]
[low, intense music playing]
Ismael "Mayo" Zambada,
coming off the airplane is…
I don't even know how to say it, you know?
But you could imagine it, no?
For me, clearly, it was like,
"Okay, here's an airplane. What's inside?"
Seeing what we believe, or allege,
could be the last moments
of freedom for Mayo.
What we were looking at
was just extraordinary.
[camera shutter clicks]
Oxygen mask.
Across from that,
there was a bag
with just Mexican junk food.
One of the items
that really just blew my mind
was an Oxxo bag.
And it had just a couple of zip ties,
just kind of peeking out of it.
You know, I was like,
"Okay, this is interesting. You know."
"What do you need zip ties for?"
You get this image of
what are certain things that are props.
What's real and what's not real.
Since that cover that I did,
in many ways, it was ironic
because in that interview
that Julio Scherer did in 2010…
He says in that interview that he's,
you know, protected by his hills,
his… the country where he's…
that's where he's from.
And in the passage, he says that he's…
You know, he didn't trust the sky.
THE GROUND IS GOOD, THE SKY ISN'T.
Also in that interview,
when he's asked
about the possibility of being detained,
he says,
"The traitor has not arrived yet."
[music swells]
TRAITOR
[music fades]
[intense music playing]
THE FALL OF EL MAYO
[tense music playing]
MEXICO CITY
[man, in Spanish] It's rumored
there's a secret passage
between the US embassy
and the Sheraton Hotel.
UNITED STATES
Secret, meaning it has a door,
so you don't have
to go out onto the street.
And we know that the Sheraton Hotel…
That is one of the places
where meetings used to take place
with people from the Mexican government.
We had meetings there too. I mean…
It was normal.
Well, sometimes we saw DEA agents
and agents from all the US agencies there,
at the Sheraton Hotel.
They always asked to meet there.
We had meals, tequila, the whole works.
Nobody trusted anybody.
Public Security and the Federal Police
were infiltrated by Sinaloa Cartel moles.
The Attorney General's Office… Oof.
Moles everywhere. Moles everywhere.
[Calderón] We have a solid commitment
to fight and defeat criminals
in Mexico.
That's what we'll do
to enforce the rule of law.
[in American accent] Goodbye!
[former agent] But… what happened
under Calderón,
was that the Americans offered
training and vetting
to create elite units
that were trained in the US.
The DEA, FBI, even the CIA.
These units were given polygraph tests
and other tests I'd rather not discuss.
They were given a special bonus
to keep them from being corrupted.
Almost all of those units
worked very well. Very well.
For us, our priority…
When I say "us," I mean
the entire government under Calderón…
It was about going after
the real leaders of the Sinaloa Cartel.
El Chapo drew most of the attention.
Especially since he'd escaped before.
Mayo Zambada was enormously important.
I think he's the drug trafficker
who has most corrupted
officials at every level
in the history of Mexico.
He had everyone in his pocket.
And his son,
El Vicentillo, was his main operator.
If we caught him, it would be proof
that the war
on organized crime was working.
And it would prove we weren't in cahoots
with the Sinaloa Cartel.
There was a sense
of teamwork, of partnership,
between the DEA
and other US law enforcement agencies
and the Mexican government.
We are supposed to be partners
in the fight against organized crime.
[Balliet, in English]
This is Sierra and Luna.
As we were picking 'em out,
my daughters were like,
"What are we gonna name the dogs?"
And I was like, "Chapo and Mayo."
And they were like, "No, Dad! No!
That's crazy. No, that's so embarrassing."
I was, uh, unanimously overruled.
[dramatic music playing]
In 2011,
the HSI group in Nogales got a lead
where there was an individual
who was crossing
at the Nogales port of entry
and actually declaring
a shitload of money.
Like hundreds of thousand of dollars
at a time.
There's nothing illegal about doing that.
Suspicious? Absolutely.
They started doing surveillance
on the guy,
and they started seeing that these guys
in Mexico, they wanted to buy planes.
They wanted to buy planes in the States,
export 'em legally to Mexico.
And they ranged from Cessna 210s,
which were like $200,000 to $300,000.
They loved King Airs.
The King Airs were anywhere
from like $400,000 to maybe $700,000.
And then they also liked Citation jets.
Those jets would run
about a million bucks.
So, when the case first started,
we would purchase
the aircraft that they wanted
through an undercover account
and install GPS trackers
and transponders on the planes.
And then we're gonna see where they go.
And it was clear as day.
[crowd clamoring]
[Balliet] They'd take off
from southern Mexico,
land at some clandestine airstrip.
Eight, ten hours later,
you'd see 'em airborne again.
Like, they're pickin' up cocaine.
Once they made it back
to either northern Guatemala
or southern Mexico,
the aircraft was burned on the spot.
They would only use it once.
[man, in Spanish] Fuck!
[loud crash]
[crowd clamoring]
[Balliet, in English] That's a shitload
of money that they're spending on planes.
I remember asking the case agent,
I was like,
"This is a massive logistical operation."
"How do they coordinate it all?"
The agent was like, "Yeah.
They do it all on BlackBerry Messenger."
And I was like… [sighs]
"We should figure out
a way to get up on these guys
and intercept their communications."
[static crackles]
DEA loaned us, I think,
five computer towers,
that we put in this little broom closet
of a wire room that we had in Nogales.
And that was where we started intercepting
the first BlackBerrys.
It was a field day.
THEY'LL SELL ME A TON.
They're not even coding their language.
I HAVE 14 K LEFT OVER
BUT I'LL ALSO PAY PACKERS
AND THE RUNWAY AND GASOLINE AGAIN
CACHINBA SAID
FOR THE 400 KILOS TO FIT EXACTLY
WE'D HAVE TO MAKE
24 PACKAGES OF 5 KILOS
I was shocked that they were actually
sending this over a device.
Normally, they're very coded.
They're disciplined.
They had a level of comfortability
with BlackBerry Messenger
that they just operated and talked.
Not just conversations.
We started intercepting pictures
of just tremendous amounts
of bales of cocaine in jungles.
Pictures of landing strips, poppy fields,
guns, stacks of cash,
all this sort of stuff.
I remember thinking like,
"Who the fuck are we up on right now?"
[line buzzes]
[dialing]
[line ringing]
[Flores] Once we started communicating
with the government,
they said they needed evidence
of the bosses actually doing deals
in the United States.
'Cause they told us that that evidence
would make all the difference in the case
and would help us.
We had to come up with our own ways of
of giving them that information.
[Flores, in Spanish on recording] Hello?
-[man] What's up?
-[Flores] Can you hear?
[tape whirring]
[man] No, but it's okay.
If you can make a payment of $18,500…
[tape whirring]
[man] I can deliver about 600 or 800.
I can do that.
If that's how much you guys owe.
[tape whirring]
[Flores] You gave me 500 the other day.
[tape whirring]
[Flores] Nobody else knows
we're talking.
[Ferrara, in English]
While the twins were cooperating,
there was a clock
that started ticking immediately,
where we knew
we only had a matter of weeks
to gather all this evidence
against the highest levels
of leadership of the Sinaloa Cartel.
It was wildly successful.
-[trafficker, in Spanish] Hey, man.
-[Flores] What's up? How are you?
[trafficker] Good. Nice to talk to you.
How's your brother?
[Flores] Everyone's fine here.
Too bad
I didn't get to see you the other day.
[Ferrara, in English]
They recorded Chapo organizing
a heroin transaction in Chicago,
where we were able to record
two conversations
with Chapo negotiating the price.
-[trafficker, in Spanish] Go ahead.
-[Flores] Can we cut a deal?
Can you knock five pesos off the price?
-[trafficker] How much are we charging?
-[Flores] You let me have it at 55.
-[trafficker] How much did they give you?
-[Flores] Twenty.
[trafficker] All right.
I'll pick up the money tomorrow, okay?
[Flores] Sure.
[in English] They intended to do
the same thing with Mayo,
but ultimately could…
couldn't get Mayo on the phone.
[gentle string music playing]
[Flores] Everything I know about El Mayo,
he was disciplined never to use the phone.
He would have someone
who would actually make calls for him.
And I saw him use the phone one time,
and when he was done with it,
he personally grabbed the hammer
and destroyed it in front of himself.
[music grows ominous]
And he picked up the pieces himself
and put it in his pocket.
[Ferrara] Margarito was summoned
to this sort of mountain-top meeting
in Sinaloa with Chapo,
Mayo, and his son Vicente.
During that meeting,
Vicente brought up to Margarito,
"We need you to get us US military weapons
that we can bring down to Mexico."
But we needed recordings
where we can then later use
that evidence in court.
What they did was exceptionally dangerous.
[line buzzes]
[phone dials]
TRANSCRIPT OF PHONE CALL
NOVEMBER 29, 2008 - TIME UNKNOWN
-[line ringing]
-[tense music rises]
MARGARITO FLORES: HEY,
DO YOU REMEMBER WHAT WE TALKED ABOUT?
ABOUT THOSE TOYS?
MALE: YES.
MARGARITO FLORES:
I CAN GET YOU TWENTY, THIRTY FOR SURE.
MALE: ALL RIGHT.
MARGARITO FLORES:
TELL EVERYONE I SAID HI.
MALE: ALL RIGHT.
MARGARITO FLORES: ALL RIGHT.
[line buzzes]
[Flores, in English] That was a call
with Vicente Zambada,
El Mayo's son.
[distortion peaks, fades]
[Flores] When we hung up,
me and my brother got emotional.
'Cause it was like,
we knew what we were doing.
And to us, it was like a betrayal
of everyone, you know?
[phone ringing]
[Flores] Then, one day,
a high-ranking lieutenant
for the Sinaloa Cartel
called on the phone and threatened me.
Mm.
[tense music rises]
And he asked me,
he said, "Are you cooperating?"
[splutters] "Are you cooperating?
Are you being a rat?"
[phone ringing]
The next day,
we got a call from the US attorney,
and basically they said,
"Um, that's it.
We're gonna pull you guys out."
3 MONTHS LATER
[intriguing music rises]
MEXICO CITY
On the morning of March 18, 2009,
[former agent, in Spanish] I got intel
that the intelligence unit knew
that Vicentillo
was coming to Mexico City.
It was unusual.
The Zambadas usually stayed in Sinaloa.
He had no bodyguards.
They put a tail on Vicentillo
using bread and candy trucks.
They had teams set up,
just like you see in Hollywood movies.
They followed him.
Suddenly, someone said,
"Hey, he's in the Polanco area."
"Hey, he's heading toward…
He's on Reforma."
"No, we've got him."
"He's going into the Sheraton,
across from the Angel."
One or more members
of the intelligence unit
went into the hotel.
And there he was,
Vicentillo with two DEA agents.
Ones we knew really well.
What is the DEA doing?
Seeing DEA agents meeting
with Mayo Zambada's son,
without our knowing,
was extremely strange and suspicious.
The DEA…
The DEA in a hotel with drug traffickers.
That's a betrayal.
Suddenly, we saw
the DEA agents sitting there.
They said goodbye and left.
Our guys then put Vicentillo
under surveillance,
waiting for the right moment to grab him.
[interviewer, in English] Were you aware
that the meeting was happening, or…?
No. No, um…
[spluttering] At least not that I recall.
And I think that is
something I would remember.
Uh, the first thing
that I recall is learning, um…
He was arrested
like in the middle of the night. Um…
And so I learned
that he was in custody that same day.
[reporter 1, in Spanish]
El Mayo Zambada's son has been caught.
[reporter 2] One of the Sinaloa Cartel's
top bosses and his bodyguards
were captured by the Mexican military.
[crowd clamoring]
[former agent] They took him
without a single shot being fired.
They put up no resistance.
[intense music playing]
[former agent] Right away,
he started telling everyone
to call the DEA,
saying he had an immunity agreement
with them,
and that they had to let him go, or else…
That they were letting him go.
[in English] After, uh,
Vicente was arrested,
um, he received what I can only describe
as horrific legal advice,
where… where his defense was to claim
that… that he had been immunized
by the US government,
and not just that,
that the entirety of the Sinaloa Cartel
had been immunized,
um, through…
through this one aborted meeting.
[indistinct chatter]
[former agent, in Spanish]
I find it hard to believe
that Mayo Zambada's son, El Vicentillo,
would dare to meet with DEA agents
in Mexico City without a bodyguard,
if he wasn't completely sure
that there would be no problem.
My conclusion is that Vicentillo
had no bodyguards
because he felt protected.
But protected by whom?
Let's see, it could have been
one of the Mexican government's agencies,
but it could also be
that he felt protected by the DEA.
By the US government.
[intriguing music playing]
[Ferrara] By that point,
we moved forward very quickly,
and we got a charging instrument
in place against Vicente
that would allow for Vicente
to be extradited to Chicago.
It was all based
on the twins' cooperation.
[energetic music playing]
[Scherer, in Spanish] I think
El Mayo decided to talk to my father,
first and foremost,
because he was a trustworthy person.
Zambada and my father,
I think they had that in common.
They had a personal conversation.
The article shows, uh,
what Zambada thought of the government,
what he thought of the behavior
of the soldiers at that time, right?
What he thought about drug trafficking.
But besides
the purely journalistic conversation,
uh, they talked about family.
"I asked him about his son Vicente,
known as Vicentillo."
"He is my firstborn,
the oldest of five children."
"I call him 'mijo.'"
"He is also my compadre."
"I'd rather not talk about him."
"I don't know
if he's in Chicago or New York."
"Do you feel guilty
about his extradition?"
"I won't talk about my son today."
"I weep for him."
[line buzzes]
[dialing]
[Balliet, in English]
We started intercepting comms
that would make reference to "El Viejo."
Whoever was sending the message
showed respect, showed deference.
And we were like, "That's gotta be…
"That's gotta be someone
of extreme significance."
And then we started intercepting
Chapo's sons.
They would make reference
to Ratón, which is Ovidio,
or Güero, which is Joaquín.
The fall of 2013,
agent named Jack comes in,
and he's like, "We got 'em."
He brings me this lined sheet, and it's
between a female and another male.
The female is like just berating him,
up one side down the other.
Like, "You left me.
This is why you're alone."
"This is why you don't do well in life."
"Only God knows what you're gonna do.
You owe me money."
For anybody that's divorced,
you'd be like,
"That is an ex-wife, like,
just tearing into her into her ex."
Jack was like, "It's Griselda."
Chapo Guzmán and Griselda
had three sons together,
Ovidio, Joaquín, and Edgar.
Prior to his death,
Édgar had a young daughter
who was named, uh, Frida, F-R-I-D-A.
"Hey, give Fridita a kiss for me."
"Tell her she's the special one."
That is Chapo Guzmán talking to Griselda
about his granddaughter.
And he's sending Ratón to pick her up.
I was like,
"Fuck me. You're right. It's him."
GUZMÁN FACTION
Chapo Guzmán
is at the other end of that device.
The kicker to all this,
in that same time frame,
Serafín Zambada shows up
at the Nogales port of entry.
Anyway, in Nogales, Arizona,
DEA agents detained Serafín Zambada.
The last name
likely means something to you.
He is the son of drug trafficker
Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada.
He shows up at the port of entry,
using his real name, real ID,
and I was like, "Is this coincidence?"
Like, "What the fuck is happening
right now?"
So, I went down to the port,
Serafín was there.
He was wearing like a US-flag polo shirt.
I I remember asking him like,
"Hey, man, you know,
uh, where's your dad at?"
And he kinda smirked.
And I'm like, "Fair enough."
So we arrested him.
I remember telling the guys, "Look."
"Somebody has got to say something
about Mayo's kid getting arrested."
And, I mean,
it didn't take more than half a day.
We start getting the gossip,
like, "Hey, Sera got arrested."
"We don't know what happened.
Did anybody talk to Viejo?"
And then, that was when we were like,
"Viejo is Mayo. That's him."
Now we're gonna switch it into…
into manhunt mode.
[intense music rises]
FROM: ERIC S BALLIE
In late 2013,
we were intercepting
all of Chapo's inner network.
We had this constant flow of intel
as to where all these guys were
at any given point.
EX-WIFE GRISELDA
SON - OVIDIO
But Zambada…
Man, that guy was a ghost.
MAYO OP STILL RUNNING
Mayo was much, much more careful.
We never picked up
a direct intercept with Mayo.
I'm still not 100% certain
how he actually communicated.
OUR INTEL WILL NEVER BE
AS GOOD AS IT IS NOW.
But the intel was that Mayo frequented
a couple of ranches outside of Culiacán,
but they didn't, they didn't know
when exactly he was there, for how long.
But we're gonna take a shot.
If he is there, home run.
So, as we were going through
this process on how we were gonna do this,
we went to DEA and we were like,
"Who would you guys recommend?"
And they are like,
"SEMAR, the Mexican marines."
They are
the least corrupted unit in Mexico.
And they have a reputation
for kind of being fearless.
[man, in Spanish]
Before you start, do you have napkins?
Yes, I just came from an operation.
One of them opened fire
with a .223 caliber rifle.
One of the shots hit my vest.
I still have an open wound here.
[coughs]
MEXICAN SPECIAL FORCES AGEN
[continues coughing]
[spits]
Ah. Blood.
[in English] So I was like,
"Cool, that's… that's who we'll go with."
[agent, in Spanish] Command informed us
that we were going to Mexico City,
that we had been commissioned
for a service.
At first, we didn't know who it was for.
[Balliet] The decision was made
we're gonna hit Mayo's places first,
and then we were gonna execute
the Chapo side in Culiacán.
[agent, in Spanish] It was a surprise
when we found out and got the news
that we were going after
the Man with the Hat.
[energetic music playing]
[man speaking on radio]
[indistinct radio chatter]
[Balliet, in English]
So SEMAR hit one ranch.
There were three
of Mayo's main security force.
They basically said,
"Yeah, he comes here."
"He hasn't been here in a few days."
"We don't know when he's coming back."
"We just get the word
and set up the security for him."
And that was it.
It was nothing.
And I was like, "Fuck me."
And then, at that same ranch,
they found these, um, blue 50-gallon drums
that were buried throughout the ranch.
And in those drums,
just massive amounts of guns.
Individually Saran-wrapped.
To me, that was like almost
like their war chest.
Like, when shit hit the fan,
and they needed to pull out, like,
a ton of artillery and ammunition,
that was like their
"oh shit we're going to war" stockpile.
[ominous music playing]
So, that was a pretty significant event.
Like, that was, like,
as close as anybody had gotten to him.
[Scherer, in Spanish] "Have you felt
the army closing in on you?"
INTERVIEW WITH EL MAYO
PROCESO, 2010
"Four times. El Chapo, more."
"How close?"
"Above, over my head."
"I fled through the mountains."
"I know every branch,
every stream, every rock, everything."
"They will catch me if I stay still
or let my guard down, like El Chapo."
"Do you fear getting caught?"
"I am terrified of being locked up."
"If they caught you,
would you end your life?"
"I don't know
if I would have the guts to kill myself."
"I'd like to think I would.
I would kill myself."
"Is there space for peace in you?"
"I carry fear with me."
"All the time?"
"Always."
"Will they catch you in the end?"
"At any moment, or never."
"No traitor has appeared so far,"
he suddenly says to himself.
[man] I don't have a lot
in common with Vicente
outside of the fact
that I loved airplanes.
And he owned nine Cessna 209s.
I was in Witness Protection Phase 1
of the Bureau of Prisons.
Was VZ, who I later found out was
Vicente Zambada.
I met him at the same time I met Sammy.
Sammy the Bull.
But Vicente,
I don't recall
the exact time that I met him,
but it was probably over soccer
because we played all the time together.
He was very smart.
I didn't… [scoffs]
I… Honestly, I didn't know
anything about him at all for months.
But then he opened up to me
and started showing me pictures
of his lifestyle.
It was the most ridiculous picture
show-and-tell I've ever seen in my life.
He showed me pictures of his shoes.
And he'd be like,
"You see these shoes? $10,000."
That's how I remember him, you know,
as being a very happy guy.
But I can also imagine that he was,
you know, crying himself to sleep.
There was demons in his closet.
HALF A DOZEN TEENAGERS WERE MURDERED
FOR PLAYING ON THE SAME SOCCER TEAM
AS MAYO'S SON VICENTE.
WHEN I WAS 11,
THEY SHOT MY GRANDMA AND MY MOTHER.
THEY MADE THEIR FIRST ATTEMPT ON MY LIFE
WHEN I WAS 16.
THE FIRST TIME OF MANY.
MY DAD ASKED ME OVER THE PHONE
TO SEND HIS PEOPLE TO KILL ROBACHIVAS.
Q: DID YOU TRANSMIT THAT ORDER?
A: YES, I DID.
[Esquivel, in Spanish]
Vicentillo had been true to his nature.
Irreverent and feeling like a prince.
Someone who should be treated
with great care,
and also with certain privileges.
He had never had to yield to anything.
He had never lacked anything.
And he wouldn't give prosecutors
the information they wanted.
[tense music playing]
[reporter, in English]
Authorities have now relocated
an accused Mexican drug lord from Chicago
to a federal lockup near Detroit.
The Sinaloa Cartel boss
is unhappy with his accommodations.
[reporter 2] During his two years here
at the Chicago MCC,
Zambada Niebla wasn't once allowed
to the rooftop sports court to exercise.
Prison authorities said there
was too much risk
that the cartel boss
would be picked off by a sniper
or would stage a helicopter escape.
And he lives in total isolation,
according to the lawyer.
He says his client's haircut
was even delayed by three weeks.
All as a result
of Zambada Niebla being punished
for complaining
about the conditions at the MCC Chicago.
[Esquivel, in Spanish] At that point,
when they put Vicentillo in the SHU,
the prosecutor says
he started to suffer from mental problems.
HE'S SPENT OVER 700 HOURS
IN SOLITARY.
SORRY, 700 DAYS
YOU WERE DEAD INSIDE
FROM BEING IN THE SHU.
Mayo Zambada's weak point is Vicentillo.
He adores his firstborn.
He adores him.
Back in 2010,
El Mayo Zambada's interview
with Proceso came out.
I believe it was a message to Vicente.
That he was telling Vicente
that he was thinking about him
and let his son have a picture of him.
"IF I'M CAUGHT OR KILLED,
IT CHANGES NOTHING."
[Scherer] He sees that photograph,
where he is very well grounded,
and that brought him a lot of peace.
EL VICENTILLO. I CALL HIM "MIJO"…
I WEEP FOR HIM
[somber music playing]
[Esquivel] The prosecutor I spoke to
told me that it was her idea
to take him to the SHU to break him
and that one night the DEA agents
took him out and put him on the phone
with his father to talk.
[Ferrara, in English] The details
are something that I'm gonna skip,
but we put a system in place
where we had a designated phone
that was set up
where we could be alerted when Mayo
was comfortable and felt safe enough
that he was willing to get on these calls.
[phone ringing]
The first one happened
in the middle of the night.
[indistinct radio chatter]
Surreal to hear the voice.
[man, in Spanish] Here we are,
on the banks of the Rio Grande.
It was clear that it was good for them
to hear each other's voices.
And then Vicente transitioned into
what we asked him to do.
The principal goal was
truly father to son,
"Dad, I'm in trouble."
"Dad, I'm sitting here
in this American jail cell."
"Dad, you can help me
by doing the right thing,
by self-surrendering."
It was just "Dad, please, help… help me,
help through this problem."
[Ferrara] He did his best.
He tried to make that impassioned plea of,
"You've had your day," you know.
"It's time."
[ex-prisoner, in English] He told me
that he had been talking to his father.
He would come back from the phone call,
he would be excited.
Um…
And I also understood that he told me
that there was some kind of deal
that would be arranged
involving his father's health,
which was failing,
and that he would be released
when his father turned himself in.
Swap! His father would be in custody,
and he would be in Mexico.
That is…
it's how he explained it to me.
[Ferrara] We were able to facilitate
a couple of direct communications
for Vicente to make that plea to Mayo.
From the best we could tell,
from the second call,
he was in an airplane,
circling a… um, a cell tower.
'Cause he knew we could geolocate him
or the Mexicans could geolocate him.
And then when the call was over,
threw the phone out the window and…
Mayo said he would think about it.
Uh, but I think we bumped up against
the limits of his love for his kids.
Personnel from the Mexican Navy
and the Criminal Investigation Agency
are conducting an operation
in Sinaloa's capital
aimed, they say,
at capturing Mayo Zambada.
After Mayo's ranch,
you started to see news reporting.
The only real concern that I had
was that because because these guys
have been so intertwined together
for so long,
if there is an operation against Mayo,
what domino effects is that gonna have
on on the Chapo faction?
We were all in Tucson,
around monitors, just on pins and needles.
We're only gonna get one shot at this.
FEBRUARY 16, 2014
We were getting the live intercepts.
[agent, in Spanish]
Their intelligence is very good.
They were the ones
coordinating the operation.
They never entered into combat.
It was just us.
[Balliet, in English] We were also getting
periodic updates on a group chat.
And Chapo had a courier,
who was running all the errands for him.
He went by the moniker of "Nariz,"
which is like the "nose" for Spanish.
So, the guys on the ground,
they think they've got eyes on him.
I remember getting the message,
"We got eyes on Nariz."
And they grab Nariz.
And, like, they sent a picture,
and it's… [scoffs]
I can see why they call him "Nariz."
He's got… Like…
He's got a schnoz on him, right?
They interview him,
and he gives up the house.
He's like, "Chapo is there."
We're like, "Holy shit!"
[indistinct radio chatter]
[agent, in Spanish]
I had my .50 caliber
to repel any aggression.
The same as always, adrenaline.
There are only two options here.
You either act or freeze.
And if you freeze, you die.
My mother said this many years ago,
"I'd rather people be crying
at someone else's house, not mine."
The marines hit the house in Culiacán.
But there is this reinforced steel door.
They're just going to town on this thing.
Everybody in the house
hears the commotion.
When they finally get through,
they're like,
"This motherfucker
has a tunnel in a house,
underneath a bathtub."
[agent, in Spanish]
We didn't know he had a tunnel.
When things don't go right,
well, it's kind of tough.
SEMAR, like, they are just pissed.
So, they're like,
"We'll burn this city down."
[tense music pulsing]
[in Spanish] The navy's operations
are continuing in Sinaloa.
[in English] "We're gonna hit every house
that we know that is associated with him."
[reporter, in Spanish] 17 helicopters
were doing flyovers in 8 neighborhoods.
[reporter 2] The searches were the result
of the capture of ten individuals
from the criminal organization
led by Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada.
[agent] Each place we arrived at
and went into,
most of the places had luxury cars,
had drugs,
had weapons,
but he wasn't there.
Two days later,
his phone came on again, in Mazatlán.
The first thing that happened
was two planes took off.
We sent an advance team,
people in civilian cars,
people who would be there as tourists.
There was no way out of there,
except through the front door.
When we entered the hotel,
they, literally, had already surrendered.
They hadn't used their weapons
or anything,
they had already given up.
[agent 2] Who is under you?
Well, under me, the guys who
help me, who--
[agent 2] Who?
That would be Picudo,
Bravo…
Um…
Don't think there are many people.
Who else?
Oso.
Who else?
A guy people call Cholo.
[Balliet, in English] They took him
to the parking garage.
I still have the text.
"We got him, boys! We got him."
I remember seeing the photos
as they came through.
I was like "Fucking A, man!"
[indistinct chatter]
[man] Today, at 6:40 in the morning,
personnel of the Navy Secretariat
detained Joaquín Guzmán Loera.
[reporter] The president,
Enrique Peña Nieto, says,
"I wish to acknowledge
the work of Mexico's security forces
in the arrest
of Joaquín Guzmán Loera in Mazatlán."
"Congratulations to everyone."
This is what President Enrique Peña Nieto
just tweeted.
[Brian Williams, in English] The takedown
of the most wanted drug kingpin,
and how US and Mexican authorities
finally got their man
after over a decade of escape and evasion.
[agent, in Spanish]
Applause from everyone.
"Very good. Very well done."
And they returned us to base.
I am on the boardwalk.
Behind me, the Miramar Tower.
Since Saturday,
when the drug lord was captured,
this stretch of Avenida del Mar
has become the most traveled and visited.
Cars are moving at a snail's pace
because drivers and passengers
want to see the building
where the most important news event
took place.
FEBRUARY 22, 2014
JULY 11, 2015
[Balliet, in English]
I remember that text.
It's like, "He's gone."
I was like, "You gotta be shitting me."
[in Spanish] Joaquín Guzmán Loera,
El Chapo, leader of the Pacific Cartel,
escaped for the second time
from a federal maximum security prison.
This time, from the Federal Center
for Rehabilitation No. 1 "El Altiplano,"
located in Almoloya de Juárez,
in the State of Mexico.
[agent] When we learned the news,
there was a lot of rage and anger.
[reporter] This is the surveillance camera
that, according to the federal government,
has two blind spots.
This one where I'm standing,
which is the toilet.
And over there, where the showers are.
And that's where the hole is.
[reporter 2, in English] This time,
his escape is the stuff of movies.
Slipping through a small hole in his cell
and into a tunnel,
complete with ventilation,
lights, and a motorcycle on rails,
apparently used to help dig him out.
[man, in Spanish] He's really
making a fool out of the government.
He's laughing in their faces.
He can do whatever he wants.
[Peña Nieto] This is,
without a doubt, an affront to Mexico.
But I am also confident
that the Mexican institutions,
particularly those in charge
of public security,
will be up to the task,
with the strength and determination
to recapture this criminal.
[agent] You get
a deep sense of dissatisfaction
because we had put our lives on the line
to do things right.
For the government
to let him go again for a few pesos.
What are we doing here, then?
JANUARY 8, 2016
LOS MOCHIS, SINALOA
[rapid gunfire]
[indistinct chatter]
-[man 1] Move forward.
-[man 2] Hands up! Hands up! Hands up!
[indistinct shouting]
[man 3] Okay. Move it.
[agent] This time it wasn't about
how to capture him anymore.
It was about killing him
if he tried to escape.
[man 4 whistles]
[agent] A third time
would be very complicated.
[reporter] Breaking news.
"I want to tell the Mexican people
Joaquín Guzmán Loera has been detained."
This is what President Enrique Peña Nieto
is reporting on his Twitter account.
EPISODE III: RECAPTURE
[man] I think one of the best ways
we could solve this problem with El Chapo
is that he should go to the United States.
They can put him on trial there.
They should take him there.
Can you imagine a third time? I can't,
but in this world, anything is possible.
PRISON SECURITY
[guard] What's your job?
Farmer.
[reporter 1] "We will continue to see
Ismael Zambada García, El Mayo,
as the kingpin,
because he still is,
and he makes the most important decisions
about the structure."
[reporter 2] This is the scenario
Guzmán Loera most fears.
Going to a country,
maybe far away from his family,
likely far away from his family,
and where he will have few, very few tools
to get a favorable deal.
[reporter 3] We will also see his children
and Joaquín Guzmán Loera's children,
who are also assuming the succession
in what amounts to a family clan,
because the Sinaloa organization
continues to be this clan.
[lively music playing]
AUGUST 15, 2016
PUERTO VALLARTA, JALISCO
[Esquivel] El Chapo's sons
play an important role
when their father is arrested.
That's when they start fighting…
for more power.
But when they mess
with the Jalisco Cartel,
they crossed the line
of what they could control
and realized that they were vulnerable,
and they were not yet the mature bosses
they considered themselves to be.
El Chapo's sons
liked to go out with friends
to nightclubs and restaurants.
And one night,
they went to a restaurant in Jalisco.
And suddenly,
a group of gunmen from
the Jalisco New Generation Cartel…
kidnapped El Chapo's sons,
Iván and Jesús Alfredo.
[reporter] Men with guns
entered La Leche restaurant
and held the diners at gunpoint.
The operation lasted
one minute 29 seconds.
The whereabouts of Alfredo Guzmán
are unknown.
[reporter 2, in English]
A law enforcement official tells CNN
Alfredo, who is believed to be part
of the new leadership
of his father's Sinaloa Cartel,
was said
to not be taking his role seriously.
The source says Alfredo
"had been partying a lot
and was caught off guard,
allowing for the abduction to happen."
[in Spanish] That's the problem
with a lack of experience.
Mayo has to rescue them.
[reporter 3] For almost five days,
Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada
is reported to have led the negotiations
to free not one,
but both
of Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán's sons.
El Mayo told him, "Please,
give my people back to me safe and sound."
So, he said, El Mencho said to him,
"I will give them to you, Mayo."
"But next time, they need permission."
Because he saved their lives there,
there in Jalisco.
He loved his compadre,
Chapo Guzmán, very much.
Until that point,
they were like a big family.
So, I think that's why he did it.
[lively music fades]
[plane engines whirring]
NEW YORK
[woman, in English]
I was about to leave for the day.
And I was halfway out the door,
and somebody yelled down the hall,
"He's coming."
[intriguing music playing]
The first time we saw him,
I thought he looked surprised to be there.
I mean, we were all surprised.
You know, especially somebody
with so much lore that surrounded him.
Here's a person we have been investigating
for almost a decade.
I mean, it was like,
I will never forget that day.
JANUARY 3, 2019
[Esquivel, in Spanish]
At that trial, in the Brooklyn court,
one of the most anticipated figures
was Mayo's favorite son,
the prince of the Sinaloa Cartel,
none other than El Vicentillo.
When El Vicentillo came in,
all of us who were there
were paying attention to see
how he was going to behave
when he met eyes with Chapo Guzmán.
The thing about El Vicentillo
was about the morbid curiosity of seeing
two big players betray each other.
And what did happen was,
in fact, a greeting between friends,
the bow and the hand on the chest,
which is very common among people
who are loyal and fond of each other,
as if to say, "Respect."
"Compadre, here I am.
You know I have no choice."
[Parlovecchio] When Vicente
came into the courtroom
and stepped onto the witness stand,
he actually looked over at El Chapo,
and made a sign of respect to him.
[in Spanish] He, like, touched his chest,
addressing El Chapo,
like some kind of apology or some kind
of message between them, right?
The defense even asked them,
"Why did you greet Chapo Guzmán
like that?"
[man, in English] You're testifying
against him. He's your enemy, right?
[Vicente, in Spanish] No, sir.
He's not my enemy.
[man, in English]
Thought you were doing him a favor?
[Vicente, in Spanish] No, sir.
He knew I was going to come
and testify against him.
I pleaded guilty
when my compadre Chapo
was free along with my father,
and I vowed to cooperate
with the Prosecutor's Office.
I gave them my word
that I would testify if they asked me to,
and that's why I'm here today.
I can't see the future.
I didn't know
that my compadre Chapo would be here.
But I gave my word, and here I am.
He's not my enemy, he's my compadre Chapo.
[Esquivel] He called him
"my compadre Chapo."
"My buddy Chapo."
[woman, in English] There was
one wild exchange
in Vicente's testimony, where he said
he had confided
in El Chapo and in his father,
and said that he wanted to potentially
retire from the cartel.
YES, I WANTED TO LEAVE THE CARTEL,
TO RETIRE FROM IT ALL
WITH THE PERMISSION OF MY FATHER
AND MY COMPADRE CHAPO.
[in Spanish] El Chapo said,
"I'm putting you in contact
with my friends at the DEA
so you can talk to them, right?"
So, what do you mean,
"my friends at the DEA"?
[Crane-Newman] Ultimately, El Chapo
and El Mayo recommended to him
that maybe he could rat on some
of their enemies and rival cartels.
And that could be
how he got his early retirement
and… and… and got a lenient sentence.
[Ferrara] It wasn't something
that we learned about until much later.
When Vicente came
to that meeting in Mexico City,
he was authorized
by Chapo and Mayo to cooperate.
As sophisticated
as Chapo and Mayo were at that time,
I don't think when they authorized him
to go to Mexico City
to cooperate with DEA,
that they had any reasonable belief
that that was going to lead
to their individual demise.
[Esquivel, in Spanish] In this theater
that unfolds in various plays
with the hearings in the courts,
I think there are
even some ironic moments, right?
Because when they have to testify
against someone who was very close,
friends, colleagues,
or even family members,
and they know
that they will be convicted, found guilty,
as was the case with El Chapo,
I think they take the opportunity
to say goodbye for the last time, right?
And that's what Vicentillo did.
He knew there was no way his compadre
could be freed from life imprisonment.
Because the only way
to get out of Florence, Colorado,
where he is being held,
is feet first.
What he did was look directly at him.
And that's when you realize
the mettle they have too.
Even when they are
on the good side or the bad side,
under the authority of the United States.
He put his right hand back on his chest.
And I remember he took off his glasses.
And he bowed to him, "Goodbye, compadre."
That's how I interpreted it.
"See you in the next life,
if there is one."
[reporter, in English] Drug lord
Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán
has been convicted
of drug-trafficking charges
at a trial in New York.
[reporter 2] Guzmán today breaking
his silence, telling the judge,
"There was no justice here.
You denied me a fair trial."
But the judge,
noting El Chapo's overwhelming evil,
sentencing him to life plus 30 years,
Guzmán ordered to pay
12.6 billion dollars in restitution.
The man who ordered
the torture and murder of his enemies,
then blowing a kiss to his wife,
just before leaving the courtroom.
[López Obrador, in Spanish]
It was a decision taken by the US.
We are respectful
of those legal procedures.
We don't wish anyone harm.
I wish
that those who go down these paths
would reconsider
and think about
how very precious a gift
freedom is.
[Scherer] "I turn myself in
to the government so they can execute me."
"My case should be an example.
A warning to everyone."
"They execute me and euphoria breaks out."
"But after a few days,
we realize that nothing has changed."
[thunder rumbles]
"Nothing."
"With the kingpin fallen,
the drug problem affects millions."
"How to control them?"
"As for the imprisoned,
dead, or extradited kingpins,
their replacements are already out there."
[Balliet, in English] We knew that
if you take Mayo and Chapo
out of the equation,
the Sinaloa Cartel
is not gonna just, like, dissolve.
They have a succession plan,
and the plan
was that Chapo's kids would ascend
and take over his side of that.
The same with Mayo.
[in Spanish]
Drug trafficking is a matter of blood.
I mean, I don't create an empire
to leave it to a friend.
I create an empire for my children.
[Balliet, in English] In 2014, we had,
in my professional opinion,
a tremendous amount of evidence
involving Iván, Ovidio, and Joaquín.
I think not grabbing them in 2014,
looking back, was…
was a strategic misstep.
So, I have…
That one sticks with me a bit.
[reporter] We are in the midst
of the worst drug crisis in US history.
The drug is fentanyl.
A synthetic painkiller
100 times more powerful than morphine.
As a street drug, it is far more potent
than even the purest forms of heroin.
Illicit use
of the synthetic opioid painkiller
has ravaged the United States.
And Mexican drug cartels
now see huge profits
and an addictive market for the drug.
[Valdés, in Spanish]
The rush to win and control and expand
the production of fentanyl by Los Chapitos
is the huge market
that exists in the United States.
You say, "Well, they got crazy rich."
But they provoked a very strong reaction
from the United States government.
They woke up the tiger and made it angry.
And the tiger is about to swat them.
[woman, in English] El Chapo's sons,
Ovidio, Iván, and Alfredo,
known as Los Chapitos,
became the new leaders
of the Sinaloa Cartel.
They inherited
a global drug-trafficking empire
and they made it more ruthless,
more violent, more deadly.
And they used it
to spread a new poison. Fentanyl.
As a direct result of their actions,
we have lost hundreds of thousands
of American lives.
And so, the DEA proactively targeted
the Chapitos' network.
-[in Spanish] Don't let them get away!
-[man] Come out.
[man 2] Come out, Ovidio.
[shouting]
[intense music playing]
NEW MEXICO
JULY 25, 2024
[man 1, in English]
It was a quiet afternoon.
Not a lot going on.
6 MILES NORTH
OF THE MEXICAN BORDER
Not much going on at all.
AIRPORT MANAGER
I was sitting here,
looking out the window,
and, uh, a customs, uh, vehicle came by.
Then another one,
then another one, and then another one.
And then all kinds of other vehicles
started showing up.
[clears throat]
Got me a little… interested,
so I went out and, uh, talked to one
of the customs agents that was there.
And he said there was a VIP coming in.
That was it.
-[radio chatter]
-[intense music playing]
[man 1] The pilot that radioed in,
he was, uh, to the south of the airport.
And his intention was to land
on runway 1-0
and to set up for a right base,
which was a right turn to final.
[indistinct radio chatter]
[man 2] Roger that.
[man 1] And when this airplane
did report in,
we checked the N-number,
and we couldn't see it on the Virtower,
which shows up on our computers.
And so, we were a little…
a little curious about that.
[intriguing music playing]
Came in and landed.
So I went outside
and walked down the road towards the gate.
And there were some people in suits.
FBI, DEA, Border Patrol, Customs…
And I saw a… an individual
come off the airplane.
Shook hands with him, and he went inside.
Then the next one got off and shook hands
with the people in the suits.
And they put his hands
behind his back… in handcuffs.
Yeah, he walked off, shook hands,
and then he just went like this, and…
Then they walked
into the, uh, customs building.
That was it.
[reporter 1, in Spanish]
Good afternoon.
Completely unexpected news.
Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada
has been detained.
-[reporter 2] El Mayo Zambada.
-[reporter 3] El Mayo Zambada.
[López-Dóriga] Mayo Zambada,
seemingly falling from the sky.
The world's most wanted drug trafficker.
[reporter 4] It's sending shockwaves
through Mexico.
Mayo Zambada
had never been arrested before.
[López-Dóriga] Did he turn himself in?
Was he betrayed? Or was he captured?
[reporter 5, in English]
This sounds like the plot
from a movie
or an episode of Breaking Bad.
It's a… it's a huge victory for the US
in their war against the drug cartels.
How did they pull it off?
[reporter 6 on radio, in Spanish]
…questions so far…
We have very little information
from US authorities…
[man 1, in English]
In the middle of nowhere.
A place called Hope, New Mexico,
of all places.
And I get the first alert on my telephone.
Says "Ismael 'El Mayo' Zambada captured."
Once we were able to get here,
I was surprised because the plane
was literally right in front of everybody.
National media, international media.
But that was it. It was just the airplane.
There was nothing else.
[low, somber music playing]
El Mayo had been hiding
in the mountains of Sinaloa for decades.
You don't expect that someday
he lands in an airplane
in Doña Ana County.
That's just, like… It doesn't happen.
[camera shutter clicks]
[low, intense music playing]
Ismael "Mayo" Zambada,
coming off the airplane is…
I don't even know how to say it, you know?
But you could imagine it, no?
For me, clearly, it was like,
"Okay, here's an airplane. What's inside?"
Seeing what we believe, or allege,
could be the last moments
of freedom for Mayo.
What we were looking at
was just extraordinary.
[camera shutter clicks]
Oxygen mask.
Across from that,
there was a bag
with just Mexican junk food.
One of the items
that really just blew my mind
was an Oxxo bag.
And it had just a couple of zip ties,
just kind of peeking out of it.
You know, I was like,
"Okay, this is interesting. You know."
"What do you need zip ties for?"
You get this image of
what are certain things that are props.
What's real and what's not real.
Since that cover that I did,
in many ways, it was ironic
because in that interview
that Julio Scherer did in 2010…
He says in that interview that he's,
you know, protected by his hills,
his… the country where he's…
that's where he's from.
And in the passage, he says that he's…
You know, he didn't trust the sky.
THE GROUND IS GOOD, THE SKY ISN'T.
Also in that interview,
when he's asked
about the possibility of being detained,
he says,
"The traitor has not arrived yet."
[music swells]
TRAITOR
[music fades]
[intense music playing]
THE FALL OF EL MAYO
[tense music playing]
MEXICO CITY
[man, in Spanish] It's rumored
there's a secret passage
between the US embassy
and the Sheraton Hotel.
UNITED STATES
Secret, meaning it has a door,
so you don't have
to go out onto the street.
And we know that the Sheraton Hotel…
That is one of the places
where meetings used to take place
with people from the Mexican government.
We had meetings there too. I mean…
It was normal.
Well, sometimes we saw DEA agents
and agents from all the US agencies there,
at the Sheraton Hotel.
They always asked to meet there.
We had meals, tequila, the whole works.
Nobody trusted anybody.
Public Security and the Federal Police
were infiltrated by Sinaloa Cartel moles.
The Attorney General's Office… Oof.
Moles everywhere. Moles everywhere.
[Calderón] We have a solid commitment
to fight and defeat criminals
in Mexico.
That's what we'll do
to enforce the rule of law.
[in American accent] Goodbye!
[former agent] But… what happened
under Calderón,
was that the Americans offered
training and vetting
to create elite units
that were trained in the US.
The DEA, FBI, even the CIA.
These units were given polygraph tests
and other tests I'd rather not discuss.
They were given a special bonus
to keep them from being corrupted.
Almost all of those units
worked very well. Very well.
For us, our priority…
When I say "us," I mean
the entire government under Calderón…
It was about going after
the real leaders of the Sinaloa Cartel.
El Chapo drew most of the attention.
Especially since he'd escaped before.
Mayo Zambada was enormously important.
I think he's the drug trafficker
who has most corrupted
officials at every level
in the history of Mexico.
He had everyone in his pocket.
And his son,
El Vicentillo, was his main operator.
If we caught him, it would be proof
that the war
on organized crime was working.
And it would prove we weren't in cahoots
with the Sinaloa Cartel.
There was a sense
of teamwork, of partnership,
between the DEA
and other US law enforcement agencies
and the Mexican government.
We are supposed to be partners
in the fight against organized crime.
[Balliet, in English]
This is Sierra and Luna.
As we were picking 'em out,
my daughters were like,
"What are we gonna name the dogs?"
And I was like, "Chapo and Mayo."
And they were like, "No, Dad! No!
That's crazy. No, that's so embarrassing."
I was, uh, unanimously overruled.
[dramatic music playing]
In 2011,
the HSI group in Nogales got a lead
where there was an individual
who was crossing
at the Nogales port of entry
and actually declaring
a shitload of money.
Like hundreds of thousand of dollars
at a time.
There's nothing illegal about doing that.
Suspicious? Absolutely.
They started doing surveillance
on the guy,
and they started seeing that these guys
in Mexico, they wanted to buy planes.
They wanted to buy planes in the States,
export 'em legally to Mexico.
And they ranged from Cessna 210s,
which were like $200,000 to $300,000.
They loved King Airs.
The King Airs were anywhere
from like $400,000 to maybe $700,000.
And then they also liked Citation jets.
Those jets would run
about a million bucks.
So, when the case first started,
we would purchase
the aircraft that they wanted
through an undercover account
and install GPS trackers
and transponders on the planes.
And then we're gonna see where they go.
And it was clear as day.
[crowd clamoring]
[Balliet] They'd take off
from southern Mexico,
land at some clandestine airstrip.
Eight, ten hours later,
you'd see 'em airborne again.
Like, they're pickin' up cocaine.
Once they made it back
to either northern Guatemala
or southern Mexico,
the aircraft was burned on the spot.
They would only use it once.
[man, in Spanish] Fuck!
[loud crash]
[crowd clamoring]
[Balliet, in English] That's a shitload
of money that they're spending on planes.
I remember asking the case agent,
I was like,
"This is a massive logistical operation."
"How do they coordinate it all?"
The agent was like, "Yeah.
They do it all on BlackBerry Messenger."
And I was like… [sighs]
"We should figure out
a way to get up on these guys
and intercept their communications."
[static crackles]
DEA loaned us, I think,
five computer towers,
that we put in this little broom closet
of a wire room that we had in Nogales.
And that was where we started intercepting
the first BlackBerrys.
It was a field day.
THEY'LL SELL ME A TON.
They're not even coding their language.
I HAVE 14 K LEFT OVER
BUT I'LL ALSO PAY PACKERS
AND THE RUNWAY AND GASOLINE AGAIN
CACHINBA SAID
FOR THE 400 KILOS TO FIT EXACTLY
WE'D HAVE TO MAKE
24 PACKAGES OF 5 KILOS
I was shocked that they were actually
sending this over a device.
Normally, they're very coded.
They're disciplined.
They had a level of comfortability
with BlackBerry Messenger
that they just operated and talked.
Not just conversations.
We started intercepting pictures
of just tremendous amounts
of bales of cocaine in jungles.
Pictures of landing strips, poppy fields,
guns, stacks of cash,
all this sort of stuff.
I remember thinking like,
"Who the fuck are we up on right now?"
[line buzzes]
[dialing]
[line ringing]
[Flores] Once we started communicating
with the government,
they said they needed evidence
of the bosses actually doing deals
in the United States.
'Cause they told us that that evidence
would make all the difference in the case
and would help us.
We had to come up with our own ways of
of giving them that information.
[Flores, in Spanish on recording] Hello?
-[man] What's up?
-[Flores] Can you hear?
[tape whirring]
[man] No, but it's okay.
If you can make a payment of $18,500…
[tape whirring]
[man] I can deliver about 600 or 800.
I can do that.
If that's how much you guys owe.
[tape whirring]
[Flores] You gave me 500 the other day.
[tape whirring]
[Flores] Nobody else knows
we're talking.
[Ferrara, in English]
While the twins were cooperating,
there was a clock
that started ticking immediately,
where we knew
we only had a matter of weeks
to gather all this evidence
against the highest levels
of leadership of the Sinaloa Cartel.
It was wildly successful.
-[trafficker, in Spanish] Hey, man.
-[Flores] What's up? How are you?
[trafficker] Good. Nice to talk to you.
How's your brother?
[Flores] Everyone's fine here.
Too bad
I didn't get to see you the other day.
[Ferrara, in English]
They recorded Chapo organizing
a heroin transaction in Chicago,
where we were able to record
two conversations
with Chapo negotiating the price.
-[trafficker, in Spanish] Go ahead.
-[Flores] Can we cut a deal?
Can you knock five pesos off the price?
-[trafficker] How much are we charging?
-[Flores] You let me have it at 55.
-[trafficker] How much did they give you?
-[Flores] Twenty.
[trafficker] All right.
I'll pick up the money tomorrow, okay?
[Flores] Sure.
[in English] They intended to do
the same thing with Mayo,
but ultimately could…
couldn't get Mayo on the phone.
[gentle string music playing]
[Flores] Everything I know about El Mayo,
he was disciplined never to use the phone.
He would have someone
who would actually make calls for him.
And I saw him use the phone one time,
and when he was done with it,
he personally grabbed the hammer
and destroyed it in front of himself.
[music grows ominous]
And he picked up the pieces himself
and put it in his pocket.
[Ferrara] Margarito was summoned
to this sort of mountain-top meeting
in Sinaloa with Chapo,
Mayo, and his son Vicente.
During that meeting,
Vicente brought up to Margarito,
"We need you to get us US military weapons
that we can bring down to Mexico."
But we needed recordings
where we can then later use
that evidence in court.
What they did was exceptionally dangerous.
[line buzzes]
[phone dials]
TRANSCRIPT OF PHONE CALL
NOVEMBER 29, 2008 - TIME UNKNOWN
-[line ringing]
-[tense music rises]
MARGARITO FLORES: HEY,
DO YOU REMEMBER WHAT WE TALKED ABOUT?
ABOUT THOSE TOYS?
MALE: YES.
MARGARITO FLORES:
I CAN GET YOU TWENTY, THIRTY FOR SURE.
MALE: ALL RIGHT.
MARGARITO FLORES:
TELL EVERYONE I SAID HI.
MALE: ALL RIGHT.
MARGARITO FLORES: ALL RIGHT.
[line buzzes]
[Flores, in English] That was a call
with Vicente Zambada,
El Mayo's son.
[distortion peaks, fades]
[Flores] When we hung up,
me and my brother got emotional.
'Cause it was like,
we knew what we were doing.
And to us, it was like a betrayal
of everyone, you know?
[phone ringing]
[Flores] Then, one day,
a high-ranking lieutenant
for the Sinaloa Cartel
called on the phone and threatened me.
Mm.
[tense music rises]
And he asked me,
he said, "Are you cooperating?"
[splutters] "Are you cooperating?
Are you being a rat?"
[phone ringing]
The next day,
we got a call from the US attorney,
and basically they said,
"Um, that's it.
We're gonna pull you guys out."
3 MONTHS LATER
[intriguing music rises]
MEXICO CITY
On the morning of March 18, 2009,
[former agent, in Spanish] I got intel
that the intelligence unit knew
that Vicentillo
was coming to Mexico City.
It was unusual.
The Zambadas usually stayed in Sinaloa.
He had no bodyguards.
They put a tail on Vicentillo
using bread and candy trucks.
They had teams set up,
just like you see in Hollywood movies.
They followed him.
Suddenly, someone said,
"Hey, he's in the Polanco area."
"Hey, he's heading toward…
He's on Reforma."
"No, we've got him."
"He's going into the Sheraton,
across from the Angel."
One or more members
of the intelligence unit
went into the hotel.
And there he was,
Vicentillo with two DEA agents.
Ones we knew really well.
What is the DEA doing?
Seeing DEA agents meeting
with Mayo Zambada's son,
without our knowing,
was extremely strange and suspicious.
The DEA…
The DEA in a hotel with drug traffickers.
That's a betrayal.
Suddenly, we saw
the DEA agents sitting there.
They said goodbye and left.
Our guys then put Vicentillo
under surveillance,
waiting for the right moment to grab him.
[interviewer, in English] Were you aware
that the meeting was happening, or…?
No. No, um…
[spluttering] At least not that I recall.
And I think that is
something I would remember.
Uh, the first thing
that I recall is learning, um…
He was arrested
like in the middle of the night. Um…
And so I learned
that he was in custody that same day.
[reporter 1, in Spanish]
El Mayo Zambada's son has been caught.
[reporter 2] One of the Sinaloa Cartel's
top bosses and his bodyguards
were captured by the Mexican military.
[crowd clamoring]
[former agent] They took him
without a single shot being fired.
They put up no resistance.
[intense music playing]
[former agent] Right away,
he started telling everyone
to call the DEA,
saying he had an immunity agreement
with them,
and that they had to let him go, or else…
That they were letting him go.
[in English] After, uh,
Vicente was arrested,
um, he received what I can only describe
as horrific legal advice,
where… where his defense was to claim
that… that he had been immunized
by the US government,
and not just that,
that the entirety of the Sinaloa Cartel
had been immunized,
um, through…
through this one aborted meeting.
[indistinct chatter]
[former agent, in Spanish]
I find it hard to believe
that Mayo Zambada's son, El Vicentillo,
would dare to meet with DEA agents
in Mexico City without a bodyguard,
if he wasn't completely sure
that there would be no problem.
My conclusion is that Vicentillo
had no bodyguards
because he felt protected.
But protected by whom?
Let's see, it could have been
one of the Mexican government's agencies,
but it could also be
that he felt protected by the DEA.
By the US government.
[intriguing music playing]
[Ferrara] By that point,
we moved forward very quickly,
and we got a charging instrument
in place against Vicente
that would allow for Vicente
to be extradited to Chicago.
It was all based
on the twins' cooperation.
[energetic music playing]
[Scherer, in Spanish] I think
El Mayo decided to talk to my father,
first and foremost,
because he was a trustworthy person.
Zambada and my father,
I think they had that in common.
They had a personal conversation.
The article shows, uh,
what Zambada thought of the government,
what he thought of the behavior
of the soldiers at that time, right?
What he thought about drug trafficking.
But besides
the purely journalistic conversation,
uh, they talked about family.
"I asked him about his son Vicente,
known as Vicentillo."
"He is my firstborn,
the oldest of five children."
"I call him 'mijo.'"
"He is also my compadre."
"I'd rather not talk about him."
"I don't know
if he's in Chicago or New York."
"Do you feel guilty
about his extradition?"
"I won't talk about my son today."
"I weep for him."
[line buzzes]
[dialing]
[Balliet, in English]
We started intercepting comms
that would make reference to "El Viejo."
Whoever was sending the message
showed respect, showed deference.
And we were like, "That's gotta be…
"That's gotta be someone
of extreme significance."
And then we started intercepting
Chapo's sons.
They would make reference
to Ratón, which is Ovidio,
or Güero, which is Joaquín.
The fall of 2013,
agent named Jack comes in,
and he's like, "We got 'em."
He brings me this lined sheet, and it's
between a female and another male.
The female is like just berating him,
up one side down the other.
Like, "You left me.
This is why you're alone."
"This is why you don't do well in life."
"Only God knows what you're gonna do.
You owe me money."
For anybody that's divorced,
you'd be like,
"That is an ex-wife, like,
just tearing into her into her ex."
Jack was like, "It's Griselda."
Chapo Guzmán and Griselda
had three sons together,
Ovidio, Joaquín, and Edgar.
Prior to his death,
Édgar had a young daughter
who was named, uh, Frida, F-R-I-D-A.
"Hey, give Fridita a kiss for me."
"Tell her she's the special one."
That is Chapo Guzmán talking to Griselda
about his granddaughter.
And he's sending Ratón to pick her up.
I was like,
"Fuck me. You're right. It's him."
GUZMÁN FACTION
Chapo Guzmán
is at the other end of that device.
The kicker to all this,
in that same time frame,
Serafín Zambada shows up
at the Nogales port of entry.
Anyway, in Nogales, Arizona,
DEA agents detained Serafín Zambada.
The last name
likely means something to you.
He is the son of drug trafficker
Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada.
He shows up at the port of entry,
using his real name, real ID,
and I was like, "Is this coincidence?"
Like, "What the fuck is happening
right now?"
So, I went down to the port,
Serafín was there.
He was wearing like a US-flag polo shirt.
I I remember asking him like,
"Hey, man, you know,
uh, where's your dad at?"
And he kinda smirked.
And I'm like, "Fair enough."
So we arrested him.
I remember telling the guys, "Look."
"Somebody has got to say something
about Mayo's kid getting arrested."
And, I mean,
it didn't take more than half a day.
We start getting the gossip,
like, "Hey, Sera got arrested."
"We don't know what happened.
Did anybody talk to Viejo?"
And then, that was when we were like,
"Viejo is Mayo. That's him."
Now we're gonna switch it into…
into manhunt mode.
[intense music rises]
FROM: ERIC S BALLIE
In late 2013,
we were intercepting
all of Chapo's inner network.
We had this constant flow of intel
as to where all these guys were
at any given point.
EX-WIFE GRISELDA
SON - OVIDIO
But Zambada…
Man, that guy was a ghost.
MAYO OP STILL RUNNING
Mayo was much, much more careful.
We never picked up
a direct intercept with Mayo.
I'm still not 100% certain
how he actually communicated.
OUR INTEL WILL NEVER BE
AS GOOD AS IT IS NOW.
But the intel was that Mayo frequented
a couple of ranches outside of Culiacán,
but they didn't, they didn't know
when exactly he was there, for how long.
But we're gonna take a shot.
If he is there, home run.
So, as we were going through
this process on how we were gonna do this,
we went to DEA and we were like,
"Who would you guys recommend?"
And they are like,
"SEMAR, the Mexican marines."
They are
the least corrupted unit in Mexico.
And they have a reputation
for kind of being fearless.
[man, in Spanish]
Before you start, do you have napkins?
Yes, I just came from an operation.
One of them opened fire
with a .223 caliber rifle.
One of the shots hit my vest.
I still have an open wound here.
[coughs]
MEXICAN SPECIAL FORCES AGEN
[continues coughing]
[spits]
Ah. Blood.
[in English] So I was like,
"Cool, that's… that's who we'll go with."
[agent, in Spanish] Command informed us
that we were going to Mexico City,
that we had been commissioned
for a service.
At first, we didn't know who it was for.
[Balliet] The decision was made
we're gonna hit Mayo's places first,
and then we were gonna execute
the Chapo side in Culiacán.
[agent, in Spanish] It was a surprise
when we found out and got the news
that we were going after
the Man with the Hat.
[energetic music playing]
[man speaking on radio]
[indistinct radio chatter]
[Balliet, in English]
So SEMAR hit one ranch.
There were three
of Mayo's main security force.
They basically said,
"Yeah, he comes here."
"He hasn't been here in a few days."
"We don't know when he's coming back."
"We just get the word
and set up the security for him."
And that was it.
It was nothing.
And I was like, "Fuck me."
And then, at that same ranch,
they found these, um, blue 50-gallon drums
that were buried throughout the ranch.
And in those drums,
just massive amounts of guns.
Individually Saran-wrapped.
To me, that was like almost
like their war chest.
Like, when shit hit the fan,
and they needed to pull out, like,
a ton of artillery and ammunition,
that was like their
"oh shit we're going to war" stockpile.
[ominous music playing]
So, that was a pretty significant event.
Like, that was, like,
as close as anybody had gotten to him.
[Scherer, in Spanish] "Have you felt
the army closing in on you?"
INTERVIEW WITH EL MAYO
PROCESO, 2010
"Four times. El Chapo, more."
"How close?"
"Above, over my head."
"I fled through the mountains."
"I know every branch,
every stream, every rock, everything."
"They will catch me if I stay still
or let my guard down, like El Chapo."
"Do you fear getting caught?"
"I am terrified of being locked up."
"If they caught you,
would you end your life?"
"I don't know
if I would have the guts to kill myself."
"I'd like to think I would.
I would kill myself."
"Is there space for peace in you?"
"I carry fear with me."
"All the time?"
"Always."
"Will they catch you in the end?"
"At any moment, or never."
"No traitor has appeared so far,"
he suddenly says to himself.
[man] I don't have a lot
in common with Vicente
outside of the fact
that I loved airplanes.
And he owned nine Cessna 209s.
I was in Witness Protection Phase 1
of the Bureau of Prisons.
Was VZ, who I later found out was
Vicente Zambada.
I met him at the same time I met Sammy.
Sammy the Bull.
But Vicente,
I don't recall
the exact time that I met him,
but it was probably over soccer
because we played all the time together.
He was very smart.
I didn't… [scoffs]
I… Honestly, I didn't know
anything about him at all for months.
But then he opened up to me
and started showing me pictures
of his lifestyle.
It was the most ridiculous picture
show-and-tell I've ever seen in my life.
He showed me pictures of his shoes.
And he'd be like,
"You see these shoes? $10,000."
That's how I remember him, you know,
as being a very happy guy.
But I can also imagine that he was,
you know, crying himself to sleep.
There was demons in his closet.
HALF A DOZEN TEENAGERS WERE MURDERED
FOR PLAYING ON THE SAME SOCCER TEAM
AS MAYO'S SON VICENTE.
WHEN I WAS 11,
THEY SHOT MY GRANDMA AND MY MOTHER.
THEY MADE THEIR FIRST ATTEMPT ON MY LIFE
WHEN I WAS 16.
THE FIRST TIME OF MANY.
MY DAD ASKED ME OVER THE PHONE
TO SEND HIS PEOPLE TO KILL ROBACHIVAS.
Q: DID YOU TRANSMIT THAT ORDER?
A: YES, I DID.
[Esquivel, in Spanish]
Vicentillo had been true to his nature.
Irreverent and feeling like a prince.
Someone who should be treated
with great care,
and also with certain privileges.
He had never had to yield to anything.
He had never lacked anything.
And he wouldn't give prosecutors
the information they wanted.
[tense music playing]
[reporter, in English]
Authorities have now relocated
an accused Mexican drug lord from Chicago
to a federal lockup near Detroit.
The Sinaloa Cartel boss
is unhappy with his accommodations.
[reporter 2] During his two years here
at the Chicago MCC,
Zambada Niebla wasn't once allowed
to the rooftop sports court to exercise.
Prison authorities said there
was too much risk
that the cartel boss
would be picked off by a sniper
or would stage a helicopter escape.
And he lives in total isolation,
according to the lawyer.
He says his client's haircut
was even delayed by three weeks.
All as a result
of Zambada Niebla being punished
for complaining
about the conditions at the MCC Chicago.
[Esquivel, in Spanish] At that point,
when they put Vicentillo in the SHU,
the prosecutor says
he started to suffer from mental problems.
HE'S SPENT OVER 700 HOURS
IN SOLITARY.
SORRY, 700 DAYS
YOU WERE DEAD INSIDE
FROM BEING IN THE SHU.
Mayo Zambada's weak point is Vicentillo.
He adores his firstborn.
He adores him.
Back in 2010,
El Mayo Zambada's interview
with Proceso came out.
I believe it was a message to Vicente.
That he was telling Vicente
that he was thinking about him
and let his son have a picture of him.
"IF I'M CAUGHT OR KILLED,
IT CHANGES NOTHING."
[Scherer] He sees that photograph,
where he is very well grounded,
and that brought him a lot of peace.
EL VICENTILLO. I CALL HIM "MIJO"…
I WEEP FOR HIM
[somber music playing]
[Esquivel] The prosecutor I spoke to
told me that it was her idea
to take him to the SHU to break him
and that one night the DEA agents
took him out and put him on the phone
with his father to talk.
[Ferrara, in English] The details
are something that I'm gonna skip,
but we put a system in place
where we had a designated phone
that was set up
where we could be alerted when Mayo
was comfortable and felt safe enough
that he was willing to get on these calls.
[phone ringing]
The first one happened
in the middle of the night.
[indistinct radio chatter]
Surreal to hear the voice.
[man, in Spanish] Here we are,
on the banks of the Rio Grande.
It was clear that it was good for them
to hear each other's voices.
And then Vicente transitioned into
what we asked him to do.
The principal goal was
truly father to son,
"Dad, I'm in trouble."
"Dad, I'm sitting here
in this American jail cell."
"Dad, you can help me
by doing the right thing,
by self-surrendering."
It was just "Dad, please, help… help me,
help through this problem."
[Ferrara] He did his best.
He tried to make that impassioned plea of,
"You've had your day," you know.
"It's time."
[ex-prisoner, in English] He told me
that he had been talking to his father.
He would come back from the phone call,
he would be excited.
Um…
And I also understood that he told me
that there was some kind of deal
that would be arranged
involving his father's health,
which was failing,
and that he would be released
when his father turned himself in.
Swap! His father would be in custody,
and he would be in Mexico.
That is…
it's how he explained it to me.
[Ferrara] We were able to facilitate
a couple of direct communications
for Vicente to make that plea to Mayo.
From the best we could tell,
from the second call,
he was in an airplane,
circling a… um, a cell tower.
'Cause he knew we could geolocate him
or the Mexicans could geolocate him.
And then when the call was over,
threw the phone out the window and…
Mayo said he would think about it.
Uh, but I think we bumped up against
the limits of his love for his kids.
Personnel from the Mexican Navy
and the Criminal Investigation Agency
are conducting an operation
in Sinaloa's capital
aimed, they say,
at capturing Mayo Zambada.
After Mayo's ranch,
you started to see news reporting.
The only real concern that I had
was that because because these guys
have been so intertwined together
for so long,
if there is an operation against Mayo,
what domino effects is that gonna have
on on the Chapo faction?
We were all in Tucson,
around monitors, just on pins and needles.
We're only gonna get one shot at this.
FEBRUARY 16, 2014
We were getting the live intercepts.
[agent, in Spanish]
Their intelligence is very good.
They were the ones
coordinating the operation.
They never entered into combat.
It was just us.
[Balliet, in English] We were also getting
periodic updates on a group chat.
And Chapo had a courier,
who was running all the errands for him.
He went by the moniker of "Nariz,"
which is like the "nose" for Spanish.
So, the guys on the ground,
they think they've got eyes on him.
I remember getting the message,
"We got eyes on Nariz."
And they grab Nariz.
And, like, they sent a picture,
and it's… [scoffs]
I can see why they call him "Nariz."
He's got… Like…
He's got a schnoz on him, right?
They interview him,
and he gives up the house.
He's like, "Chapo is there."
We're like, "Holy shit!"
[indistinct radio chatter]
[agent, in Spanish]
I had my .50 caliber
to repel any aggression.
The same as always, adrenaline.
There are only two options here.
You either act or freeze.
And if you freeze, you die.
My mother said this many years ago,
"I'd rather people be crying
at someone else's house, not mine."
The marines hit the house in Culiacán.
But there is this reinforced steel door.
They're just going to town on this thing.
Everybody in the house
hears the commotion.
When they finally get through,
they're like,
"This motherfucker
has a tunnel in a house,
underneath a bathtub."
[agent, in Spanish]
We didn't know he had a tunnel.
When things don't go right,
well, it's kind of tough.
SEMAR, like, they are just pissed.
So, they're like,
"We'll burn this city down."
[tense music pulsing]
[in Spanish] The navy's operations
are continuing in Sinaloa.
[in English] "We're gonna hit every house
that we know that is associated with him."
[reporter, in Spanish] 17 helicopters
were doing flyovers in 8 neighborhoods.
[reporter 2] The searches were the result
of the capture of ten individuals
from the criminal organization
led by Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada.
[agent] Each place we arrived at
and went into,
most of the places had luxury cars,
had drugs,
had weapons,
but he wasn't there.
Two days later,
his phone came on again, in Mazatlán.
The first thing that happened
was two planes took off.
We sent an advance team,
people in civilian cars,
people who would be there as tourists.
There was no way out of there,
except through the front door.
When we entered the hotel,
they, literally, had already surrendered.
They hadn't used their weapons
or anything,
they had already given up.
[agent 2] Who is under you?
Well, under me, the guys who
help me, who--
[agent 2] Who?
That would be Picudo,
Bravo…
Um…
Don't think there are many people.
Who else?
Oso.
Who else?
A guy people call Cholo.
[Balliet, in English] They took him
to the parking garage.
I still have the text.
"We got him, boys! We got him."
I remember seeing the photos
as they came through.
I was like "Fucking A, man!"
[indistinct chatter]
[man] Today, at 6:40 in the morning,
personnel of the Navy Secretariat
detained Joaquín Guzmán Loera.
[reporter] The president,
Enrique Peña Nieto, says,
"I wish to acknowledge
the work of Mexico's security forces
in the arrest
of Joaquín Guzmán Loera in Mazatlán."
"Congratulations to everyone."
This is what President Enrique Peña Nieto
just tweeted.
[Brian Williams, in English] The takedown
of the most wanted drug kingpin,
and how US and Mexican authorities
finally got their man
after over a decade of escape and evasion.
[agent, in Spanish]
Applause from everyone.
"Very good. Very well done."
And they returned us to base.
I am on the boardwalk.
Behind me, the Miramar Tower.
Since Saturday,
when the drug lord was captured,
this stretch of Avenida del Mar
has become the most traveled and visited.
Cars are moving at a snail's pace
because drivers and passengers
want to see the building
where the most important news event
took place.
FEBRUARY 22, 2014
JULY 11, 2015
[Balliet, in English]
I remember that text.
It's like, "He's gone."
I was like, "You gotta be shitting me."
[in Spanish] Joaquín Guzmán Loera,
El Chapo, leader of the Pacific Cartel,
escaped for the second time
from a federal maximum security prison.
This time, from the Federal Center
for Rehabilitation No. 1 "El Altiplano,"
located in Almoloya de Juárez,
in the State of Mexico.
[agent] When we learned the news,
there was a lot of rage and anger.
[reporter] This is the surveillance camera
that, according to the federal government,
has two blind spots.
This one where I'm standing,
which is the toilet.
And over there, where the showers are.
And that's where the hole is.
[reporter 2, in English] This time,
his escape is the stuff of movies.
Slipping through a small hole in his cell
and into a tunnel,
complete with ventilation,
lights, and a motorcycle on rails,
apparently used to help dig him out.
[man, in Spanish] He's really
making a fool out of the government.
He's laughing in their faces.
He can do whatever he wants.
[Peña Nieto] This is,
without a doubt, an affront to Mexico.
But I am also confident
that the Mexican institutions,
particularly those in charge
of public security,
will be up to the task,
with the strength and determination
to recapture this criminal.
[agent] You get
a deep sense of dissatisfaction
because we had put our lives on the line
to do things right.
For the government
to let him go again for a few pesos.
What are we doing here, then?
JANUARY 8, 2016
LOS MOCHIS, SINALOA
[rapid gunfire]
[indistinct chatter]
-[man 1] Move forward.
-[man 2] Hands up! Hands up! Hands up!
[indistinct shouting]
[man 3] Okay. Move it.
[agent] This time it wasn't about
how to capture him anymore.
It was about killing him
if he tried to escape.
[man 4 whistles]
[agent] A third time
would be very complicated.
[reporter] Breaking news.
"I want to tell the Mexican people
Joaquín Guzmán Loera has been detained."
This is what President Enrique Peña Nieto
is reporting on his Twitter account.
EPISODE III: RECAPTURE
[man] I think one of the best ways
we could solve this problem with El Chapo
is that he should go to the United States.
They can put him on trial there.
They should take him there.
Can you imagine a third time? I can't,
but in this world, anything is possible.
PRISON SECURITY
[guard] What's your job?
Farmer.
[reporter 1] "We will continue to see
Ismael Zambada García, El Mayo,
as the kingpin,
because he still is,
and he makes the most important decisions
about the structure."
[reporter 2] This is the scenario
Guzmán Loera most fears.
Going to a country,
maybe far away from his family,
likely far away from his family,
and where he will have few, very few tools
to get a favorable deal.
[reporter 3] We will also see his children
and Joaquín Guzmán Loera's children,
who are also assuming the succession
in what amounts to a family clan,
because the Sinaloa organization
continues to be this clan.
[lively music playing]
AUGUST 15, 2016
PUERTO VALLARTA, JALISCO
[Esquivel] El Chapo's sons
play an important role
when their father is arrested.
That's when they start fighting…
for more power.
But when they mess
with the Jalisco Cartel,
they crossed the line
of what they could control
and realized that they were vulnerable,
and they were not yet the mature bosses
they considered themselves to be.
El Chapo's sons
liked to go out with friends
to nightclubs and restaurants.
And one night,
they went to a restaurant in Jalisco.
And suddenly,
a group of gunmen from
the Jalisco New Generation Cartel…
kidnapped El Chapo's sons,
Iván and Jesús Alfredo.
[reporter] Men with guns
entered La Leche restaurant
and held the diners at gunpoint.
The operation lasted
one minute 29 seconds.
The whereabouts of Alfredo Guzmán
are unknown.
[reporter 2, in English]
A law enforcement official tells CNN
Alfredo, who is believed to be part
of the new leadership
of his father's Sinaloa Cartel,
was said
to not be taking his role seriously.
The source says Alfredo
"had been partying a lot
and was caught off guard,
allowing for the abduction to happen."
[in Spanish] That's the problem
with a lack of experience.
Mayo has to rescue them.
[reporter 3] For almost five days,
Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada
is reported to have led the negotiations
to free not one,
but both
of Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán's sons.
El Mayo told him, "Please,
give my people back to me safe and sound."
So, he said, El Mencho said to him,
"I will give them to you, Mayo."
"But next time, they need permission."
Because he saved their lives there,
there in Jalisco.
He loved his compadre,
Chapo Guzmán, very much.
Until that point,
they were like a big family.
So, I think that's why he did it.
[lively music fades]
[plane engines whirring]
NEW YORK
[woman, in English]
I was about to leave for the day.
And I was halfway out the door,
and somebody yelled down the hall,
"He's coming."
[intriguing music playing]
The first time we saw him,
I thought he looked surprised to be there.
I mean, we were all surprised.
You know, especially somebody
with so much lore that surrounded him.
Here's a person we have been investigating
for almost a decade.
I mean, it was like,
I will never forget that day.
JANUARY 3, 2019
[Esquivel, in Spanish]
At that trial, in the Brooklyn court,
one of the most anticipated figures
was Mayo's favorite son,
the prince of the Sinaloa Cartel,
none other than El Vicentillo.
When El Vicentillo came in,
all of us who were there
were paying attention to see
how he was going to behave
when he met eyes with Chapo Guzmán.
The thing about El Vicentillo
was about the morbid curiosity of seeing
two big players betray each other.
And what did happen was,
in fact, a greeting between friends,
the bow and the hand on the chest,
which is very common among people
who are loyal and fond of each other,
as if to say, "Respect."
"Compadre, here I am.
You know I have no choice."
[Parlovecchio] When Vicente
came into the courtroom
and stepped onto the witness stand,
he actually looked over at El Chapo,
and made a sign of respect to him.
[in Spanish] He, like, touched his chest,
addressing El Chapo,
like some kind of apology or some kind
of message between them, right?
The defense even asked them,
"Why did you greet Chapo Guzmán
like that?"
[man, in English] You're testifying
against him. He's your enemy, right?
[Vicente, in Spanish] No, sir.
He's not my enemy.
[man, in English]
Thought you were doing him a favor?
[Vicente, in Spanish] No, sir.
He knew I was going to come
and testify against him.
I pleaded guilty
when my compadre Chapo
was free along with my father,
and I vowed to cooperate
with the Prosecutor's Office.
I gave them my word
that I would testify if they asked me to,
and that's why I'm here today.
I can't see the future.
I didn't know
that my compadre Chapo would be here.
But I gave my word, and here I am.
He's not my enemy, he's my compadre Chapo.
[Esquivel] He called him
"my compadre Chapo."
"My buddy Chapo."
[woman, in English] There was
one wild exchange
in Vicente's testimony, where he said
he had confided
in El Chapo and in his father,
and said that he wanted to potentially
retire from the cartel.
YES, I WANTED TO LEAVE THE CARTEL,
TO RETIRE FROM IT ALL
WITH THE PERMISSION OF MY FATHER
AND MY COMPADRE CHAPO.
[in Spanish] El Chapo said,
"I'm putting you in contact
with my friends at the DEA
so you can talk to them, right?"
So, what do you mean,
"my friends at the DEA"?
[Crane-Newman] Ultimately, El Chapo
and El Mayo recommended to him
that maybe he could rat on some
of their enemies and rival cartels.
And that could be
how he got his early retirement
and… and… and got a lenient sentence.
[Ferrara] It wasn't something
that we learned about until much later.
When Vicente came
to that meeting in Mexico City,
he was authorized
by Chapo and Mayo to cooperate.
As sophisticated
as Chapo and Mayo were at that time,
I don't think when they authorized him
to go to Mexico City
to cooperate with DEA,
that they had any reasonable belief
that that was going to lead
to their individual demise.
[Esquivel, in Spanish] In this theater
that unfolds in various plays
with the hearings in the courts,
I think there are
even some ironic moments, right?
Because when they have to testify
against someone who was very close,
friends, colleagues,
or even family members,
and they know
that they will be convicted, found guilty,
as was the case with El Chapo,
I think they take the opportunity
to say goodbye for the last time, right?
And that's what Vicentillo did.
He knew there was no way his compadre
could be freed from life imprisonment.
Because the only way
to get out of Florence, Colorado,
where he is being held,
is feet first.
What he did was look directly at him.
And that's when you realize
the mettle they have too.
Even when they are
on the good side or the bad side,
under the authority of the United States.
He put his right hand back on his chest.
And I remember he took off his glasses.
And he bowed to him, "Goodbye, compadre."
That's how I interpreted it.
"See you in the next life,
if there is one."
[reporter, in English] Drug lord
Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán
has been convicted
of drug-trafficking charges
at a trial in New York.
[reporter 2] Guzmán today breaking
his silence, telling the judge,
"There was no justice here.
You denied me a fair trial."
But the judge,
noting El Chapo's overwhelming evil,
sentencing him to life plus 30 years,
Guzmán ordered to pay
12.6 billion dollars in restitution.
The man who ordered
the torture and murder of his enemies,
then blowing a kiss to his wife,
just before leaving the courtroom.
[López Obrador, in Spanish]
It was a decision taken by the US.
We are respectful
of those legal procedures.
We don't wish anyone harm.
I wish
that those who go down these paths
would reconsider
and think about
how very precious a gift
freedom is.
[Scherer] "I turn myself in
to the government so they can execute me."
"My case should be an example.
A warning to everyone."
"They execute me and euphoria breaks out."
"But after a few days,
we realize that nothing has changed."
[thunder rumbles]
"Nothing."
"With the kingpin fallen,
the drug problem affects millions."
"How to control them?"
"As for the imprisoned,
dead, or extradited kingpins,
their replacements are already out there."
[Balliet, in English] We knew that
if you take Mayo and Chapo
out of the equation,
the Sinaloa Cartel
is not gonna just, like, dissolve.
They have a succession plan,
and the plan
was that Chapo's kids would ascend
and take over his side of that.
The same with Mayo.
[in Spanish]
Drug trafficking is a matter of blood.
I mean, I don't create an empire
to leave it to a friend.
I create an empire for my children.
[Balliet, in English] In 2014, we had,
in my professional opinion,
a tremendous amount of evidence
involving Iván, Ovidio, and Joaquín.
I think not grabbing them in 2014,
looking back, was…
was a strategic misstep.
So, I have…
That one sticks with me a bit.
[reporter] We are in the midst
of the worst drug crisis in US history.
The drug is fentanyl.
A synthetic painkiller
100 times more powerful than morphine.
As a street drug, it is far more potent
than even the purest forms of heroin.
Illicit use
of the synthetic opioid painkiller
has ravaged the United States.
And Mexican drug cartels
now see huge profits
and an addictive market for the drug.
[Valdés, in Spanish]
The rush to win and control and expand
the production of fentanyl by Los Chapitos
is the huge market
that exists in the United States.
You say, "Well, they got crazy rich."
But they provoked a very strong reaction
from the United States government.
They woke up the tiger and made it angry.
And the tiger is about to swat them.
[woman, in English] El Chapo's sons,
Ovidio, Iván, and Alfredo,
known as Los Chapitos,
became the new leaders
of the Sinaloa Cartel.
They inherited
a global drug-trafficking empire
and they made it more ruthless,
more violent, more deadly.
And they used it
to spread a new poison. Fentanyl.
As a direct result of their actions,
we have lost hundreds of thousands
of American lives.
And so, the DEA proactively targeted
the Chapitos' network.
-[in Spanish] Don't let them get away!
-[man] Come out.
[man 2] Come out, Ovidio.
[shouting]
[intense music playing]