Battle of Culiacan: Heirs of the Cartel (2025) s01e03 Episode Script
Hunt the Mouse
[tense music playing]
-[indistinct chatter]
-[soldier 1] God damn it!
[man] Get in here!
-[soldier 2] Come out, the three of you.
-[soldier 3] Come out.
-Out.
-[woman] Easy!
-[soldier 1] Ovidio, stop.
-I don't want any more trouble, please.
We're talking about almost starting a war.
Ovidio was extremely cautious
after the first Culiacanazo.
We were wrong.
He knew that what had happened
would not stop at that.
There is no impunity for criminals.
He lived in a very paranoid state.
Ovidio Guzmán is free and safe.
Ovidio leaves Culiacán, why?
Are they safe? Where are they now?
In a safe place.
[news anchor] In Culiacán, Sinaloa?
In a safe place.
It was very important for the US
because of Ovidio Guzmán's role
in fentanyl trafficking into the US.
That's the origin of Ovidio's recapture.
[theme music playing]
[theme music concludes]
BATTLE OF CULIACAN: HEIRS OF THE CARTEL
EPISODE 3
HUNT THE MOUSE
[somber music playing]
[indistinct chatter, laughter]
Life prepares no one to bury a child.
His company called me,
saying they were worried,
because he hadn't shown up
the day before, nor that morning.
So, I called my husband, Mike, and said,
"Look, they've just called,
I'm going over to Jonathan's,
to see what's going on."
-Hi.
-[Cristina] Hi, what are you cooking?
Just some croquettes
[Cristina] When we got there,
we opened the door,
and he had probably been dead
for more than a day.
He died of an overdose of heroin
that was mixed with fentanyl.
[in English]
Dear Jonathan, happy birthday to you ♪
Make a wish.
-[man] All right!
-[Cristina cheers, applauds]
[in Spanish]
When Jonathan died on June 13, 2019,
185 people a day were dying
in this country due to overdose.
Almost five years later, it was 300.
[ominous music playing]
[in English] Federal authorities
tell us their biggest concern
is the number of deaths
across the country that are linked
Drug overdose deaths
are up 30 percent in the last year
according to the CDC.
Could be used as a weapon
of mass destruction, Shannon.
The fentanyl crisis in America
is the worst in the history of America.
We have never seen this amount of death.
This is a poisoning at record levels.
This is 30 grams of salt.
If this was 30 grams of fentanyl,
this could potentially kill 15,000 people.
Because it only takes
two milligrams to kill.
This is 300 grams of salt.
If this was 300 grams of fentanyl,
this could kill 150,000 people.
[melancholic music playing]
[in Spanish] For me, it was not only
the shock of losing my eldest son,
but also, the question of,
"What do I do now
with the love I have for him?"
[humming celebratory music]
[in English] Congratulations.
[woman] Jonathan Diehl.
-Whoo!
-[all laugh, cheer]
[Cristina, in Spanish]
I have turned his old room
into a sort of base
for some form of inspiration, right?
To help families deal
with this terrible problem we have,
with fentanyl and addiction.
When I wonder, every now and then,
whether my son knew
what he was using
I'm a hundred percent convinced
that he didn't.
[truck horns blaring]
[ominous music playing]
[Manelich] Fentanyl is being mixed
with other types of drugs,
it's causing instant addiction,
and it's creating an enormous need.
And that, for a drug trafficker,
is the best possible news.
[Anne, in English] To drive addiction,
the Chapitos hide fentanyl in pills
that look like oxycodone,
Xanax, or Percocet.
They mix fentanyl in with cocaine,
heroin, and methamphetamine,
all to induce Americans to take fentanyl
without knowing it,
and to get hooked on it.
They just don't care,
because they make billions
of dollars doing it.
[Jorge, in Spanish] The Chapitos
had a, let's call it, "marketing success"
when they found
a space for illegal fentanyl
during the opioid crisis in the US.
[reporter] Fentanyl is getting
into the US by plane,
and in personal cars
that cross the border from Mexico.
I recognize that the US
bears a lot of responsibility
for the drug problem.
Obviously,
the drug demand in this country
is a very important issue.
The bad guy tends to be an outsider,
or else you'll have an internal debate.
But the reality is
they've created a pandemic in the US.
[in English]
And then the cartels in Mexico realized,
"We have all these people addicted,
we can now make the synthetic drugs,
we don't have to move the heroin."
REWARD
5,000,000.00 DOLLARS
[Derek] Ovidio Guzmán and his brothers,
they're all part of this transnational
narco-terrorist organization.
[in Spanish] And Ovidio played a big role
in the development and setting-up
of the fentanyl labs in Culiacán,
and from there, they exported to the US.
-[music concludes]
-[birds chirping]
[in English] When I visited Sinaloa,
I was certainly aware of the fact
that the drug cartels
were obviously synthesizing
methamphetamine and fentanyl.
[ominous music playing]
[Uttam] Before I'd arrived,
the Mexican law enforcement
had seized a methamphetamine lab
in Sinaloa.
This was a methamphetamine lab,
but it could just as well
have been a fentanyl lab.
They wanted to show us
what a lab looked like,
capable of producing 3,000 kilos
of methamphetamine a week.
[soldier 1, in Spanish]
The Sinaloa Cartel
is a very large organization.
The detection of clandestine labs
is not an easy task.
[helicopter blades whirring]
[soldier 2]
We often look for ravines in certain hills
by chopper reconnaissance,
and we can determine
the location of the lab.
[tense music playing]
[sub-officer 2]
After that, we get into the lab,
we establish a perimeter.
[soldier] Don't move!
[sub-officer 2]
Once we establish the perimeter,
we let the chemical team know,
and the trained staff,
so they can dismantle it,
separate any compounds
they consider dangerous,
and proceed
with the destruction of the lab.
It's very rare for us to find
a finished product.
What we do find are chemical precursors,
for cooking the drugs.
[Peniley] You no longer need
to have providers in Colombia.
What you need are precursors,
which come, in the case of Sinaloa,
from Germany and China.
They come through the seaports,
like the Port of Manzanillo, in Colima,
and then there's Veracruz.
[ship horn blaring]
[intense music playing]
PORT OF MANZANILLO
[captain] In recent years, we have secured
larger amounts
of these types of substances.
We brought almost 150 tons
of chemical precursors
before the ministerial authorities.
[Manelich] And all these precursors
that come to these Mexican ports
are needed to make the final product,
which is then sent to the US.
[captain] These groups
have unlimited financial power.
Their only limit is their imagination.
[Jorge] And the Chapitos, Iván Archivaldo,
Ovidio, all the brothers,
are the ones who are growing
this whole fentanyl "industry."
This is why Ovidio Guzmán
has an arrest warrant against him,
and is being investigated in the US.
[music concludes]
[ominous music playing]
Ovidio, after the Culiacanazo fiasco,
was in hiding all the time.
Because he knew the authorities
would be looking for him.
Back then, Ovidio went everywhere
with an impressive security detail.
He stayed out of Culiacán
and its surrounding areas,
precisely because he knew
he could be targeted there.
[Peniley] My sources tell me
Ovidio's whole arrest deal
was a constant demand
from the US government.
Mexico agrees to go
after the Chapitos at a time
when they have been named
the USA's number one target.
But there's also
a very clear motivation in the army
that wasn't there in other cases.
An operation of this kind
to arrest Ovidio Guzmán
was undoubtedly a reprisal.
[Tim] A reprisal for what had happened
with the threats to the families
of the soldiers in Culiacán.
[in English] The DEA had been looking
at Ovidio for many, many years.
[Anne] This case should send
a clear message to the Chapitos,
"Men and women of DEA
will relentlessly pursue you
to save American lives,
and to protect the national security
of the United States of America."
[reporter, in Spanish]
The big question now is, "Where is Ratón?"
"Where is Ovidio Guzmán?"
Can you confirm today
that Ovidio and Archivaldo are safe?
Where are they now?
In a safe place.
In Culiacán, Sinaloa?
In a safe place.
He goes three or five miles
from Culiacán,
to a ranch.
JOSE L. GONZÁLEZ MEZA
EL CHAPO'S LAWYER
And there, the Chapito
is exposed to kidnapping or arrest.
[tense music playing]
[Luis] They started tracing Ovidio,
minute by minute,
all of his movements,
his different properties,
his family, his daughters.
[Peniley] They knew Ovidio
kept on the move.
And they knew it was very likely
that Ovidio would spend
the holidays with his family.
[Jorge] Because they had already
infiltrated the security team,
Ovidio Guzmán's protection team,
that helped them trace,
with great accuracy,
his movements.
[Peniley] And the US manages to intercept
the Sinaloa Cartel's radio communications.
[computer beeping]
That shows there was quite
a long preparation
ahead of that moment,
that involved the US,
but also
some specialized agents in Mexico.
[suspenseful music playing]
MEXICAN ARMY HQ
[ex-soldier] They just told us,
"You're going to Culiacán
for a two-month operation."
We didn't know what the operation was.
And that's fine,
because if they started disclosing,
we'd lose the surprise factor.
[ex-colonel] We planned six months ahead.
We carried out intel-gathering,
analysis and intelligence tasks.
There is a special task force
in the Secretariat of National Defense
dedicated to these types of activities,
which allowed us to have
all this information,
and carry out an arrest
based on that intelligence.
[music concludes]
The role of intelligence
and information was crucial.
[ominous music playing]
[Jorge] It was the key
to tracing Ovidio Guzmán's movements,
and to finding the ideal place and time
to carry out the arrest.
[computer beeping]
The operation started trying to figure out
if he was meeting
his family first, for Christmas,
then for New Year's Eve,
and then for Three Kings' Day.
JANUARY 5, 2023
[Mike] Ovidio was having a Christmas party
at a ranch outside Culiacán.
His mother, Griselda,
was going to be there,
his wife, his children.
All that information was passed on
to the Mexican government.
That's why the operation
was carried out on January 5th,
the day before Three Kings' Day in Mexico.
Suddenly, our commander says,
"Stay alert, the operation starts now."
We started getting messages
from our sources in Sinaloa.
They talked about seeing choppers,
a whole operation,
that another Culiacanazo
was about to happen.
Until I see one message that says,
"It's in Jesús María."
Most people know
that's where Chapo's sons lived.
[suspenseful music playing]
[ex-soldier]
We were looking all around us,
checking everything was okay.
Because at any given moment,
it could all go wrong.
[guns cocking]
[ex-soldier] When I learned
it was Ovidio Guzmán,
the first thing you think of
is the first Culiacanazo.
So that gets the adrenaline pumping high.
[Jorge] It was an organized operation.
There was a land operation, of course,
but basically,
it was carried out by air teams.
They attacked before sunrise.
[gunshots]
[reporter 1] In a spectacular operation
with army helicopters,
an elite task force
of the Mexican Army and Air Force
captured, this morning,
near Culiacán, Sinaloa,
Ovidio Guzmán, Chapo Guzmán's son.
What happened in Jesús María
was a real combat.
[reporter 2] Since early morning,
when the leader
of the Chapitos was arrested,
the cartel has unleashed violence
in Sinaloa.
[ex-soldier]
Many trucks were coming full throttle,
their thugs were surrounding
the different residential facilities.
-[distant gunfire]
-[indistinct chatter]
[man] Look at that.
[ex-soldier]
"You position yourselves here,
we'll move you later,
because the trucks are coming this way."
[man] The car, we saw something
being fired or blown from the car.
It was very stressful
and our adrenaline was high.
[distant gunfire]
[ex-soldier] The moment they caught him,
they drove him or flew him away
without anyone noticing it.
No one really knows how they got him out.
[reporter 1]
We are not sure what's happening.
There are roadblocks and looting
in Culiacán and other Sinaloa areas.
The authorities are asking people
to stay at home,
and assuring people
they are acting accordingly.
That's all the information.
[reporter 2] What we know is
there are four roadblocks,
but there are five reported.
One at Blvd. Enrique Cabrera,
and Rotarismo.
Another one at Pedro Infante, El Dorado,
at Lola Beltrán,
and around the penitentiary
[reporter 3]
We don't know what's happening.
We don't know what's happening.
Please, stay safe, stay at home.
The Sinaloa Cartel used a similar strategy
to the first Culiacanazo.
They took some roads,
thinking he was going to be taken by land.
[reporter 4] Federal authorities
have cancelled all activities
and asked people to stay calm.
We'll be standing by
for potential new fights.
[ex-colonel] Roadblocks, cars lit on fire
on every Culiacán exit,
to try and set Ovidio Guzmán free
once again.
[Cristóbal]
The trucks go all the way there.
[distant gunfire]
[Cristóbal] Get down! Get down!
[tense music playing]
There are more roadblocks being set up.
We've now got nine roadblocks in Culiacán.
Three in Mochis, six in the south area.
We have seven police officers wounded,
and we know there
are also army officers wounded.
We're still working
to get the situation under control.
[gunshots]
[Jorge] It was an operation
made up of many phases,
and it was carried out, to be clear,
with a high degree of violence.
[reporter] One state police officer dead
and one army soldier in the ICU
as we speak.
[Jesús] That first day,
I wasn't able to get to Jesús María,
because the road was blocked.
While I'm recording, some trailers
and buses are being set on fire,
and a group of armed people passes by
and one points his gun at me,
and tells me to leave,
to stay out of the streets.
[alarm blaring]
-[looter] Get everything!
-[Jesús] Because in Culiacán,
the looting has started,
looting of cars and shops,
and the bullying of people
who were on the street.
That was total chaos.
[man cheers, laughs]
Look at that!
[Jesús] The Sinaloa Cartel,
when they learned Ovidio
had been flown to the Culiacán airport,
they went there.
[reporter 1] Videos have been circulating
of trucks,
full of armed sicarios,
moving through the Sinaloan capital.
[Jesús] One difference between
the first Culiacanazo and the second
is that, in the second one,
they did attack the citizens.
They did that at the Culiacán airport.
[reporter 2] The armed men
under the command of the Chapitos
are trying to take over the airport
to stop the transfer of Ovidio Guzmán.
I got to the airport,
and they weren't firing yet.
There were flights with passengers on,
waiting for permission to depart.
Hi, friends.
Well, the National Guard
have said the airport will be closed
until 10:00 p.m. tonight.
The first messages
I received on my phone
said the airport was about
to be taken over by sicarios.
[sicario] We'll be taking the airport.
[negotiator] Okay.
It was approximately 8:30 in the morning.
[distant gunfire]
[Ernesto R] They were recommending
not leaving the airport.
It was very dangerous.
The Guard are all around,
like that, like that one.
Protected inside these walls.
I decided to leave, and at about
150 yards outside the building,
the Air Force plane was arriving.
And I recorded that because I thought,
"Great, backup has arrived."
But then it lands,
and it's continuing on the runway,
and when it gets to the end of it,
it's fired upon.
With heavy gunfire, big calibers.
[distant gunfire]
The people, the Chapitos,
get to the airport,
and they stop a plane, and shoot at it.
But Ovidio is not there.
[man] My friend there is ready.
That's the Air Force plane
that's just landed.
No way.
At that moment, I started running back
towards the airport,
to try to get back in
and feel safe again.
-[music concludes]
-I was recording
when the armed men got to the airport
and shot the plane up.
And the sicarios attacked
a commercial plane.
-[gunshots]
-[ominous music playing]
[Jesús] They started firing,
thinking that maybe Ovidio
would be quickly taken away from the city.
[bystander 1] They are shooting up
the plane!
[bystander 2] They are shooting
at the plane! That's fucked up!
[Ernesto R] That was when I realized
they were going all out,
they were not playing games.
People were screaming, and crying,
running, terrified.
[indistinct clamoring]
I was literally shaking.
I was so scared.
I called my sister,
and said, "Don't say anything,
just don't hang up on me."
"Just don't hang up on me.
Just leave the phone."
"I think they got in."
[indistinct clamoring]
Obviously, everything goes
through your mind.
They could come in with their guns
and shoot everyone here.
-[loud bang]
-[indistinct chatter]
[Jesús] They knew there was going to be
a reaction from organized crime.
But by the time that reaction happened,
unlike with the first Culiacanazo,
Ovidio was already out of Culiacán.
[reporter] This recording shows
Ovidio Guzmán, also known as "El Ratón,"
boarding an Air Force helicopter.
They are taking him to the DA's office
specialized in organized crime
in Mexico City.
[pensive music playing]
And all of the Sinaloa Cartel's attempts
proved useless this time,
because Ovidio was not in Culiacán,
he had already been taken away.
JANUARY 6, 2023
Good afternoon to you all.
Officers of the Mexican Army
have arrested Ovidio N,
alleged leader
of the "Los Menores" faction
allied to the Pacific Cartel.
This arrest represents a resounding blow
to the power structure
of the Pacific Cartel.
INTELLIGENCE, THE KEY TO THE SUCCESS
HOW DID THEY MANAGE TO CAPTURE OVIDIO?
[Jorge] What happened in Jesús María
is the biggest victory
the security forces have had
against drug cartels
in the past six years.
-[tense music playing]
-[gun cocks]
[ex-colonel] It was a more detailed job.
The time chosen,
5:00 a.m., was more suitable,
on January 5th,
so that there were fewer chances
of a quick response by the targets.
They even chose days
where there was a lower risk
of having people
in working hours, in the city.
[Jorge] That is also why they decided
to do it in Jesús María,
and not in Culiacán.
They had located Ovidio in Culiacán too,
but it would have been impossible
to carry out
an operation of that scope
in the middle of Culiacán
without causing great damage,
or with an aim to not kill Ovidio.
[tense music continues]
This time, there were no delays,
no missing search warrants.
This time, it was well-planned.
The authorities have learned
their lesson after the Culiacanazo.
And the intelligence job
was carried out right.
They understood
they could not underestimate
the resources of the criminal organization
or how they would respond.
[music concludes]
WELCOME TO JESÚS MARÍA
[somber music playing]
This time around, the authorities
went with a bigger offensive,
they were more violent too,
and they shot at all of them too
from the chopper.
The bullets hit schools, houses, shops.
Everything that was flown over
by the helicopter
was hit by the bullets.
Outside Ovidio's home,
there were some trucks with "hechizos,"
which is handmade armor,
and they still had the place
where they put their rifles.
And they had the mouse stickers.
They were vehicles hit by the bullets.
[ominous music playing]
[Luis] I got there early in the morning.
I hadn't told anyone I was going.
By then, I'd already had threats
from the Sinaloa Cartel.
There was a 60,000-dollar price
on my head,
for covering the cartel
and their activities,
and for various misunderstandings
we've had.
OVIDIO'S HOME IN JESÚS MARÍA
-[Luis] Is it open?
-[driver] What?
-[Luis] Is it open?
-[driver] Don't stay here.
-Where to?
-[Luis] Are there any reporters?
And when I got out of my car,
I got out with my phone in hand.
And I turned around
and I saw Griselda, Ovidio's mom,
with her lawyers.
And from afar, she started
signaling "no" to me, like this,
and she pulled up her face mask.
Then I saw the trucks start leaving,
and there was no one left in the house,
and there was a hole in one
of the outside walls in Ovidio's home.
So, I said to my photographer
and my other companion, "I'm going in."
I'm going in right now.
I grabbed my camera
and got in through the hole.
Yes
[in English] For his people to clear
[in Spanish] And the first thing
I saw is that we had to watch out,
because there were still
unexploded grenades on the ground.
There were lots of bullet shells.
Ovidio's cars were there.
A G Wagon and some Mercedes.
Armored, but with bullet holes all over.
Then inside Ovidio's home,
it was a mixture of,
like there had been a party,
because there are wine bottles.
There's a nativity scene
there's flowers, food.
All of that was interspersed
with pools of blood,
bullets, grenades, guns.
And Ovidio's room was completely looted.
He has his initials embroidered
on his pillowcases,
his and his wife's, Adriana.
And some pillowcases
are filled with shoes,
like the army grabbed the pillowcases,
according to the neighbors,
to put everything in them, like jewelry,
cash, and take it with them.
I think the most shocking thing for me
was the level of violence
that was experienced in that house.
[tense music playing]
With your permission, Mr. President.
JANUARY 6, 2023
Good morning.
We will inform you now
about the operations
that took place over in Sinaloa.
Twenty-one people,
members of this criminal group,
were arrested,
securing four .50 Barrett firearms,
six .50 machine guns,
26 long guns, two short ones
[Marcelo] I remember that
when Ovidio Guzmán was arrested,
he had 47 guns.
In his inner circle alone.
[news anchor] It's well-known
that organized crime in this country
are oftentimes better armed
than law enforcement themselves.
What does that show you?
What can you conclude?
We can conclude that without a doubt,
the organizations
referred to as "cartels," in Mexico,
more than 70 percent of their firepower
comes from armories
in the south border of the US.
The important thing is the size
of the weapon and its firepower.
One gun in particular. The Barrett .50.
[soft dramatic music playing]
It's almost five feet long.
And has a range of 2,000 yards.
[cartel members speaking indistinctly]
[Alejandro] It's a gun
that can shoot a chopper down.
[cartel member 1, excitedly]
The plane went down!
[cartel member 2, excitedly]
It fucking did!
The fucking plane went down!
They are armor-piercing guns.
Machine guns, long guns
Military-grade weapons
in the hands of civilians
on Culiacán streets.
And 40 more trucks were used,
of which, 26 were armored.
What those civilians had
on those pick-up trucks
were Browning machine guns,
which can be modified
into a fully automatic.
So, who sold them those weapons?
[reporter] This is a .5 caliber gun,
a weapon we have seen
Sinaloa Cartel sicarios use.
The Culiacanazo showed
there is an arsenal,
a firepower they have,
a set of weapons that they shouldn't have.
Guns you can see at an armory in the US.
To me, as an American,
it's very shameful to see
weapons produced in my country
in the hands of criminals in Mexico.
What I need is for you not to send
more weapons to the border,
and control them.
In Mexico, those weapons are a crime.
It's exactly the same
as when you ask me
not to bring fentanyl into the US.
I recognize that the US have to do more.
What both governments prefer to do
is blame the other government,
and do nothing! Nothing!
We can't go on like his,
because the only ones
winning are the bad guys.
In the operation, ten soldiers died,
35 were wounded,
19 alleged criminals were taken down,
and 21 were arrested.
So far, no civilian casualties
were reported.
[Jorge] It was a combat, not a showdown.
There is an indefinite
number of casualties.
They talked about around 20 casualties,
but everyone is convinced
there were a lot more.
Thirty-five soldiers
were wounded by fire guns.
Additionally, so far, there are no reports
of any innocent civilian losing their life
as a result of these operations.
I understand that the official figures
of missing and murdered people
do not match what the families
are saying in Jesús María.
[indistinct chanting, clamoring]
The families in Jesús María protested
at the office of the Sinaloa governor
RUBÉN ROCHA MOYA
SINALOA GOVERNOR
demanding the return of their children.
[chanting] We want justice, not fear!
Some human rights groups
showed there were still corpses
in the hills.
Bodies of people who had fled the town,
but who were already wounded.
The authorities
never recognized those bodies.
The same happened all over again.
The number of deaths was greater
than what the authorities informed.
140 MISSING PEOPLE REPORTED
THE DEVASTATION THAT THE ARREST CAUSED
[ex-colonel]
There were also many soldiers who died,
but that didn't stop us
from carrying out this operation,
and succeeding at it.
[reporter] A total of 1,000 soldiers
were sent to Culiacán, Sinaloa,
to try and contain the violence triggered
by this historic arrest,
and most importantly,
to protect the citizens.
[soft tense music playing]
[López Obrador]
We'll be answering questions now.
[journalist] Were you assisted
by any US agency or corporation?
[López Obrador] No.
-[journalist] There was no intervention?
-No.
Because we act autonomously.
It was our own business.
So, we were going
to face it, and solve it.
[Mike] The DEA participated
in the second arrest.
It also planned the use of helicopters.
And they taught them
how to carry out that type of operation.
The DEA has always participated
in every major operation
that has been carried out in Mexico.
But very often, the Mexican government
don't want to disclose
that the DEA is involved
because the political parties
could criticize the ruling party,
saying that the DEA
is carrying out operations
and arresting citizens
on Mexican territory.
There's a lot of hypocrisy.
Everywhere.
That is why the DEA
is almost never mentioned.
And that doesn't matter to the DEA.
What matters is to achieve a goal.
[Fulton] When there's a big cake
on the table, everybody wants a piece.
Everyone gets
a pat on the shoulder
and praise for their great success
in a joint operation.
That means there's been cooperation.
[ominous music playing]
[ex-colonel]
From the moment Ovidio was arrested,
and taken on a Mexican Air Force plane,
he was transferred to the DA's office
specialized in organized crime,
and from there, he was taken
to the Altiplano Penitentiary.
[reporter] Ovidio Guzmán was brought here,
to the Altiplano
maximum security prison in Mexico.
For now, he will have to spend
the night here, in the Altiplano,
the same prison from where his father,
Joaquín "Chapo" Guzmán, escaped in 2015.
[chains jangling]
The worst possible scenario
in Ovidio Guzmán's life
was being extradited to the US.
Being in a prison in Mexico,
even a high-security one,
is very different from being
in a prison in the United States.
Will he have the capacity to endure?
Will Ovidio Guzmán cooperate
with the authorities so that
he can somehow have better benefits?
It could be something really tough.
The United States has already
formalized the extradition request
for one of Chapo Guzmán's sons,
Ovidio Guzmán López, aka "El Ratón."
[Jesús] How would he react
or what could happen after that?
[César] It is very possible
that even the leadership
within the Pacific Cartel itself
could change.
It couldn't be ruled out
that he could try to put the blame
on Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada.
Ovidio's extradition
to the US changed everything.
[door clangs]
[energetic music playing]
-[indistinct chatter]
-[soldier 1] God damn it!
[man] Get in here!
-[soldier 2] Come out, the three of you.
-[soldier 3] Come out.
-Out.
-[woman] Easy!
-[soldier 1] Ovidio, stop.
-I don't want any more trouble, please.
We're talking about almost starting a war.
Ovidio was extremely cautious
after the first Culiacanazo.
We were wrong.
He knew that what had happened
would not stop at that.
There is no impunity for criminals.
He lived in a very paranoid state.
Ovidio Guzmán is free and safe.
Ovidio leaves Culiacán, why?
Are they safe? Where are they now?
In a safe place.
[news anchor] In Culiacán, Sinaloa?
In a safe place.
It was very important for the US
because of Ovidio Guzmán's role
in fentanyl trafficking into the US.
That's the origin of Ovidio's recapture.
[theme music playing]
[theme music concludes]
BATTLE OF CULIACAN: HEIRS OF THE CARTEL
EPISODE 3
HUNT THE MOUSE
[somber music playing]
[indistinct chatter, laughter]
Life prepares no one to bury a child.
His company called me,
saying they were worried,
because he hadn't shown up
the day before, nor that morning.
So, I called my husband, Mike, and said,
"Look, they've just called,
I'm going over to Jonathan's,
to see what's going on."
-Hi.
-[Cristina] Hi, what are you cooking?
Just some croquettes
[Cristina] When we got there,
we opened the door,
and he had probably been dead
for more than a day.
He died of an overdose of heroin
that was mixed with fentanyl.
[in English]
Dear Jonathan, happy birthday to you ♪
Make a wish.
-[man] All right!
-[Cristina cheers, applauds]
[in Spanish]
When Jonathan died on June 13, 2019,
185 people a day were dying
in this country due to overdose.
Almost five years later, it was 300.
[ominous music playing]
[in English] Federal authorities
tell us their biggest concern
is the number of deaths
across the country that are linked
Drug overdose deaths
are up 30 percent in the last year
according to the CDC.
Could be used as a weapon
of mass destruction, Shannon.
The fentanyl crisis in America
is the worst in the history of America.
We have never seen this amount of death.
This is a poisoning at record levels.
This is 30 grams of salt.
If this was 30 grams of fentanyl,
this could potentially kill 15,000 people.
Because it only takes
two milligrams to kill.
This is 300 grams of salt.
If this was 300 grams of fentanyl,
this could kill 150,000 people.
[melancholic music playing]
[in Spanish] For me, it was not only
the shock of losing my eldest son,
but also, the question of,
"What do I do now
with the love I have for him?"
[humming celebratory music]
[in English] Congratulations.
[woman] Jonathan Diehl.
-Whoo!
-[all laugh, cheer]
[Cristina, in Spanish]
I have turned his old room
into a sort of base
for some form of inspiration, right?
To help families deal
with this terrible problem we have,
with fentanyl and addiction.
When I wonder, every now and then,
whether my son knew
what he was using
I'm a hundred percent convinced
that he didn't.
[truck horns blaring]
[ominous music playing]
[Manelich] Fentanyl is being mixed
with other types of drugs,
it's causing instant addiction,
and it's creating an enormous need.
And that, for a drug trafficker,
is the best possible news.
[Anne, in English] To drive addiction,
the Chapitos hide fentanyl in pills
that look like oxycodone,
Xanax, or Percocet.
They mix fentanyl in with cocaine,
heroin, and methamphetamine,
all to induce Americans to take fentanyl
without knowing it,
and to get hooked on it.
They just don't care,
because they make billions
of dollars doing it.
[Jorge, in Spanish] The Chapitos
had a, let's call it, "marketing success"
when they found
a space for illegal fentanyl
during the opioid crisis in the US.
[reporter] Fentanyl is getting
into the US by plane,
and in personal cars
that cross the border from Mexico.
I recognize that the US
bears a lot of responsibility
for the drug problem.
Obviously,
the drug demand in this country
is a very important issue.
The bad guy tends to be an outsider,
or else you'll have an internal debate.
But the reality is
they've created a pandemic in the US.
[in English]
And then the cartels in Mexico realized,
"We have all these people addicted,
we can now make the synthetic drugs,
we don't have to move the heroin."
REWARD
5,000,000.00 DOLLARS
[Derek] Ovidio Guzmán and his brothers,
they're all part of this transnational
narco-terrorist organization.
[in Spanish] And Ovidio played a big role
in the development and setting-up
of the fentanyl labs in Culiacán,
and from there, they exported to the US.
-[music concludes]
-[birds chirping]
[in English] When I visited Sinaloa,
I was certainly aware of the fact
that the drug cartels
were obviously synthesizing
methamphetamine and fentanyl.
[ominous music playing]
[Uttam] Before I'd arrived,
the Mexican law enforcement
had seized a methamphetamine lab
in Sinaloa.
This was a methamphetamine lab,
but it could just as well
have been a fentanyl lab.
They wanted to show us
what a lab looked like,
capable of producing 3,000 kilos
of methamphetamine a week.
[soldier 1, in Spanish]
The Sinaloa Cartel
is a very large organization.
The detection of clandestine labs
is not an easy task.
[helicopter blades whirring]
[soldier 2]
We often look for ravines in certain hills
by chopper reconnaissance,
and we can determine
the location of the lab.
[tense music playing]
[sub-officer 2]
After that, we get into the lab,
we establish a perimeter.
[soldier] Don't move!
[sub-officer 2]
Once we establish the perimeter,
we let the chemical team know,
and the trained staff,
so they can dismantle it,
separate any compounds
they consider dangerous,
and proceed
with the destruction of the lab.
It's very rare for us to find
a finished product.
What we do find are chemical precursors,
for cooking the drugs.
[Peniley] You no longer need
to have providers in Colombia.
What you need are precursors,
which come, in the case of Sinaloa,
from Germany and China.
They come through the seaports,
like the Port of Manzanillo, in Colima,
and then there's Veracruz.
[ship horn blaring]
[intense music playing]
PORT OF MANZANILLO
[captain] In recent years, we have secured
larger amounts
of these types of substances.
We brought almost 150 tons
of chemical precursors
before the ministerial authorities.
[Manelich] And all these precursors
that come to these Mexican ports
are needed to make the final product,
which is then sent to the US.
[captain] These groups
have unlimited financial power.
Their only limit is their imagination.
[Jorge] And the Chapitos, Iván Archivaldo,
Ovidio, all the brothers,
are the ones who are growing
this whole fentanyl "industry."
This is why Ovidio Guzmán
has an arrest warrant against him,
and is being investigated in the US.
[music concludes]
[ominous music playing]
Ovidio, after the Culiacanazo fiasco,
was in hiding all the time.
Because he knew the authorities
would be looking for him.
Back then, Ovidio went everywhere
with an impressive security detail.
He stayed out of Culiacán
and its surrounding areas,
precisely because he knew
he could be targeted there.
[Peniley] My sources tell me
Ovidio's whole arrest deal
was a constant demand
from the US government.
Mexico agrees to go
after the Chapitos at a time
when they have been named
the USA's number one target.
But there's also
a very clear motivation in the army
that wasn't there in other cases.
An operation of this kind
to arrest Ovidio Guzmán
was undoubtedly a reprisal.
[Tim] A reprisal for what had happened
with the threats to the families
of the soldiers in Culiacán.
[in English] The DEA had been looking
at Ovidio for many, many years.
[Anne] This case should send
a clear message to the Chapitos,
"Men and women of DEA
will relentlessly pursue you
to save American lives,
and to protect the national security
of the United States of America."
[reporter, in Spanish]
The big question now is, "Where is Ratón?"
"Where is Ovidio Guzmán?"
Can you confirm today
that Ovidio and Archivaldo are safe?
Where are they now?
In a safe place.
In Culiacán, Sinaloa?
In a safe place.
He goes three or five miles
from Culiacán,
to a ranch.
JOSE L. GONZÁLEZ MEZA
EL CHAPO'S LAWYER
And there, the Chapito
is exposed to kidnapping or arrest.
[tense music playing]
[Luis] They started tracing Ovidio,
minute by minute,
all of his movements,
his different properties,
his family, his daughters.
[Peniley] They knew Ovidio
kept on the move.
And they knew it was very likely
that Ovidio would spend
the holidays with his family.
[Jorge] Because they had already
infiltrated the security team,
Ovidio Guzmán's protection team,
that helped them trace,
with great accuracy,
his movements.
[Peniley] And the US manages to intercept
the Sinaloa Cartel's radio communications.
[computer beeping]
That shows there was quite
a long preparation
ahead of that moment,
that involved the US,
but also
some specialized agents in Mexico.
[suspenseful music playing]
MEXICAN ARMY HQ
[ex-soldier] They just told us,
"You're going to Culiacán
for a two-month operation."
We didn't know what the operation was.
And that's fine,
because if they started disclosing,
we'd lose the surprise factor.
[ex-colonel] We planned six months ahead.
We carried out intel-gathering,
analysis and intelligence tasks.
There is a special task force
in the Secretariat of National Defense
dedicated to these types of activities,
which allowed us to have
all this information,
and carry out an arrest
based on that intelligence.
[music concludes]
The role of intelligence
and information was crucial.
[ominous music playing]
[Jorge] It was the key
to tracing Ovidio Guzmán's movements,
and to finding the ideal place and time
to carry out the arrest.
[computer beeping]
The operation started trying to figure out
if he was meeting
his family first, for Christmas,
then for New Year's Eve,
and then for Three Kings' Day.
JANUARY 5, 2023
[Mike] Ovidio was having a Christmas party
at a ranch outside Culiacán.
His mother, Griselda,
was going to be there,
his wife, his children.
All that information was passed on
to the Mexican government.
That's why the operation
was carried out on January 5th,
the day before Three Kings' Day in Mexico.
Suddenly, our commander says,
"Stay alert, the operation starts now."
We started getting messages
from our sources in Sinaloa.
They talked about seeing choppers,
a whole operation,
that another Culiacanazo
was about to happen.
Until I see one message that says,
"It's in Jesús María."
Most people know
that's where Chapo's sons lived.
[suspenseful music playing]
[ex-soldier]
We were looking all around us,
checking everything was okay.
Because at any given moment,
it could all go wrong.
[guns cocking]
[ex-soldier] When I learned
it was Ovidio Guzmán,
the first thing you think of
is the first Culiacanazo.
So that gets the adrenaline pumping high.
[Jorge] It was an organized operation.
There was a land operation, of course,
but basically,
it was carried out by air teams.
They attacked before sunrise.
[gunshots]
[reporter 1] In a spectacular operation
with army helicopters,
an elite task force
of the Mexican Army and Air Force
captured, this morning,
near Culiacán, Sinaloa,
Ovidio Guzmán, Chapo Guzmán's son.
What happened in Jesús María
was a real combat.
[reporter 2] Since early morning,
when the leader
of the Chapitos was arrested,
the cartel has unleashed violence
in Sinaloa.
[ex-soldier]
Many trucks were coming full throttle,
their thugs were surrounding
the different residential facilities.
-[distant gunfire]
-[indistinct chatter]
[man] Look at that.
[ex-soldier]
"You position yourselves here,
we'll move you later,
because the trucks are coming this way."
[man] The car, we saw something
being fired or blown from the car.
It was very stressful
and our adrenaline was high.
[distant gunfire]
[ex-soldier] The moment they caught him,
they drove him or flew him away
without anyone noticing it.
No one really knows how they got him out.
[reporter 1]
We are not sure what's happening.
There are roadblocks and looting
in Culiacán and other Sinaloa areas.
The authorities are asking people
to stay at home,
and assuring people
they are acting accordingly.
That's all the information.
[reporter 2] What we know is
there are four roadblocks,
but there are five reported.
One at Blvd. Enrique Cabrera,
and Rotarismo.
Another one at Pedro Infante, El Dorado,
at Lola Beltrán,
and around the penitentiary
[reporter 3]
We don't know what's happening.
We don't know what's happening.
Please, stay safe, stay at home.
The Sinaloa Cartel used a similar strategy
to the first Culiacanazo.
They took some roads,
thinking he was going to be taken by land.
[reporter 4] Federal authorities
have cancelled all activities
and asked people to stay calm.
We'll be standing by
for potential new fights.
[ex-colonel] Roadblocks, cars lit on fire
on every Culiacán exit,
to try and set Ovidio Guzmán free
once again.
[Cristóbal]
The trucks go all the way there.
[distant gunfire]
[Cristóbal] Get down! Get down!
[tense music playing]
There are more roadblocks being set up.
We've now got nine roadblocks in Culiacán.
Three in Mochis, six in the south area.
We have seven police officers wounded,
and we know there
are also army officers wounded.
We're still working
to get the situation under control.
[gunshots]
[Jorge] It was an operation
made up of many phases,
and it was carried out, to be clear,
with a high degree of violence.
[reporter] One state police officer dead
and one army soldier in the ICU
as we speak.
[Jesús] That first day,
I wasn't able to get to Jesús María,
because the road was blocked.
While I'm recording, some trailers
and buses are being set on fire,
and a group of armed people passes by
and one points his gun at me,
and tells me to leave,
to stay out of the streets.
[alarm blaring]
-[looter] Get everything!
-[Jesús] Because in Culiacán,
the looting has started,
looting of cars and shops,
and the bullying of people
who were on the street.
That was total chaos.
[man cheers, laughs]
Look at that!
[Jesús] The Sinaloa Cartel,
when they learned Ovidio
had been flown to the Culiacán airport,
they went there.
[reporter 1] Videos have been circulating
of trucks,
full of armed sicarios,
moving through the Sinaloan capital.
[Jesús] One difference between
the first Culiacanazo and the second
is that, in the second one,
they did attack the citizens.
They did that at the Culiacán airport.
[reporter 2] The armed men
under the command of the Chapitos
are trying to take over the airport
to stop the transfer of Ovidio Guzmán.
I got to the airport,
and they weren't firing yet.
There were flights with passengers on,
waiting for permission to depart.
Hi, friends.
Well, the National Guard
have said the airport will be closed
until 10:00 p.m. tonight.
The first messages
I received on my phone
said the airport was about
to be taken over by sicarios.
[sicario] We'll be taking the airport.
[negotiator] Okay.
It was approximately 8:30 in the morning.
[distant gunfire]
[Ernesto R] They were recommending
not leaving the airport.
It was very dangerous.
The Guard are all around,
like that, like that one.
Protected inside these walls.
I decided to leave, and at about
150 yards outside the building,
the Air Force plane was arriving.
And I recorded that because I thought,
"Great, backup has arrived."
But then it lands,
and it's continuing on the runway,
and when it gets to the end of it,
it's fired upon.
With heavy gunfire, big calibers.
[distant gunfire]
The people, the Chapitos,
get to the airport,
and they stop a plane, and shoot at it.
But Ovidio is not there.
[man] My friend there is ready.
That's the Air Force plane
that's just landed.
No way.
At that moment, I started running back
towards the airport,
to try to get back in
and feel safe again.
-[music concludes]
-I was recording
when the armed men got to the airport
and shot the plane up.
And the sicarios attacked
a commercial plane.
-[gunshots]
-[ominous music playing]
[Jesús] They started firing,
thinking that maybe Ovidio
would be quickly taken away from the city.
[bystander 1] They are shooting up
the plane!
[bystander 2] They are shooting
at the plane! That's fucked up!
[Ernesto R] That was when I realized
they were going all out,
they were not playing games.
People were screaming, and crying,
running, terrified.
[indistinct clamoring]
I was literally shaking.
I was so scared.
I called my sister,
and said, "Don't say anything,
just don't hang up on me."
"Just don't hang up on me.
Just leave the phone."
"I think they got in."
[indistinct clamoring]
Obviously, everything goes
through your mind.
They could come in with their guns
and shoot everyone here.
-[loud bang]
-[indistinct chatter]
[Jesús] They knew there was going to be
a reaction from organized crime.
But by the time that reaction happened,
unlike with the first Culiacanazo,
Ovidio was already out of Culiacán.
[reporter] This recording shows
Ovidio Guzmán, also known as "El Ratón,"
boarding an Air Force helicopter.
They are taking him to the DA's office
specialized in organized crime
in Mexico City.
[pensive music playing]
And all of the Sinaloa Cartel's attempts
proved useless this time,
because Ovidio was not in Culiacán,
he had already been taken away.
JANUARY 6, 2023
Good afternoon to you all.
Officers of the Mexican Army
have arrested Ovidio N,
alleged leader
of the "Los Menores" faction
allied to the Pacific Cartel.
This arrest represents a resounding blow
to the power structure
of the Pacific Cartel.
INTELLIGENCE, THE KEY TO THE SUCCESS
HOW DID THEY MANAGE TO CAPTURE OVIDIO?
[Jorge] What happened in Jesús María
is the biggest victory
the security forces have had
against drug cartels
in the past six years.
-[tense music playing]
-[gun cocks]
[ex-colonel] It was a more detailed job.
The time chosen,
5:00 a.m., was more suitable,
on January 5th,
so that there were fewer chances
of a quick response by the targets.
They even chose days
where there was a lower risk
of having people
in working hours, in the city.
[Jorge] That is also why they decided
to do it in Jesús María,
and not in Culiacán.
They had located Ovidio in Culiacán too,
but it would have been impossible
to carry out
an operation of that scope
in the middle of Culiacán
without causing great damage,
or with an aim to not kill Ovidio.
[tense music continues]
This time, there were no delays,
no missing search warrants.
This time, it was well-planned.
The authorities have learned
their lesson after the Culiacanazo.
And the intelligence job
was carried out right.
They understood
they could not underestimate
the resources of the criminal organization
or how they would respond.
[music concludes]
WELCOME TO JESÚS MARÍA
[somber music playing]
This time around, the authorities
went with a bigger offensive,
they were more violent too,
and they shot at all of them too
from the chopper.
The bullets hit schools, houses, shops.
Everything that was flown over
by the helicopter
was hit by the bullets.
Outside Ovidio's home,
there were some trucks with "hechizos,"
which is handmade armor,
and they still had the place
where they put their rifles.
And they had the mouse stickers.
They were vehicles hit by the bullets.
[ominous music playing]
[Luis] I got there early in the morning.
I hadn't told anyone I was going.
By then, I'd already had threats
from the Sinaloa Cartel.
There was a 60,000-dollar price
on my head,
for covering the cartel
and their activities,
and for various misunderstandings
we've had.
OVIDIO'S HOME IN JESÚS MARÍA
-[Luis] Is it open?
-[driver] What?
-[Luis] Is it open?
-[driver] Don't stay here.
-Where to?
-[Luis] Are there any reporters?
And when I got out of my car,
I got out with my phone in hand.
And I turned around
and I saw Griselda, Ovidio's mom,
with her lawyers.
And from afar, she started
signaling "no" to me, like this,
and she pulled up her face mask.
Then I saw the trucks start leaving,
and there was no one left in the house,
and there was a hole in one
of the outside walls in Ovidio's home.
So, I said to my photographer
and my other companion, "I'm going in."
I'm going in right now.
I grabbed my camera
and got in through the hole.
Yes
[in English] For his people to clear
[in Spanish] And the first thing
I saw is that we had to watch out,
because there were still
unexploded grenades on the ground.
There were lots of bullet shells.
Ovidio's cars were there.
A G Wagon and some Mercedes.
Armored, but with bullet holes all over.
Then inside Ovidio's home,
it was a mixture of,
like there had been a party,
because there are wine bottles.
There's a nativity scene
there's flowers, food.
All of that was interspersed
with pools of blood,
bullets, grenades, guns.
And Ovidio's room was completely looted.
He has his initials embroidered
on his pillowcases,
his and his wife's, Adriana.
And some pillowcases
are filled with shoes,
like the army grabbed the pillowcases,
according to the neighbors,
to put everything in them, like jewelry,
cash, and take it with them.
I think the most shocking thing for me
was the level of violence
that was experienced in that house.
[tense music playing]
With your permission, Mr. President.
JANUARY 6, 2023
Good morning.
We will inform you now
about the operations
that took place over in Sinaloa.
Twenty-one people,
members of this criminal group,
were arrested,
securing four .50 Barrett firearms,
six .50 machine guns,
26 long guns, two short ones
[Marcelo] I remember that
when Ovidio Guzmán was arrested,
he had 47 guns.
In his inner circle alone.
[news anchor] It's well-known
that organized crime in this country
are oftentimes better armed
than law enforcement themselves.
What does that show you?
What can you conclude?
We can conclude that without a doubt,
the organizations
referred to as "cartels," in Mexico,
more than 70 percent of their firepower
comes from armories
in the south border of the US.
The important thing is the size
of the weapon and its firepower.
One gun in particular. The Barrett .50.
[soft dramatic music playing]
It's almost five feet long.
And has a range of 2,000 yards.
[cartel members speaking indistinctly]
[Alejandro] It's a gun
that can shoot a chopper down.
[cartel member 1, excitedly]
The plane went down!
[cartel member 2, excitedly]
It fucking did!
The fucking plane went down!
They are armor-piercing guns.
Machine guns, long guns
Military-grade weapons
in the hands of civilians
on Culiacán streets.
And 40 more trucks were used,
of which, 26 were armored.
What those civilians had
on those pick-up trucks
were Browning machine guns,
which can be modified
into a fully automatic.
So, who sold them those weapons?
[reporter] This is a .5 caliber gun,
a weapon we have seen
Sinaloa Cartel sicarios use.
The Culiacanazo showed
there is an arsenal,
a firepower they have,
a set of weapons that they shouldn't have.
Guns you can see at an armory in the US.
To me, as an American,
it's very shameful to see
weapons produced in my country
in the hands of criminals in Mexico.
What I need is for you not to send
more weapons to the border,
and control them.
In Mexico, those weapons are a crime.
It's exactly the same
as when you ask me
not to bring fentanyl into the US.
I recognize that the US have to do more.
What both governments prefer to do
is blame the other government,
and do nothing! Nothing!
We can't go on like his,
because the only ones
winning are the bad guys.
In the operation, ten soldiers died,
35 were wounded,
19 alleged criminals were taken down,
and 21 were arrested.
So far, no civilian casualties
were reported.
[Jorge] It was a combat, not a showdown.
There is an indefinite
number of casualties.
They talked about around 20 casualties,
but everyone is convinced
there were a lot more.
Thirty-five soldiers
were wounded by fire guns.
Additionally, so far, there are no reports
of any innocent civilian losing their life
as a result of these operations.
I understand that the official figures
of missing and murdered people
do not match what the families
are saying in Jesús María.
[indistinct chanting, clamoring]
The families in Jesús María protested
at the office of the Sinaloa governor
RUBÉN ROCHA MOYA
SINALOA GOVERNOR
demanding the return of their children.
[chanting] We want justice, not fear!
Some human rights groups
showed there were still corpses
in the hills.
Bodies of people who had fled the town,
but who were already wounded.
The authorities
never recognized those bodies.
The same happened all over again.
The number of deaths was greater
than what the authorities informed.
140 MISSING PEOPLE REPORTED
THE DEVASTATION THAT THE ARREST CAUSED
[ex-colonel]
There were also many soldiers who died,
but that didn't stop us
from carrying out this operation,
and succeeding at it.
[reporter] A total of 1,000 soldiers
were sent to Culiacán, Sinaloa,
to try and contain the violence triggered
by this historic arrest,
and most importantly,
to protect the citizens.
[soft tense music playing]
[López Obrador]
We'll be answering questions now.
[journalist] Were you assisted
by any US agency or corporation?
[López Obrador] No.
-[journalist] There was no intervention?
-No.
Because we act autonomously.
It was our own business.
So, we were going
to face it, and solve it.
[Mike] The DEA participated
in the second arrest.
It also planned the use of helicopters.
And they taught them
how to carry out that type of operation.
The DEA has always participated
in every major operation
that has been carried out in Mexico.
But very often, the Mexican government
don't want to disclose
that the DEA is involved
because the political parties
could criticize the ruling party,
saying that the DEA
is carrying out operations
and arresting citizens
on Mexican territory.
There's a lot of hypocrisy.
Everywhere.
That is why the DEA
is almost never mentioned.
And that doesn't matter to the DEA.
What matters is to achieve a goal.
[Fulton] When there's a big cake
on the table, everybody wants a piece.
Everyone gets
a pat on the shoulder
and praise for their great success
in a joint operation.
That means there's been cooperation.
[ominous music playing]
[ex-colonel]
From the moment Ovidio was arrested,
and taken on a Mexican Air Force plane,
he was transferred to the DA's office
specialized in organized crime,
and from there, he was taken
to the Altiplano Penitentiary.
[reporter] Ovidio Guzmán was brought here,
to the Altiplano
maximum security prison in Mexico.
For now, he will have to spend
the night here, in the Altiplano,
the same prison from where his father,
Joaquín "Chapo" Guzmán, escaped in 2015.
[chains jangling]
The worst possible scenario
in Ovidio Guzmán's life
was being extradited to the US.
Being in a prison in Mexico,
even a high-security one,
is very different from being
in a prison in the United States.
Will he have the capacity to endure?
Will Ovidio Guzmán cooperate
with the authorities so that
he can somehow have better benefits?
It could be something really tough.
The United States has already
formalized the extradition request
for one of Chapo Guzmán's sons,
Ovidio Guzmán López, aka "El Ratón."
[Jesús] How would he react
or what could happen after that?
[César] It is very possible
that even the leadership
within the Pacific Cartel itself
could change.
It couldn't be ruled out
that he could try to put the blame
on Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada.
Ovidio's extradition
to the US changed everything.
[door clangs]
[energetic music playing]