Narco Mennonites (2026) s01e03 Episode Script
Right With God
1
♪
Were you ever in charge?
Johan Harms: I did what I did.
(low tense dramatic music) ♪
Something that I
never wanted to do,
but it got into my life and
did it and got out and-
♪
Done deal.
♪
Director: What does it take
to be the boss?
♪
Johan Harms: To be the boss,
it means, um,
takes a lot of leadership
and smart thinking.
Thinking before you do things.
The way I ran things back then,
it was pretty controlled.
Like, I wasn't
this cold-blooded murderer and
thank God I never murdered
somebody in my life.
But, back in the days,
I would have.
♪
My words and my actions
were like tough.
They were strong back then.
Be in the drug business
isn't easy.
It's a tough life.
It was cool.
Why lie? It was, it was good.
But on the other hand,
sometimes when you get
law enforcement on your back,
then you're probably thinking
about changing the name.
Then it's not so cool,
'cause they don't
respect you that much.
And, then it gets
more complicated.
♪
It's a double life.
You live in fear,
like you never know
what the day is going to end up.
Are you going to get arrested?
Are you going to get killed?
Are you gonna make it
through the day?
It's really hard
to live like that.
And that's why I think
a lot of people
lose so much control,
because it's so much pressure,
so much pressure on yourself,
and start drinking,
start using drugs,
and you can handle it.
We were not those kind of people
that were going around
hurting people,
destroying people's lives.
We were more like,
taking it as a business
and helping people out.
I didn't push people around,
but at the same time,
I didn't let 'em
push me around either.
Everybody wants a piece of you.
So there's always people
that want to take your spot,
and like, and it's
it's tough.
And there was just one point,
♪
I just didn't wanna
take it anymore.
♪
We've had United States
drug agents tell us
that right now, today,
your brother Enrique is in
charge of the Mennonite Mafia.
Is that true?
Johan: No, it's not true.
He's
He's out of the game like, it's,
it's not true. It's uhm
Different people
running the show and
trying to blame it
always on somebody else.
Like that's what it is being
being a Harms.
(tense dramatic music) ♪
♪
The documentary comes out and
they're telling all this about
like father, like son,
was about my brother Enrique.
And it was a tough one.
Everybody was thinking
it was my brother,
but actually,
it's not my brother.
There's two different
(chuckles)
Enrique Harms,
which confuses a lot.
Sam Quinones: Names in
the Mennonite community
are extraordinarily confusing,
mostly because there's only
about ten last names,
and for each sex, there's
only about ten male names,
there's only about
ten female names.
Well, what ends up happening is,
that there are many, many,
many people with the same name.
And so Enrique Harms,
I'm sure there's like 50!
Luis Chaparro:
The original Enrique Harms,
he stepped out.
He's out of the business.
And then came
another Enrique Harms,
leveraging on his name,
several years after
other cartel members,
producers, traffickers,
thinking that it was the
oldest Enrique Harms,
which they respected a lot.
The confusion is that
they have the same first name,
same second last name,
which is Enrique Harms.
The OG was Enrique Harms Peters,
and then the guy next was
Enrique Harms Groening,
which is two different families.
But that generated a lot of
confusion,
between who was
this Enrique Harms,
'cause everyone thought
it was, 'Okay, the OG
is back in business, and
apparently he's back again
in the trafficking industry.
But his face was
absolutely different.
Enrique Harms was, let's say
El Chapo for the
Mennonites back then.
It's a whole brand.
Everybody knows El Chapo,
so everybody knows how to make
business with El Chapo, right?
If someone comes
on behalf of El Chapo,
you will have
a lot of open doors,
and they will lend you money.
They will trust in you.
They will know how to
negotiate with you.
Oscar Hagelsieb:
The Harms organization,
the Mennonite Mafia, it evolved
and it has evolved
throughout the years,
just like all the other cartels
have evolved, right?
At the time, the Juarez Cartel
had control of basically
all of Chihuahua.
Of course, they had to fall in
with the Juarez Cartel.
There was a time when
they actually fell in
with the Salazares, which was
a faction of the Sinaloa Cartel,
when the Sinaloa Cartel
was starting to gain ground.
But just like anything,
you know, the power shifts.
And so, they're very smart
in the way that they
align themselves because they
align themselves to whoever
is gonna have the power and
is gonna align their interests.
Luis Chaparro: The second
Enrique Harms,
the new Enrique Harms,
he had to pick sides,
and of course he picked
the Juarez Cartel,
La Línea side, 'cause they were
the main operators
in Cuauthémoc at the time.
So he was working
for them, with them,
and not as an independent
operator trafficking drugs.
So his links to La Línea
and to the Juarez Cartel
are strong links.
Director: Do you know
Enrique Harms Groening?
Do you know who this is?
Johan Harms:
I know who he is.
Grew up in the same community.
I know who he is but,
both in the same business
and like by,
I believe my brother
by that time,
he was out of the business.
He was completely retired,
and then, it got so messed up
and it was such a
nightmare for my brother,
that somebody else was
exactly with the same name,
doing a lot of things,
and everything
came to fall on him.
Will the Mennonite Mafia
ever stop?
Johan: I don't think so.
(tense dramatic music) ♪
♪
Luis Chaparro:
El Bolas showed up,
and this was the head of-
that the first time we heard
the 'Mennonite Cartel'
and said, "Okay, this is what
we're going to do now.
We're gonna organize.
We're going to work
under the Juarez Cartel.
And you guys are going to work
for me and under my leadership,
and every single other guy,
who was working, or trying
to work independently,
was brutally murdered,
threatened,
and violence started picking up,
in Cuauhtémoc,
under the leadership
of El Bolas.
♪
The Golden Triangle is a
mountainous region
that encompasses the states
of Sinaloa, Sonora
and Chihuahua.
It's where the people
of the region
grow poppies and marijuana,
from the sixties to the present,
by the criminal groups
of that region.
All of that was, has been
forever sown and harvested
to be transported
to the United States
through the different
routes that exist.
And those routes are the ones
controlled by the cartels.
This is what makes the city of
Cuauhtémoc a main point.
And that's where this
situation of relationships
between organized crime
and Mennonites begins.
♪
Luis Chaparro: In late '80s when
there was the
Sinaloa Federation,
they started moving marijuana
to the United States,
and getting some fee
from the Colombians,
to traffic cocaine into the US,
until they said,
"Well, we probably don't need
the Colombians anymore.
We can move our own stuff
and have them as our suppliers."
That's when they became huge in
the drug trafficking industry.
This exploded and became
a huge operation.
They decided to split turf.
That's where the
Juarez Cartel was born,
in the '90s, late '80s.
So, in this region
where the big drug traffickers
of Sinaloa are born,
like Chapo Guzmán
Luis Chaparro:
With Amado Carrillo Fuentes,
the Lord of the Skies, they were
basically paying
every single politician,
every single cop
in the State of Chihuahua.
The organization still exists.
It's called La Línea now.
Sam Quinones: La Línea
is a gang that forms
in the drug world
of northern Chihuahua.
Their main function
is as enforcers.
Luis Chaparro:
Enforcers for the Juarez Cartel,
until they became
their own cartel.
I worked on robberies
and property crimes,
but I was also involved in some
homicide investigations.
The Mennonite community
was very secretive.
They always kept a low profile,
they never made
themselves known.
They take their victims' bodies
to avoid being identified
by the police.
Why did they do that?
Simply so that they would not be
identified as a criminal group.
♪
When it came to investigating
or interviewing
the head of the
Mennonite family,
they would sneak out
and hide the women
so that we didn't even have
access to see them
or see any kind of reaction.
We only interviewed
the head of the family,
they were the only ones
we were allowed to see.
Nevertheless, it is difficult
to get effective information.
♪
HSI Agent:
Presidio is a small community
about 240 miles
southeast of El Paso.
Mexican town, south of Presidio,
is a town called Ojinaga.
La Línea, which is a spinoff of
the Juarez Cartel.
A spinoff of the Sinaloa Cartel
has now moved in,
and they are in a turf war
for this plaza.
The Plaza of Ojinaga.
The plaza is the place
where the cartel is going to
receive a tax or a payment
for allowing everything
that is illegal to operate.
HSI Agent:
The plaza is the location
where the heart
of the cartel operates.
If they can control Ojinaga,
they can control the movement
of all their products
in and out of the United States.
Because this is
the only port of entry,
where they can cross
their merchandise,
within 240 miles, east and west.
It's a really lucrative spot,
and both cartels are in a battle
to keep that territory.
♪
As the armed arm of a cartel,
La Línea is a super dangerous
group
Very violent,
who will do whatever it takes to
achieve their goal.
David Giesbrecht Fehr:
The cartels, they used
and are abusing from Mennonites.
So many Mennonites have,
have been doing prison
has been killed,
or kill themselves or whatever,
just because they got in
big problem is with cartels.
Luis Chaparro: We started seeing
a lot of killings,
a lot of shootouts, a lot of
people hanging from bridges,
they left a body with
pig's head on their face.
♪
(police sirens)
HSI Agent:
Depending on who you ask,
they'll tell you,
'Well the Sinaloas are winning,
or the Juárez Cartel
is winning.'
Who's not winning is the people.
Less than three months ago,
there were 17 or 18 individuals
that were killed in Ojinaga.
Those individuals belonged
to that spinoff
of the Sinaloan Cartel,
and they were killed by members
of the Juárez Cartel.
The majority of their bodies
were all dumped
together on a side street.
Kind of like the one that we're
driving on, in front of a house.
And there was a large sign
that had been written,
across their bodies as a warning
to the Sinaloan Cartel.
'Hey, if you keep this up,
we're gonna keep
killing your people.'
So, it's going to be violent.
Whoever has the most
strength wins.
♪
♪
I am from the state of
Chihuahua.
I grew up in Cuauhtémoc.
I have been at the Cereso #1 at
Aquiles Serdán for seven years.
I'm here for aggravated
homicide.
It was a very difficult life.
That's why you get
involved with it.
It was difficult because my
parents left me
when I was little and I was
raised by my grandparents.
When I was ten years old I
started to look for
I started to get together
with these people
to look for a future.
My job was to install storm
drains in the streets.
I started working by being a
look out on the roads,
taking care of the government.
That was my job.
I would let them know when
someone passed by.
That was my job. After that
I started to kill people.
What a gunman does.
I began working with La Línea.
When we split,
I went with my cartel.
I work for El Chapo.
♪
I am here because I was
detained for stealing gas
and an aggravated kidnapping.
For some time, yes, I belonged
to a criminal group
and that is why I am here.
It wasn't pressure or anything.
Simply, it was a bad decision.
I started to feel needs of my
family, and my concerns.
After all those years working,
all I learned was
how to use a gun.
And that was that.
I made the decision.
I called them, asked for a job,
I went with them.
Just like that.
What group did you join?
La Gente Nueva del Tigre.
I'm from
You could say I'm from
Cuauhtémoc, near Cuauhtémoc.
They're at war. They're
fighting it out for control.
In Cuauhtémoc, currently they
are fighting over the plaza.
There is no owner and nobody
knows what's going on.
The dispute is between
La Línea and the Chapos.
The ones who control the
Cuauhtémoc area
is La Gente del Tigre.
The war that is going on there
is because La Línea wants
to take back control, but they
haven't been able to do so.
They are allies with La Línea.
The Mennonites they are
recruiting people,
and recruiting very
young people.
No, they are an armed part
of La Línea.
Most of them are already the
main sponsors, you could say.
I'm talking weapons, vehicles.
They provide the money.
I would say 30% of them are
involved in drugs
and drug trafficking and 70%
work as a normal person.
Mennonites are the ones that
kidnap people
and collect money
by extorting people.
They're involved in money
laundering and all that.
In general, they do everything.
Hitmen. Extortionists.
Collectors.
They're the ones that patrol
over the area and kidnap there.
They put up roadblocks.
They collect money
from businesses.
Both Mexicans and Mennonites.
That makes no
difference to them.
They collect from everybody.
El Bolas.
El Soldado. He is the one
who is always next to him.
El Bolas and El Soldado.
Among the Mennonite community,
they are the most talked about.
El Bolas.
As far as I knew, he was the
leader of the whole community.
The one who subdues them,
forces them to work.
He is the one in charge
in that area.
Of the Mennonites, they are the
only two.
They're Mennonites
who are members
of La Línea, one might say.
They are the ones that everyone
knew were the real deal.
They are the ones who collect
the floor fees in the stores.
They are the ones who rob and
mistreat the people.
They take their cars,
their trucks.
No, I didn't work with them, but
the bosses I worked with did.
They had certain businesses,
for a while at least.
Only on certain occasions.
But I did not talk to them.
He is always with his staff, but
almost never shows his face.
He is always apart.
It's his people who stand up
and show their faces.
♪
David G. Fehr: Bolas is the
big head from the Mennonites.
He was a powerful man.
He was a violent man.
But not just because he wanted.
He got power because
Mexican give it to him.
Because Mexican told him,
"You have to do this.
And you have to do that.
You have to do anything."
Luis Chaparro: We start seeing
a bunch of killings
along the Sierra, the Chihuahua,
the woodlands and,
and Cuauhtémoc.
David G. Fehr: Last time what
I hear that he has been doing,
he has been violent - violento.
Luis Chaparro: Local journalists
reports started pointing
at this guy, which was
very strange to see,
'cause he was a white guy,
Mennonite full on,
dubbed El Bolas.
Producer:
What does El Bolas mean?
Luis Chaparro: El Bolas,
well, the balls. (chuckles)
They were working full on
for the Juárez Cartel.
David G. Fehr:
She tells 19 there was a news,
that I killed three girls
and two guys,
at that I hung 'em up
on a bridge, by pampas.
Luis Chaparro: Pampas killing
was a bridge in Cuauhtémoc.
Fehr: After that,
they burned two
young guys in a pickup,
and the girls that has done,
David Giesbrecht,
who's nickname is Bolas.
Luis Chaparro: He blamed David,
the fake Bolas.
Fehr: I was in prison. Come on!
Luis Chaparro: When I first
heard the nickname Bolas,
which was one of
the main operators,
I actually had a wrong name.
The name that was
put out of the press
and fed to journalists
was David Giesbrecht Fehr.
Fehr: There, everybody knows
I'm not Bolas.
♪
I think that
you know that, right?
Luis Chaparro: The real Bolas
has a very different name.
It is Peter Fehr, actually.
I've seen pictures of David
Giesbrecht Fehr before,
and he doesn't look at all
like the real Bolas.
Very different kind of man,
El Bolas, he looks
like a white man,
like several other Mennonites.
But his face is
really hard, serious,
almost like a sociopathic
look on his eyes.
Very different
from other Mennonites,
even working for the cartel,
working for him,
and definitely more scary.
He has a side that
you can feel the violence
and the way he lives.
♪
Eventually we learn that
this guy, David,
he was working with
a Mennonite for El Bolas.
And I think he was
the actual Bolas,
who tried to buy
the name and the face,
of one of his workers, of David.
And he put it up
in the press as El Bolas.
Peter Fehr, the real Bolas,
he was absolutely ruthless.
And that was a message
for everyone who was trying to
either go independent,
or go against him.
And he didn't care to blame
one of his own people,
which was David.
♪
Abraham Harms Junior
was part of the
OG Harms Organization,
the original
Enrique Harms brother,
and of course he was in the game
for several years.
And then afterwards he started
just laundering his money,
I guess, he established
a legal juice company,
established in El Paso, Texas,
and he became a
Mennonite businessman.
A very successful one.
And the word was out,
that he had legal money
when the Mennonite mob
needed money.
I am one of the Harms boys from
Loewen Farm,
that they always call the
marijuana Harms,
the bad Harms boys.
That's where I come from,
where I am from.
My name is Abram Harms.
Once I asked God for help,
then after 2 to 3 months my wife
saw how I was turning around.
The 11th of January of '96,
I had a huge accident.
It is a miracle of God
that I can be here.
Oscar Hagelsieb: Abram Harms
got kidnapped in 2019.
Fehr: I was in Georgia
and once I saw on TV
he was outside of the
restaurant, La Huerta.
It's one kilometer off
from a shop.
Oscar Hagelsieb: That was
during the time that I was the
agent in charge of
the HSI Juárez office.
He got kidnapped, as he was
going to a restaurant.
Johan Harms: My brother, he has
a meeting with his accountant.
They're going to have breakfast
in a restaurant.
And when my brother drives up,
and as soon as he gets
out of the pickup,
there comes this guy,
he walks up to him.
My brother, he starts running
and he runs after him
and hits him with a gun
in the back of his head.
He falls down and-
Oscar Hagelsieb:
A couple of individuals
had kidnapped him at gunpoint,
and had taken his vehicle,
which was a luxury GMC vehicle,
and put him in the vehicle
and drove off with him.
Official word from the
Mexican authorities was that
he was kidnapped for ransom,
and that a legitimate member
of the Mennonite organization,
which was an accountant,
that, you know,
handled a lot of the businesses
that the Mennonites owned,
that individual had provided
intel to his brother,
so that they could kidnap him
and extort money
from the family.
Johan Harms: I definitely
believe that the accountant
was involved,
but at the same time
I can't prove it 100%.
Fehr: Why? I have no idea.
Many people's says because
it was a accountant,
somebody else goes like
he didn't pay pesos,
somebody else goes like,
he work again with the drug
dealers. I don't think that.
They are terrible Mexi-
if you have to do something
with them, they kill you.
If you don't do what they say,
or if you don't pay
what you have to pay,
or if you run away from them
just because you don't work
with them, they kill you.
Johan Harms: We're waiting
and waiting, and no phone call,
no nothing, and then just
days after we found him,
dead on the street.
So they never called and
they were never
asking for money.
There was no
ransom demand because
as far as I understand,
it was not a plan to kill him,
was kidnap him, ask for amount
of money and release him.
But, something went
terribly wrong,
because they hit him
in the back of his head.
His skull wasn't,
wasn't that strong
because he had been
in a car accident before.
And since they hit him
in that part,
like what I've heard, like
he was bleeding a lot and-
The hit that they gave him
on his head,
he had no survival.
Luis Chaparro: First, they
blamed El Contador,
the accountant, but
the investigation shows that
it was actually El Bolas,
who had Abraham Harms Junior
kidnapped.
And this show you that El Bolas
doesn't really care if you're
from the OG Harms family.
If you're out of the game,
if you're legal now.
He needed money
and he went after
one of the original Harms,
to get money
out of his kidnapping.
Oscar Hagelsieb:
A lot of people ask like, why
are Mexican authorities
very hesitant
in really targeting
the Mennonites?
A lot of people don't realize
that the Mexican government
actually invited these
individuals into Mexico.
So it was something that
was established
even back in the '20s,
due to the fact that Mexico
had been involved in the
Civil War for so long.
All those areas
were very desolate.
So the Mexican government
actually saw that
these Mennonites were,
number one, Bible thumping.
They were good people
and that they were very good
at what they did.
Because they saw their farmlands
and they heard of how good
they were in making desert
into fruitful farming area.
And so, even since then,
from the hierarchy of the
Mexican government, it was
pretty much hands off on them.
That was engraved in Mexican
law enforcement from those time.
Luis Chaparro:
They threatened to leave in 2014
because of dryness of the land.
And the Mexican government
basically threw money at them
saying, 'Do whatever
exploit wells, illegal wells.
I don't care, just stay here
because 80% of our revenue
from farming
comes from you guys.'
The revenue the Mennonites
are making for
the State of Chihuahua, it's
over $3 billion every year.
So now they're
basically protected
by the State of Chihuahua
and also by the
Mexican government,
because of the amount
they're bringing in.
And that's where, strangely
enough, the Juárez Cartel
set up their office.
That's what they called
Cuauhtémoc, La Oficina.
That's headquarters
where you keep the papers,
where you keep the money,
where you keep the heads.
That's why they send
shit-tons of people
to fight to protect Cuauhtémoc.
They are very useful
for cartels to launder money,
because you can mix
millions of U.S. dollars
in between all of the money
they're making legally,
and Cuauhtémoc
is widely cash-based,
because it's very,
very lucrative for cartels,
very lucrative for
the Chihuahua State.
Very lucrative for
all those related,
including the
Mennonites producing
shit-tons of money
and working hard to hold
Cuauhtémoc as a stronghold
of the Juárez Cartel.
I think the Mennonite Cartel
story hasn't been done,
because imagine that amount
of money every year,
coming into Chihuahua and the
leverage these guys have.
In the State, they, of course
have straight links,
and if they pick up a phone,
they can call the Governor.
They can call the Chief
of Police of Chihuahua,
they can call whoever they want
to fix their stuff,
because they represent money.
And a huge part of the
Mennonite community
is using illegal money.
And a lot of this money
that is staying
within the State of Chihuahua,
the Mexican officials are very
proud of this money.
It is illegal money,
so it is a huge problem,
not only for Chihuahua,
but also for Mexico in general.
Exposing the Mennonites
in bed with cartels,
it's problematic.
♪
Luis Chaparro:
So there's a whole myth,
around Bolas' death.
No one has ever found his body.
It was said on the press and
by Mexican investigators
that he was killed.
But again,
they're not even sure.
I recently reached out
to one of the investigators,
and he said, "Well, for me,
I think it's that.
But we don't have a body,
so I can't tell you
with full evidence
that he's dead."
I ask him,
"So, he might be around?"
He was like, "Very unlikely.
I'm pretty sure he's dead.
But again, we have no evidence
of the death of Bolas."
So it's still a mystery.
We still don't really know
where he's buried,
or if it was what.
Fehr: Doesn't exist anymore,
and that's it.
That's how they do it.
That's why I am telling you,
this add all this stuff up
to clean his name.
I don't know if he's
dead or not.
I have no idea.
But what I believe,
they made all this up
to disappeared.
Now he's dead.
Nobody's looking for him.
That's what,
that's what I think. But I'm-
I have no idea.
Director: Do you think
El Bolas is dead?
♪
♪
Johan Harms: There wasn't so
much violence back in the '90s.
It was more peaceful.
It wasn't so out of hand as it-
as it is today.
And it's sad
the way it is today.
Luis Chaparro: A DEA agent,
he was sending me
a lot of information
regarding the local police
in Juárez,
and how they were in bed
with the Juárez Cartel.
I published a story.
My editor back then asked me,
"Hey man, this is
probably dangerous.
Are you aware that you're gonna
probably face threats and stuff.
Do you want us to
keep your name?'
But of course I was naive,
excited and egocentric.
So I was like, 'No man, like,
put my name out there.
It's, it's a huge story.'
One night, after three weeks
of the publication,
local police stopped me,
full geared, very aggressive,
pulled me out of my car,
started kicking me.
They told me that my family
was gonna find me
as cattle on the back of my car,
on the trunk.
I was absolutely confused.
So I was like,
"Hey man, I'm a journalist.
I think you're probably
taking for someone else."
They confirm on the radio,
they had codes that I had
picked my sources the police.
They said like,
"Yeah, this is the 27."
(speaks Spanish)
27 was code for journalist.
So I'm like, "Okay, shit.
So they're after me."
And I'm like, "Dude, like,
whatever you need, take my car."
They tied my feet and arms,
put me on the back of a
pickup truck on the floor.
And I remember it was like
really cold.
It was like in February.
They drove to a,
empty road, to a highway.
They stopped there
in the middle of the night.
These guys were dealing on,
how were they going to kill me.
If I was gonna be kneeled down,
or if they're going to ask me
to run and shoot me in the back,
or if they're just
gonna cut my head
They were like, discussing
not even with me,
they were discussing
amongst them.
They asked me to kneel down,
and I said, "No."
Because I knew that
I was gonna be executed.
So I'm, I'm not,
I'm not kneeling down.
Sorry, guys, but uh, just take
everything, I need to go.
Then one of them told me,
"Well, then, do you have money?"
And I'm like, "Yes,
I have my two credit cards,
so I can bring you some money."
They said, "Okay, just run,
go get the money."
And I'm like,
"I know what's gonna happen.
You're going to shoot me
in the back.
I'm listening to everything."
He's like, "No, man, I'm
going to give you my word."
And I'm like, "I don't,
I don't trust your word."
Then he took pictures of my
whole documents and he's like,
"Look, look, you go,
get whatever money you can.
And we'll give you two hours.
That's my word.
We have every single
document on you.
We know where you live,
your parents, da da da
So if you don't get back,
we're going to go
after everyone."
I went, I found an ATM,
gave them that money.
I told him that I could
take my car. Whatever.
They said, "No, we're going to
find you again. Two hours.
This is just like for us."
They let me go.
I got across into El Paso.
Never went back.
A source called me that
afternoon, told me,
"Hey, man, I left you a gift.
Turn the TV on,
at 10 pm, the newscast."
I turned on the TV,
and there were the two policemen
killed in the police car.
Right in the same place
where I was kidnapped.
I called him, said like,
"Hey dude, this is on you.
This not on me. Don't ever
fucking call me again."
♪
You're never completely
out of the game.
Fehr: Government is
the most corruption
thing we got in Mexico.
Government is
working for cartels.
Yeah. That's how it works.
Do you feel safe in
Cuauhtémoc now?
Fehr: Never.
Director: Why not?
Fehr: I'm scared.
Only my son, my wife
knows that I'm here.
Everybody thinks that I'm in
Mexico City, find a doctor.
Frank Klassen: Oh, I think
it's pretty dangerous
in Cuauhtémoc. I mean,
it's just scary to think about
how many there are watching,
what's going on.
Helen Wiebe: I think when
the Mennonites are getting
involved with it, and you know,
if you have not your own money,
what you have made
with your own hand,
the easy money is gas
melting away like nothing.
And they want more and more,
and that doesn't do any good.
Andrew Mitrovica: I met Helen
in a trailer park in Oklahoma.
I remember Helen
showing me a hope chest.
And in the hope chest, she kept
all of her Mennonite dresses.
I believe that she
was nostalgic.
She wanted to keep these
tokens of her past life,
but she recognized that she
could no longer return.
She made a decision,
took risks, to save herself,
to save her children,
and to save
her self-respect and dignity.
Helen Wiebe is a
decent and good human being.
Director: Why do you think
so many Mennonites
get involved in
drug trafficking?
Fehr: Everybody wants money, ya.
Everybody sees money as easy.
I don't think that it is easy.
I, I can see how people
has been killed and dying
just because trying
to get money.
Director: You said,
'I'm a Mennonite.'
Do you still consider
yourself a Mennonite?
Frank Klassen: Well, no,
not really. I'm an American.
(laughs)
And I'm proud to be here. And I,
I just look at myself
every day like,
I'm living an American dream.
And you would never, you never
had that feeling in Mexico.
If you see a preacher,
you start running. I mean-
He was so mean.
That
I'm just so glad,
I'm not there anymore.
Andrew Mitrovica:
Yes. There are many Mennonites
who remain faithful
and true to the ideals
and the beliefs
of the community.
God, hard work, the land,
generosity, peace,
shunning the trappings
of modern life,
to live a God-fearing life.
But the Mennonite community
has to recognize
that this infection is spreading
inside the community.
And it is spreading for
a variety of reasons.
The land cannot sustain
all of these people.
Sam Quinones: Most of the
Mennonites in that old colony
are not drug traffickers.
They are folks
trying to make a living,
and having a
difficult time doing it.
I think that religious leaders
of those areas
are doing their best
not to really know
how big a problem this was.
As one guy told me,
"You can't wash your overalls,
but you can wash
all this behavior.
Narcotics, alcoholism, incest."
Bernie Leblanc: The longer you
deal, the more your chances
of getting caught.
The same goes for us.
The longer we're in town,
the more chance
we're gonna get narc'd.
Johan Harms: Drug trafficking.
I don't think it will ever stop.
Hard way, walk away
from easy money.
Which is to say,
it's easy money,
but believe you me,
it's not easy money. It's
It's a different story
to get that money.
It's it's not easy.
It's not an easy life.
It's not an easy life.
Luis Chaparro: Of course,
I received more threats.
I had this road trip to
Disneyland in L.A.,
I put my hand on
the jacket I had,
and I had a bullet on,
on my left pocket,
and I was like, "this is weird,
I never pick any bullet."
Don't touch bullets or arms,
that I remember.
So I was like,
it's probably someone
put it in my pocket.
I don't know who.
I called a friend I have on ATF,
send him a photo,
and he's like, 'That's a
Mexican police bullet.'
So that was definitely
the message.
I tried to quit journalism
three times now.
It's impossible. And I feel that
I was born to do what I do,
and to expose these
rats and cockroaches.
♪
Director: Can somebody be a drug
dealer and be right with God?
Johan Harms:
That's the question.
Helen Wiebe:
The Bible tells it so clearly,
that you get consequences,
one way or another way.
And you have to live with it.
Sometimes you have to
live a lifetime with it.
Fehr: No, of course not.
Why? Because,
I don't think that God
would like
to see somebody
fall in addiction.
No, that, that doesn't work.
You can't have two bosses.
You can't serve God
and serve the devil.
You have to serve one.
There's no middle.
Johan Harms: Yeah, you can be,
you can be right with God.
♪
♪
Were you ever in charge?
Johan Harms: I did what I did.
(low tense dramatic music) ♪
Something that I
never wanted to do,
but it got into my life and
did it and got out and-
♪
Done deal.
♪
Director: What does it take
to be the boss?
♪
Johan Harms: To be the boss,
it means, um,
takes a lot of leadership
and smart thinking.
Thinking before you do things.
The way I ran things back then,
it was pretty controlled.
Like, I wasn't
this cold-blooded murderer and
thank God I never murdered
somebody in my life.
But, back in the days,
I would have.
♪
My words and my actions
were like tough.
They were strong back then.
Be in the drug business
isn't easy.
It's a tough life.
It was cool.
Why lie? It was, it was good.
But on the other hand,
sometimes when you get
law enforcement on your back,
then you're probably thinking
about changing the name.
Then it's not so cool,
'cause they don't
respect you that much.
And, then it gets
more complicated.
♪
It's a double life.
You live in fear,
like you never know
what the day is going to end up.
Are you going to get arrested?
Are you going to get killed?
Are you gonna make it
through the day?
It's really hard
to live like that.
And that's why I think
a lot of people
lose so much control,
because it's so much pressure,
so much pressure on yourself,
and start drinking,
start using drugs,
and you can handle it.
We were not those kind of people
that were going around
hurting people,
destroying people's lives.
We were more like,
taking it as a business
and helping people out.
I didn't push people around,
but at the same time,
I didn't let 'em
push me around either.
Everybody wants a piece of you.
So there's always people
that want to take your spot,
and like, and it's
it's tough.
And there was just one point,
♪
I just didn't wanna
take it anymore.
♪
We've had United States
drug agents tell us
that right now, today,
your brother Enrique is in
charge of the Mennonite Mafia.
Is that true?
Johan: No, it's not true.
He's
He's out of the game like, it's,
it's not true. It's uhm
Different people
running the show and
trying to blame it
always on somebody else.
Like that's what it is being
being a Harms.
(tense dramatic music) ♪
♪
The documentary comes out and
they're telling all this about
like father, like son,
was about my brother Enrique.
And it was a tough one.
Everybody was thinking
it was my brother,
but actually,
it's not my brother.
There's two different
(chuckles)
Enrique Harms,
which confuses a lot.
Sam Quinones: Names in
the Mennonite community
are extraordinarily confusing,
mostly because there's only
about ten last names,
and for each sex, there's
only about ten male names,
there's only about
ten female names.
Well, what ends up happening is,
that there are many, many,
many people with the same name.
And so Enrique Harms,
I'm sure there's like 50!
Luis Chaparro:
The original Enrique Harms,
he stepped out.
He's out of the business.
And then came
another Enrique Harms,
leveraging on his name,
several years after
other cartel members,
producers, traffickers,
thinking that it was the
oldest Enrique Harms,
which they respected a lot.
The confusion is that
they have the same first name,
same second last name,
which is Enrique Harms.
The OG was Enrique Harms Peters,
and then the guy next was
Enrique Harms Groening,
which is two different families.
But that generated a lot of
confusion,
between who was
this Enrique Harms,
'cause everyone thought
it was, 'Okay, the OG
is back in business, and
apparently he's back again
in the trafficking industry.
But his face was
absolutely different.
Enrique Harms was, let's say
El Chapo for the
Mennonites back then.
It's a whole brand.
Everybody knows El Chapo,
so everybody knows how to make
business with El Chapo, right?
If someone comes
on behalf of El Chapo,
you will have
a lot of open doors,
and they will lend you money.
They will trust in you.
They will know how to
negotiate with you.
Oscar Hagelsieb:
The Harms organization,
the Mennonite Mafia, it evolved
and it has evolved
throughout the years,
just like all the other cartels
have evolved, right?
At the time, the Juarez Cartel
had control of basically
all of Chihuahua.
Of course, they had to fall in
with the Juarez Cartel.
There was a time when
they actually fell in
with the Salazares, which was
a faction of the Sinaloa Cartel,
when the Sinaloa Cartel
was starting to gain ground.
But just like anything,
you know, the power shifts.
And so, they're very smart
in the way that they
align themselves because they
align themselves to whoever
is gonna have the power and
is gonna align their interests.
Luis Chaparro: The second
Enrique Harms,
the new Enrique Harms,
he had to pick sides,
and of course he picked
the Juarez Cartel,
La Línea side, 'cause they were
the main operators
in Cuauthémoc at the time.
So he was working
for them, with them,
and not as an independent
operator trafficking drugs.
So his links to La Línea
and to the Juarez Cartel
are strong links.
Director: Do you know
Enrique Harms Groening?
Do you know who this is?
Johan Harms:
I know who he is.
Grew up in the same community.
I know who he is but,
both in the same business
and like by,
I believe my brother
by that time,
he was out of the business.
He was completely retired,
and then, it got so messed up
and it was such a
nightmare for my brother,
that somebody else was
exactly with the same name,
doing a lot of things,
and everything
came to fall on him.
Will the Mennonite Mafia
ever stop?
Johan: I don't think so.
(tense dramatic music) ♪
♪
Luis Chaparro:
El Bolas showed up,
and this was the head of-
that the first time we heard
the 'Mennonite Cartel'
and said, "Okay, this is what
we're going to do now.
We're gonna organize.
We're going to work
under the Juarez Cartel.
And you guys are going to work
for me and under my leadership,
and every single other guy,
who was working, or trying
to work independently,
was brutally murdered,
threatened,
and violence started picking up,
in Cuauhtémoc,
under the leadership
of El Bolas.
♪
The Golden Triangle is a
mountainous region
that encompasses the states
of Sinaloa, Sonora
and Chihuahua.
It's where the people
of the region
grow poppies and marijuana,
from the sixties to the present,
by the criminal groups
of that region.
All of that was, has been
forever sown and harvested
to be transported
to the United States
through the different
routes that exist.
And those routes are the ones
controlled by the cartels.
This is what makes the city of
Cuauhtémoc a main point.
And that's where this
situation of relationships
between organized crime
and Mennonites begins.
♪
Luis Chaparro: In late '80s when
there was the
Sinaloa Federation,
they started moving marijuana
to the United States,
and getting some fee
from the Colombians,
to traffic cocaine into the US,
until they said,
"Well, we probably don't need
the Colombians anymore.
We can move our own stuff
and have them as our suppliers."
That's when they became huge in
the drug trafficking industry.
This exploded and became
a huge operation.
They decided to split turf.
That's where the
Juarez Cartel was born,
in the '90s, late '80s.
So, in this region
where the big drug traffickers
of Sinaloa are born,
like Chapo Guzmán
Luis Chaparro:
With Amado Carrillo Fuentes,
the Lord of the Skies, they were
basically paying
every single politician,
every single cop
in the State of Chihuahua.
The organization still exists.
It's called La Línea now.
Sam Quinones: La Línea
is a gang that forms
in the drug world
of northern Chihuahua.
Their main function
is as enforcers.
Luis Chaparro:
Enforcers for the Juarez Cartel,
until they became
their own cartel.
I worked on robberies
and property crimes,
but I was also involved in some
homicide investigations.
The Mennonite community
was very secretive.
They always kept a low profile,
they never made
themselves known.
They take their victims' bodies
to avoid being identified
by the police.
Why did they do that?
Simply so that they would not be
identified as a criminal group.
♪
When it came to investigating
or interviewing
the head of the
Mennonite family,
they would sneak out
and hide the women
so that we didn't even have
access to see them
or see any kind of reaction.
We only interviewed
the head of the family,
they were the only ones
we were allowed to see.
Nevertheless, it is difficult
to get effective information.
♪
HSI Agent:
Presidio is a small community
about 240 miles
southeast of El Paso.
Mexican town, south of Presidio,
is a town called Ojinaga.
La Línea, which is a spinoff of
the Juarez Cartel.
A spinoff of the Sinaloa Cartel
has now moved in,
and they are in a turf war
for this plaza.
The Plaza of Ojinaga.
The plaza is the place
where the cartel is going to
receive a tax or a payment
for allowing everything
that is illegal to operate.
HSI Agent:
The plaza is the location
where the heart
of the cartel operates.
If they can control Ojinaga,
they can control the movement
of all their products
in and out of the United States.
Because this is
the only port of entry,
where they can cross
their merchandise,
within 240 miles, east and west.
It's a really lucrative spot,
and both cartels are in a battle
to keep that territory.
♪
As the armed arm of a cartel,
La Línea is a super dangerous
group
Very violent,
who will do whatever it takes to
achieve their goal.
David Giesbrecht Fehr:
The cartels, they used
and are abusing from Mennonites.
So many Mennonites have,
have been doing prison
has been killed,
or kill themselves or whatever,
just because they got in
big problem is with cartels.
Luis Chaparro: We started seeing
a lot of killings,
a lot of shootouts, a lot of
people hanging from bridges,
they left a body with
pig's head on their face.
♪
(police sirens)
HSI Agent:
Depending on who you ask,
they'll tell you,
'Well the Sinaloas are winning,
or the Juárez Cartel
is winning.'
Who's not winning is the people.
Less than three months ago,
there were 17 or 18 individuals
that were killed in Ojinaga.
Those individuals belonged
to that spinoff
of the Sinaloan Cartel,
and they were killed by members
of the Juárez Cartel.
The majority of their bodies
were all dumped
together on a side street.
Kind of like the one that we're
driving on, in front of a house.
And there was a large sign
that had been written,
across their bodies as a warning
to the Sinaloan Cartel.
'Hey, if you keep this up,
we're gonna keep
killing your people.'
So, it's going to be violent.
Whoever has the most
strength wins.
♪
♪
I am from the state of
Chihuahua.
I grew up in Cuauhtémoc.
I have been at the Cereso #1 at
Aquiles Serdán for seven years.
I'm here for aggravated
homicide.
It was a very difficult life.
That's why you get
involved with it.
It was difficult because my
parents left me
when I was little and I was
raised by my grandparents.
When I was ten years old I
started to look for
I started to get together
with these people
to look for a future.
My job was to install storm
drains in the streets.
I started working by being a
look out on the roads,
taking care of the government.
That was my job.
I would let them know when
someone passed by.
That was my job. After that
I started to kill people.
What a gunman does.
I began working with La Línea.
When we split,
I went with my cartel.
I work for El Chapo.
♪
I am here because I was
detained for stealing gas
and an aggravated kidnapping.
For some time, yes, I belonged
to a criminal group
and that is why I am here.
It wasn't pressure or anything.
Simply, it was a bad decision.
I started to feel needs of my
family, and my concerns.
After all those years working,
all I learned was
how to use a gun.
And that was that.
I made the decision.
I called them, asked for a job,
I went with them.
Just like that.
What group did you join?
La Gente Nueva del Tigre.
I'm from
You could say I'm from
Cuauhtémoc, near Cuauhtémoc.
They're at war. They're
fighting it out for control.
In Cuauhtémoc, currently they
are fighting over the plaza.
There is no owner and nobody
knows what's going on.
The dispute is between
La Línea and the Chapos.
The ones who control the
Cuauhtémoc area
is La Gente del Tigre.
The war that is going on there
is because La Línea wants
to take back control, but they
haven't been able to do so.
They are allies with La Línea.
The Mennonites they are
recruiting people,
and recruiting very
young people.
No, they are an armed part
of La Línea.
Most of them are already the
main sponsors, you could say.
I'm talking weapons, vehicles.
They provide the money.
I would say 30% of them are
involved in drugs
and drug trafficking and 70%
work as a normal person.
Mennonites are the ones that
kidnap people
and collect money
by extorting people.
They're involved in money
laundering and all that.
In general, they do everything.
Hitmen. Extortionists.
Collectors.
They're the ones that patrol
over the area and kidnap there.
They put up roadblocks.
They collect money
from businesses.
Both Mexicans and Mennonites.
That makes no
difference to them.
They collect from everybody.
El Bolas.
El Soldado. He is the one
who is always next to him.
El Bolas and El Soldado.
Among the Mennonite community,
they are the most talked about.
El Bolas.
As far as I knew, he was the
leader of the whole community.
The one who subdues them,
forces them to work.
He is the one in charge
in that area.
Of the Mennonites, they are the
only two.
They're Mennonites
who are members
of La Línea, one might say.
They are the ones that everyone
knew were the real deal.
They are the ones who collect
the floor fees in the stores.
They are the ones who rob and
mistreat the people.
They take their cars,
their trucks.
No, I didn't work with them, but
the bosses I worked with did.
They had certain businesses,
for a while at least.
Only on certain occasions.
But I did not talk to them.
He is always with his staff, but
almost never shows his face.
He is always apart.
It's his people who stand up
and show their faces.
♪
David G. Fehr: Bolas is the
big head from the Mennonites.
He was a powerful man.
He was a violent man.
But not just because he wanted.
He got power because
Mexican give it to him.
Because Mexican told him,
"You have to do this.
And you have to do that.
You have to do anything."
Luis Chaparro: We start seeing
a bunch of killings
along the Sierra, the Chihuahua,
the woodlands and,
and Cuauhtémoc.
David G. Fehr: Last time what
I hear that he has been doing,
he has been violent - violento.
Luis Chaparro: Local journalists
reports started pointing
at this guy, which was
very strange to see,
'cause he was a white guy,
Mennonite full on,
dubbed El Bolas.
Producer:
What does El Bolas mean?
Luis Chaparro: El Bolas,
well, the balls. (chuckles)
They were working full on
for the Juárez Cartel.
David G. Fehr:
She tells 19 there was a news,
that I killed three girls
and two guys,
at that I hung 'em up
on a bridge, by pampas.
Luis Chaparro: Pampas killing
was a bridge in Cuauhtémoc.
Fehr: After that,
they burned two
young guys in a pickup,
and the girls that has done,
David Giesbrecht,
who's nickname is Bolas.
Luis Chaparro: He blamed David,
the fake Bolas.
Fehr: I was in prison. Come on!
Luis Chaparro: When I first
heard the nickname Bolas,
which was one of
the main operators,
I actually had a wrong name.
The name that was
put out of the press
and fed to journalists
was David Giesbrecht Fehr.
Fehr: There, everybody knows
I'm not Bolas.
♪
I think that
you know that, right?
Luis Chaparro: The real Bolas
has a very different name.
It is Peter Fehr, actually.
I've seen pictures of David
Giesbrecht Fehr before,
and he doesn't look at all
like the real Bolas.
Very different kind of man,
El Bolas, he looks
like a white man,
like several other Mennonites.
But his face is
really hard, serious,
almost like a sociopathic
look on his eyes.
Very different
from other Mennonites,
even working for the cartel,
working for him,
and definitely more scary.
He has a side that
you can feel the violence
and the way he lives.
♪
Eventually we learn that
this guy, David,
he was working with
a Mennonite for El Bolas.
And I think he was
the actual Bolas,
who tried to buy
the name and the face,
of one of his workers, of David.
And he put it up
in the press as El Bolas.
Peter Fehr, the real Bolas,
he was absolutely ruthless.
And that was a message
for everyone who was trying to
either go independent,
or go against him.
And he didn't care to blame
one of his own people,
which was David.
♪
Abraham Harms Junior
was part of the
OG Harms Organization,
the original
Enrique Harms brother,
and of course he was in the game
for several years.
And then afterwards he started
just laundering his money,
I guess, he established
a legal juice company,
established in El Paso, Texas,
and he became a
Mennonite businessman.
A very successful one.
And the word was out,
that he had legal money
when the Mennonite mob
needed money.
I am one of the Harms boys from
Loewen Farm,
that they always call the
marijuana Harms,
the bad Harms boys.
That's where I come from,
where I am from.
My name is Abram Harms.
Once I asked God for help,
then after 2 to 3 months my wife
saw how I was turning around.
The 11th of January of '96,
I had a huge accident.
It is a miracle of God
that I can be here.
Oscar Hagelsieb: Abram Harms
got kidnapped in 2019.
Fehr: I was in Georgia
and once I saw on TV
he was outside of the
restaurant, La Huerta.
It's one kilometer off
from a shop.
Oscar Hagelsieb: That was
during the time that I was the
agent in charge of
the HSI Juárez office.
He got kidnapped, as he was
going to a restaurant.
Johan Harms: My brother, he has
a meeting with his accountant.
They're going to have breakfast
in a restaurant.
And when my brother drives up,
and as soon as he gets
out of the pickup,
there comes this guy,
he walks up to him.
My brother, he starts running
and he runs after him
and hits him with a gun
in the back of his head.
He falls down and-
Oscar Hagelsieb:
A couple of individuals
had kidnapped him at gunpoint,
and had taken his vehicle,
which was a luxury GMC vehicle,
and put him in the vehicle
and drove off with him.
Official word from the
Mexican authorities was that
he was kidnapped for ransom,
and that a legitimate member
of the Mennonite organization,
which was an accountant,
that, you know,
handled a lot of the businesses
that the Mennonites owned,
that individual had provided
intel to his brother,
so that they could kidnap him
and extort money
from the family.
Johan Harms: I definitely
believe that the accountant
was involved,
but at the same time
I can't prove it 100%.
Fehr: Why? I have no idea.
Many people's says because
it was a accountant,
somebody else goes like
he didn't pay pesos,
somebody else goes like,
he work again with the drug
dealers. I don't think that.
They are terrible Mexi-
if you have to do something
with them, they kill you.
If you don't do what they say,
or if you don't pay
what you have to pay,
or if you run away from them
just because you don't work
with them, they kill you.
Johan Harms: We're waiting
and waiting, and no phone call,
no nothing, and then just
days after we found him,
dead on the street.
So they never called and
they were never
asking for money.
There was no
ransom demand because
as far as I understand,
it was not a plan to kill him,
was kidnap him, ask for amount
of money and release him.
But, something went
terribly wrong,
because they hit him
in the back of his head.
His skull wasn't,
wasn't that strong
because he had been
in a car accident before.
And since they hit him
in that part,
like what I've heard, like
he was bleeding a lot and-
The hit that they gave him
on his head,
he had no survival.
Luis Chaparro: First, they
blamed El Contador,
the accountant, but
the investigation shows that
it was actually El Bolas,
who had Abraham Harms Junior
kidnapped.
And this show you that El Bolas
doesn't really care if you're
from the OG Harms family.
If you're out of the game,
if you're legal now.
He needed money
and he went after
one of the original Harms,
to get money
out of his kidnapping.
Oscar Hagelsieb:
A lot of people ask like, why
are Mexican authorities
very hesitant
in really targeting
the Mennonites?
A lot of people don't realize
that the Mexican government
actually invited these
individuals into Mexico.
So it was something that
was established
even back in the '20s,
due to the fact that Mexico
had been involved in the
Civil War for so long.
All those areas
were very desolate.
So the Mexican government
actually saw that
these Mennonites were,
number one, Bible thumping.
They were good people
and that they were very good
at what they did.
Because they saw their farmlands
and they heard of how good
they were in making desert
into fruitful farming area.
And so, even since then,
from the hierarchy of the
Mexican government, it was
pretty much hands off on them.
That was engraved in Mexican
law enforcement from those time.
Luis Chaparro:
They threatened to leave in 2014
because of dryness of the land.
And the Mexican government
basically threw money at them
saying, 'Do whatever
exploit wells, illegal wells.
I don't care, just stay here
because 80% of our revenue
from farming
comes from you guys.'
The revenue the Mennonites
are making for
the State of Chihuahua, it's
over $3 billion every year.
So now they're
basically protected
by the State of Chihuahua
and also by the
Mexican government,
because of the amount
they're bringing in.
And that's where, strangely
enough, the Juárez Cartel
set up their office.
That's what they called
Cuauhtémoc, La Oficina.
That's headquarters
where you keep the papers,
where you keep the money,
where you keep the heads.
That's why they send
shit-tons of people
to fight to protect Cuauhtémoc.
They are very useful
for cartels to launder money,
because you can mix
millions of U.S. dollars
in between all of the money
they're making legally,
and Cuauhtémoc
is widely cash-based,
because it's very,
very lucrative for cartels,
very lucrative for
the Chihuahua State.
Very lucrative for
all those related,
including the
Mennonites producing
shit-tons of money
and working hard to hold
Cuauhtémoc as a stronghold
of the Juárez Cartel.
I think the Mennonite Cartel
story hasn't been done,
because imagine that amount
of money every year,
coming into Chihuahua and the
leverage these guys have.
In the State, they, of course
have straight links,
and if they pick up a phone,
they can call the Governor.
They can call the Chief
of Police of Chihuahua,
they can call whoever they want
to fix their stuff,
because they represent money.
And a huge part of the
Mennonite community
is using illegal money.
And a lot of this money
that is staying
within the State of Chihuahua,
the Mexican officials are very
proud of this money.
It is illegal money,
so it is a huge problem,
not only for Chihuahua,
but also for Mexico in general.
Exposing the Mennonites
in bed with cartels,
it's problematic.
♪
Luis Chaparro:
So there's a whole myth,
around Bolas' death.
No one has ever found his body.
It was said on the press and
by Mexican investigators
that he was killed.
But again,
they're not even sure.
I recently reached out
to one of the investigators,
and he said, "Well, for me,
I think it's that.
But we don't have a body,
so I can't tell you
with full evidence
that he's dead."
I ask him,
"So, he might be around?"
He was like, "Very unlikely.
I'm pretty sure he's dead.
But again, we have no evidence
of the death of Bolas."
So it's still a mystery.
We still don't really know
where he's buried,
or if it was what.
Fehr: Doesn't exist anymore,
and that's it.
That's how they do it.
That's why I am telling you,
this add all this stuff up
to clean his name.
I don't know if he's
dead or not.
I have no idea.
But what I believe,
they made all this up
to disappeared.
Now he's dead.
Nobody's looking for him.
That's what,
that's what I think. But I'm-
I have no idea.
Director: Do you think
El Bolas is dead?
♪
♪
Johan Harms: There wasn't so
much violence back in the '90s.
It was more peaceful.
It wasn't so out of hand as it-
as it is today.
And it's sad
the way it is today.
Luis Chaparro: A DEA agent,
he was sending me
a lot of information
regarding the local police
in Juárez,
and how they were in bed
with the Juárez Cartel.
I published a story.
My editor back then asked me,
"Hey man, this is
probably dangerous.
Are you aware that you're gonna
probably face threats and stuff.
Do you want us to
keep your name?'
But of course I was naive,
excited and egocentric.
So I was like, 'No man, like,
put my name out there.
It's, it's a huge story.'
One night, after three weeks
of the publication,
local police stopped me,
full geared, very aggressive,
pulled me out of my car,
started kicking me.
They told me that my family
was gonna find me
as cattle on the back of my car,
on the trunk.
I was absolutely confused.
So I was like,
"Hey man, I'm a journalist.
I think you're probably
taking for someone else."
They confirm on the radio,
they had codes that I had
picked my sources the police.
They said like,
"Yeah, this is the 27."
(speaks Spanish)
27 was code for journalist.
So I'm like, "Okay, shit.
So they're after me."
And I'm like, "Dude, like,
whatever you need, take my car."
They tied my feet and arms,
put me on the back of a
pickup truck on the floor.
And I remember it was like
really cold.
It was like in February.
They drove to a,
empty road, to a highway.
They stopped there
in the middle of the night.
These guys were dealing on,
how were they going to kill me.
If I was gonna be kneeled down,
or if they're going to ask me
to run and shoot me in the back,
or if they're just
gonna cut my head
They were like, discussing
not even with me,
they were discussing
amongst them.
They asked me to kneel down,
and I said, "No."
Because I knew that
I was gonna be executed.
So I'm, I'm not,
I'm not kneeling down.
Sorry, guys, but uh, just take
everything, I need to go.
Then one of them told me,
"Well, then, do you have money?"
And I'm like, "Yes,
I have my two credit cards,
so I can bring you some money."
They said, "Okay, just run,
go get the money."
And I'm like,
"I know what's gonna happen.
You're going to shoot me
in the back.
I'm listening to everything."
He's like, "No, man, I'm
going to give you my word."
And I'm like, "I don't,
I don't trust your word."
Then he took pictures of my
whole documents and he's like,
"Look, look, you go,
get whatever money you can.
And we'll give you two hours.
That's my word.
We have every single
document on you.
We know where you live,
your parents, da da da
So if you don't get back,
we're going to go
after everyone."
I went, I found an ATM,
gave them that money.
I told him that I could
take my car. Whatever.
They said, "No, we're going to
find you again. Two hours.
This is just like for us."
They let me go.
I got across into El Paso.
Never went back.
A source called me that
afternoon, told me,
"Hey, man, I left you a gift.
Turn the TV on,
at 10 pm, the newscast."
I turned on the TV,
and there were the two policemen
killed in the police car.
Right in the same place
where I was kidnapped.
I called him, said like,
"Hey dude, this is on you.
This not on me. Don't ever
fucking call me again."
♪
You're never completely
out of the game.
Fehr: Government is
the most corruption
thing we got in Mexico.
Government is
working for cartels.
Yeah. That's how it works.
Do you feel safe in
Cuauhtémoc now?
Fehr: Never.
Director: Why not?
Fehr: I'm scared.
Only my son, my wife
knows that I'm here.
Everybody thinks that I'm in
Mexico City, find a doctor.
Frank Klassen: Oh, I think
it's pretty dangerous
in Cuauhtémoc. I mean,
it's just scary to think about
how many there are watching,
what's going on.
Helen Wiebe: I think when
the Mennonites are getting
involved with it, and you know,
if you have not your own money,
what you have made
with your own hand,
the easy money is gas
melting away like nothing.
And they want more and more,
and that doesn't do any good.
Andrew Mitrovica: I met Helen
in a trailer park in Oklahoma.
I remember Helen
showing me a hope chest.
And in the hope chest, she kept
all of her Mennonite dresses.
I believe that she
was nostalgic.
She wanted to keep these
tokens of her past life,
but she recognized that she
could no longer return.
She made a decision,
took risks, to save herself,
to save her children,
and to save
her self-respect and dignity.
Helen Wiebe is a
decent and good human being.
Director: Why do you think
so many Mennonites
get involved in
drug trafficking?
Fehr: Everybody wants money, ya.
Everybody sees money as easy.
I don't think that it is easy.
I, I can see how people
has been killed and dying
just because trying
to get money.
Director: You said,
'I'm a Mennonite.'
Do you still consider
yourself a Mennonite?
Frank Klassen: Well, no,
not really. I'm an American.
(laughs)
And I'm proud to be here. And I,
I just look at myself
every day like,
I'm living an American dream.
And you would never, you never
had that feeling in Mexico.
If you see a preacher,
you start running. I mean-
He was so mean.
That
I'm just so glad,
I'm not there anymore.
Andrew Mitrovica:
Yes. There are many Mennonites
who remain faithful
and true to the ideals
and the beliefs
of the community.
God, hard work, the land,
generosity, peace,
shunning the trappings
of modern life,
to live a God-fearing life.
But the Mennonite community
has to recognize
that this infection is spreading
inside the community.
And it is spreading for
a variety of reasons.
The land cannot sustain
all of these people.
Sam Quinones: Most of the
Mennonites in that old colony
are not drug traffickers.
They are folks
trying to make a living,
and having a
difficult time doing it.
I think that religious leaders
of those areas
are doing their best
not to really know
how big a problem this was.
As one guy told me,
"You can't wash your overalls,
but you can wash
all this behavior.
Narcotics, alcoholism, incest."
Bernie Leblanc: The longer you
deal, the more your chances
of getting caught.
The same goes for us.
The longer we're in town,
the more chance
we're gonna get narc'd.
Johan Harms: Drug trafficking.
I don't think it will ever stop.
Hard way, walk away
from easy money.
Which is to say,
it's easy money,
but believe you me,
it's not easy money. It's
It's a different story
to get that money.
It's it's not easy.
It's not an easy life.
It's not an easy life.
Luis Chaparro: Of course,
I received more threats.
I had this road trip to
Disneyland in L.A.,
I put my hand on
the jacket I had,
and I had a bullet on,
on my left pocket,
and I was like, "this is weird,
I never pick any bullet."
Don't touch bullets or arms,
that I remember.
So I was like,
it's probably someone
put it in my pocket.
I don't know who.
I called a friend I have on ATF,
send him a photo,
and he's like, 'That's a
Mexican police bullet.'
So that was definitely
the message.
I tried to quit journalism
three times now.
It's impossible. And I feel that
I was born to do what I do,
and to expose these
rats and cockroaches.
♪
Director: Can somebody be a drug
dealer and be right with God?
Johan Harms:
That's the question.
Helen Wiebe:
The Bible tells it so clearly,
that you get consequences,
one way or another way.
And you have to live with it.
Sometimes you have to
live a lifetime with it.
Fehr: No, of course not.
Why? Because,
I don't think that God
would like
to see somebody
fall in addiction.
No, that, that doesn't work.
You can't have two bosses.
You can't serve God
and serve the devil.
You have to serve one.
There's no middle.
Johan Harms: Yeah, you can be,
you can be right with God.
♪