All language subtitles for Global.Eye.S2026E15.1080p.iP.WEB-DL.AAC2.0.H.264-7VFr33104D_track3_[eng]

Hello and welcome to a new series
of Global Eye,

from the BBC World Service.

Every week, we'll bring you some of
the most thought-provoking

and compelling investigations
from our teams around the world,

and stories that shine a light
on hope and resilience.

I'm Shawn Yuan
and I'm here in Mexico

investigating
the extraordinary story

of a suspected Chinese drug kingpin,

one of the world's
most wanted fugitives

and a man accused of fuelling
the global fentanyl crisis.

Coming up on this programme,
we'll bring you an investigation

into the online manosphere,
from Mexico to Kenya.

That's what the word means.

Yeah.

And we're in Ecuador to find out

why scientists believe these
remote villagers

living with a rare disease

may hold the key to conquering some
of the world's deadliest diseases.

He is known by numerous aliases,

but his real name is Zhang Zhidong,

a 39-year-old Chinese national

alleged to have
been the critical bridge

between China's chemical factories

and Mexico's
most feared drug cartels.

Chinese communities have existed
in Mexico for over a century,

and within them, in the grey space
between legitimate commerce

and organised crime,
so have Chinese criminal networks.

Zhang Zhidong understood
that world intimately.

A fluent Spanish speaker,

he found work in the mining industry

and built powerful connections on
both sides of the Pacific.

His access to manufacturers
in China gives him

something the cartels
couldn't easily source themselves -

the chemical building blocks,
known as precursors, of fentanyl.

His fluency in both cultures

meant US prosecutors
believe he became trusted

by Mexico's two dominant cartels -
the Sinaloa

and Jalisco New Generation Cartel,
or CJNG.

It's alleged he sourced ingredients,
supplied the labs

and traffic the drugs
up north to the US.

In October 2024, Mexican authorities
caught up with him,

but events were far from over.

This residential neighbourhood
in southern Mexico City

is where Zhang Zhidong's story
took its most dramatic turn.

In what was deemed
a highly controversial decision,

a judge had ordered his transfer
from maximum-security prison

to house arrest.

That decision had dire consequences.

On the 11th of July last year,

Zhang reportedly
destroyed his electronic tag,

passed through a
tunnel connecting his residence

to the adjoining property
and disappeared.

It came at a time when the US was
intensifying its pressure on Mexico

to fight against drug trafficking.

For Washington, a frustration.

For Mexico City, a crisis.

Because Zhang
wasn't operating alone.

According to the indictment,

US law enforcement identified
more than 150 shell companies

and 170 bank accounts
tied to his organisation.

Zhang was exceptional but
he was not unique.

American investigators believe
there are others like him -

bilingual, bicultural, invisible -
operating in the same space.

This is Culiacan,
the capital of Sinaloa state,

and for decades
the operational heartland

of one of the world's most powerful
criminal organisations.

The Sinaloa Cartel built its empire
on cocaine and heroin

but fentanyl changed everything.

Unlike coca or poppies,
fentanyl doesn't grow,

it's entirely manufactured.

1kg of this compound,

costing a few hundred US dollars,

can produce over $1 million worth
of fentanyl tablets,

potentially enough
to kill many thousands of people.

Prosecutors allege Zhang Zhidong
was the critical link

in that particular supply chain.

I wanted to understand just how
crucial a figure Zhang Zhidong was

in the Mexican fentanyl trade,

so I went to meet a coordinator
for the Sinaloa Cartel in Culiacan.

We're not naming him
to protect his safety.

He nearly pulled off an
audacious escape.

Zhang managed to fly to Cuba

after escaping his house arrest

and then on to Russia,

where Russian border officials
spotted his forged papers

and sent him back to Cuba.

This time, Cuban border guards
uncovered his true identity,

and he was transferred back
to Mexico

before being extradited to the US,

where he now faces
drug-trafficking charges.

Zhang Zhidong has pleaded not guilty

and remains in federal custody
in the US.

So, did Brother Wang's arrest
affect the supply chain at all?

If anything, Zhang's rise shows that
this is a resilient system

that can survive
the fall of any man.

The question now is how many more
like him are still there?

Over the last few years,
women's rights have been the subject

of an increasingly heated
public discourse here in Mexico,

and the emergence of the online
manosphere subculture

has added to those tensions,

raising questions about
what it means to be a man today

in Mexican society.

Now, behind me
is Barras Insurgentes,

a public gym
in the heart of the city,

where followers of influencer
El Temach meet to work out.

El Temach is part of
the global manosphere,

one of many copycats
of influencer Andrew Tate,

with his message of male empowerment
and misogyny

attracting more than
11 million followers.

Jacqui Wakefield
has been investigating

this growing phenomenon
here in Mexico and around the world,

meeting the influencers,
their followers

and women who've suffered
as a result.

It started in the West, but now the
manosphere has gone truly global.

First, influencers like Andrew Tate

flooded our algorithms
with testosterone-fuelled content.

If a woman is going out with
a man...

100% of the blame
is always on the female.

Now copycats are everywhere.

They have the same slang,
the same look,

the same talking points,

spreading their message
around the globe.

If a woman slept with 200 men,
she is worthless.

Mexican influencer El Temach
is the biggest manosphere creator

in Latin America,
with over 11 million followers.

He's gained popularity
with his message of discipline

and self-improvement.

I've come to see his show
in Las Vegas,

the second stop on his world tour.

CHEERING

Most people have paid
at least $90 for the show.

CHEERING

El Temach had invited us to his
show a couple of months earlier,

but days before we were due
to fly out, he went live.

We decided to come anyway.

With no invitation, we had
to film the show on our phones.

We're hoping to put some questions
to El Temach before the show's over,

but he moves on before I
get a chance to ask a question.

CHEERING

Those who love him -
and pay an extra $50 -

get the chance to meet him
face to face.

But before we get the chance
to speak with him, he disappears.

His manager comes out instead.

We left Vegas without an interview.

El Temach's journey
started here, in Mexico.

In recent years, women's rights have
been at the centre of fierce debate.

Abortion has been decriminalised

and the country
has its first female president.

But there's also been a backlash,

with rising rates of gender-based
violence and femicide.

THEY CHANT

It's a global phenomenon.

In countries from Kenya
to South Korea,

women have taken to the streets
to protest.

But more than half of young men
globally now believe

they're being discriminated against,

and their social media feeds
are backing them up.

I am Luis' sister.

I don't like saying El Temach

because, for me, it's like
a different person completely.

Anything I would express
from my perspective on life

was taken like a feminist belief,

like an affront to his
persona, to his manlihood.

Alex and El Temach haven't spoken
in over two years

after falling out over his views.

It's really astonishing to me

to see him now because
he was a totally different person.

He was very free.

He moved to LA and he just pursued
the dream of becoming an actor.

He went expecting greatness and,
when he had nothing left,

he just came back, like,
"I have nothing else to give."

Maybe a bad break-up,
a bad relationship,

like, the final straw of, "I've had
enough of being mistreated,"

led him to start, like,
posting content

about how to help guys
with their problems. He boomed.

He copied everything
from Andrew Tate.

Like, we even talked about it when
he started creating content,

he was like... Andrew Tate was
super-big at that time.

If I meet a beautiful woman
and she has a child,

the chance of me being
long-term with that woman

while she has another man's kid,
for me, personally, is 0%.

In that journey
where he was becoming El Temach,

what do you think caused the switch?

People started speaking out
about how... About suicide.

I think that made him feel

responsible for men's health
and men's lives.

So I think that's when it twisted.

He got this messiah complex of,
like,

he's the one that has to fix it.

Saving men is a lucrative business.

We estimate he earns up to
1.5 million US dollars per year

from social media views.
On top of that,

he makes bank on YouTube Live Chats

where fans pay
to boost their comments.

Many of them ask for his advice
on personal problems.

We calculated this made him $200,000
to $300,000 in the past year.

Then there's the merchandise.

And event tickets.

9,000 miles away, in Kenya,

masculinity influences
are also booming,

tripling their following
in just a few years.

This is Andrew Kibe, one of the
biggest in the Kenyan manosphere.

#andrewkibe has attracted
530 million views on TikTok alone.

A failed pastor, he went on to host
a popular radio breakfast show.

He's now a content creator,

earning a dedicated audience
of young men

with his message
of male empowerment.

But his misogynistic rants

have resulted in him being suspended
from YouTube.

Yeah, is that OK?

We first met last year
with my colleague Anita Nkonge.

That's what the word means.

Yeah.

Why not just respect both ways?

Why does it have to be worship
one way or the other?

What's one thing you'd want

the world to know about you
and what you stand for?

Listen here and listen well.

I'll be coming to ten counties
very soon.

Kibe told us he was going on tour,
promoting a new book.

He invited us to come along.

Our first stop is a nightclub
in western Kenya.

People start crowding around
Kibe's table.

INDISTINCT SHOUTING

Many are young men wanting him
to sign copies of his book.

But some women also approach.

At the club, we meet
one of his eager fans, Ryan.

Ryan agreed to share
his social media data with us.

Ryan regularly searched
"self-improvement",

"success",

but also masculinity tips

specifically for boys
without a father figure -

which gave him Kibe videos.

Ryan agreed to an interview with us.

What advice specifically
do you follow?

Is this something
that you've personally...?

Content from the Western manosphere

also appeared
in his social media algorithm.

So they may be quite rude... Yeah.

...but does that deserve
physical violence?

After spending time
in the global manosphere,

I've seen how young men
get drawn into this world,

putting their time, money
and energy into it.

It's all allowing the influencers
to make money

from aggressive and hateful content,

leading to real-world harms.

I think he knows
what he's doing on some level.

I think that he sees and realises
that if he ever

owns up to what he did,
it'll destroy him.

I also feel bad
that his life detoured

into this weird, dystopic hell,

and he's just this...

...violence robot.

It's very sad.

Here's another highlight
from the World Service this week.

A BBC Eye investigation exposes
the torture and sexual violence

committed against Ukrainian
civilians in Russian-run prisons.

This film tells the powerful story
of survivors,

including Lyudmila Huseynova,

as they search for justice

and track down the Russian officials
who likely abused them.

Since 2014,
thousands of Ukrainian civilians

have been held illegally
in Russian-run detention centres,

yet only a handful of
Russian officials have been tried

for war crimes
and none for sexual violence.

You can watch the full documentary,

BBC Eye Ukraine Survivors:
Finding My Abusers,

on BBC iPlayer in the UK and on
the World Service YouTube channel.

Now to Ecuador,
where a community of 200 people

with a very rare form of dwarfism,
known as Laron syndrome,

may hold the key to understanding
and curing

some of the world's
deadliest diseases.

Virtually no-one with Laron syndrome
ever develops cancer,

diabetes or dementia.

BBC Mundo went to Ecuador
to find out

how this isolated community
could change the world.

Thanks for joining me in Mexico.
We want your feedback on Global Eye.

Let us know what do you think on
social media using the hashtag...

Next week, we'll be reporting
from Hungary. Goodbye.