Original subtitles

Narrator: In the criminal underworld...

Good evening, Mr. Gotti.

...power is a prize worth killing for.

[ Gun shots ]

[ Sirens wailing ]

Have none, and you're a nobody.

Man: A car bomb killed one man.

Narrator: Have some, and you'll always crave more.

♪♪

Out here, kings aren't born.

They're made.

And only a few have what it takes to climb to the top.

♪♪

In 2016, the most notorious drug lord of the modern age

is extradited to an American prison,

ending an over 25-year-long crime spree

that builds an illegal billion-dollar industry

and turns the streets of Mexico into a bloodbath.

Riley: He's a mass murderer.

I bet he's responsible for tens of thousands

of innocent people's lives.

Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán controls his empire

with violence and cunning,

but years before he becomes the boss,

he's a small-time dealer in the foothills of Sinaloa

locked in a bloody war against his rivals

that's about to unleash the most feared

criminal mastermind in Mexico.

This is the story of how a criminal becomes a kingpin.

♪♪

[ Indistinct chatter ]

♪♪

[ Door opens ]

♪♪

♪♪

And it all starts with the murder of a DEA agent.

♪♪

♪ Yeah ♪

♪ Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah ♪

♪ Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah ♪

♪ Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah ♪

♪ Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah ♪

♪ Ye-e-e-e-e-ah ♪

♪ Ye-e-e-e-e-ah ♪

♪♪

♪♪

Narrator: In 1980s Mexico,

drug lords are the most powerful men in the country.

Cross them, and you end up dead.

DEA agent Enrique "Kiki" Camarena

is an undercover agent inside Guadalajara's drug ring.

When intel he provides leads to the destruction

of a marijuana plantation,

a crop worth an estimated $8 billion a year,

Camarena is identified as the source of the leak,

abducted in broad daylight,

tortured, and killed over a 30-hour period.

His skull, jaw, nose, cheekbones,

and windpipe are crushed.

His ribs are broken, and a hole is drilled into his head

with a power drill.

♪♪

It's the first time in history

an American DEA agent is killed on foreign soil.

♪♪

Kiki Camarena was a young, aggressive DEA agent

who was seeing this group of traffickers

run by Félix Gallardo.

I believe he was the guy who actually baptized them

the Guadalajara Cartel.

The reason being they had...

The Medellín Cartel was in the news.

And the United States was taking Colombia seriously.

But his bosses in Washington were not taking Mexico seriously.

Narrator: The American government is so consumed

with fighting its drug war against

the South American narcos,

like Pablo Escobar,

that Mexico has slipped under the radar

for more than a decade.

Félix Gallardo, known as El Padrino,

or "The Godfather," seizes the opportunity.

He quietly builds a massive drug-smuggling empire

worth hundreds of millions of dollars in profit a year.

Riley: He really is the architect for Mexican cartels

as we know them today.

Gallardo... His strength came from controlling the border.

That's the choke point for success.

At the height of Gallardo's reign in the '80s,

he was probably generating over $100 million a year,

and that's in those days.

And I think that right there is the benchmark for why

he's in the hall of fame of traffickers.

Narrator: In the early 1980s,

Agent Camarena infiltrates El Padrino's operation,

determined to get the US government

to focus its attention

on the growing drug trade just south of the border.

His brutal murder at the hands of El Padrino's crew

opens the floodgates.

Riley: Kiki being kidnapped and murdered...

I don't think Gallardo had any idea

what kind of bear they woke up

'cause that brought the full force of this government.

While we respect their sovereignty,

don't get me wrong... we do.

But when you... when you kill a US agent, look out.

We're coming.

♪♪

Narrator: The Reagan administration responds aggressively.

Law enforcement shuts down the border,

and the government seizes all trade with Mexico...

moves designed to pressure the government

to go after its number-one menace...

El Padrino. [ Camera shutter clicks ]

[ Camera shutter clicks ]

♪♪

[ Indistinct yelling in Spanish ]

♪♪

[ Camera shutter clicks ]

[ Camera shutters clicking ]

El Padrino is convicted for the murder of Kiki Camarena,

drug smuggling, and racketeering.

He's sentenced to a term of 40 years behind bars.

But he's determined to hold on to the empire he built.

Riley: Gallardo... What he's thinking while

he's incarcerated in Mexico is,

"How do I solidify the future of my cartel?"

Narrator: El Padrino sets out to divide his empire

into three distinct cartels,

each to be run separately by his most powerful lieutenants.

The plan requires the leaders of the new cartels to share power,

but El Padrino's lieutenants are the most ruthless narcos

in the country with ambitions of their own.

And with an empty seat at the top of the Guadalajara Cartel,

it's the perfect opportunity for any of them

to make a play for absolute power.

To convince his successors to go along with this plan,

El Padrino brings together the deadliest men in Mexico.

The Félix brothers, Ramón and Benjamín,

are the most ruthless.

They see power and violence as one in the same.

♪♪

[ Grunts ]

[ Groaning ]

♪♪

Ugh.

[ Gun cocks ]

♪♪

[ Speaks Spanish ]

Grillo: The Félix brothers were aggressive

in their violence... public violence.

To say, you know, this group...

you know, you cannot mess with them.

Narrator: Amado Fuentes enforces his power through politics.

His preferred weapon isn't violence. It's money.

Muchas gracias.

♪♪

♪♪

Narrator: Joaquín Guzmán is an outsider,

the son of a farmer from the foothills of Sinaloa,

who's known inside the cartel as "El Chapo."

Riley: And Joaquín Guzmán, I think,

was probably far smarter than anybody else.

He was a logistics genius at a young age

in terms of packaging and moving marijuana in and around.

If he couldn't convince someone to do the right thing,

he would try to bribe them.

And if he couldn't bribe them, he'd kill them.

[ Guns cocking ]

♪♪

But there was a method to his madness,

and he understood what had to be done

for his organization to grow.

And he also understood when conflict arose with a rival,

there was some type of mediation

that he could come through with that they could work together.

And everybody could be profitable.

But if it didn't work, then he was gonna make sure

he cut their head off.

Narrator: El Padrino's summit is a call for peace.

But with absolute power at stake,

one wrong move can start a war.

There was an arrangement to traffic drugs

along certain corridors.

The Arellano Félix brothers can move the drugs

through Tijuana area.

Chapo Guzmán can move drugs through Sonora area.

Carillo Fuentes can move drugs through Juarez.

Narrator: But El Padrino's plan is careful

to make sure no single lieutenant

becomes too powerful by drawing three nearly equally corridors,

each with an advantage and a comparable disadvantage.

Anastasia: The Félix brothers get Tijuana,

two hours south of Los Angeles.

Lots of commerce, lots of traffic.

It's the richest of the three.

But it also was the smallest.

Next you had Juarez, and with Juarez,

you got El Paso.

If you get into America, you have access

to all kinds of highways,

take you anywhere in the country.

But Juarez was the most heavily guarded.

Next you had Sinaloa, the largest of the three corridors,

but what you didn't have was a major city

or major entry point.

That was the problem with Sinaloa.

♪♪

Narrator: In one stroke, El Padrino carves

the entire country into three separate

centers of control.

Riley: I think the era in which Gallardo came from...

his compadres probably would have adhered to an agreement.

Narrator: But El Padrino underestimates this new generation of narcos.

The division kicks off a drug-smuggling arms race

where the goal is to outplay your rivals and become kingpin.

From their base in Tijuana,

the Félix brothers focus on perfecting

old-school smuggling techniques.

Riley: One of the characteristics of the Félix brothers was their...

their ability, it seemed to be, very ingenious

about putting the dope in things,

whether it be sealed cans, milk cartons, machinery.

They... They went to great lengths to try to conceal it

going across the border.

And you could find the traces of them on the US side

when we would hit a house that was a stash house,

and there would be all kinds of, you know, empty cans,

machineries, pumps, mattresses, I could remember one time,

that they very ingeniously secreted dope in.

When you look at their ingenuity and their commitment

to moving that way, they were really good at it.

They really were. Some of the best I've ever seen.

♪♪

Narrator: Fuentes has the most heavily guarded border.

Getting through it is nearly impossible.

He devises a plan to go over it.

[ Airplane flying overhead ]

♪♪

Riley: Everybody was... was used to concealing it

in a car or a body carrying it or...

or somebody doing a backstroke across the...

the Rio Grande with it on him.

But the use of aircraft,

certainly, you could move far quicker.

You could move larger loads.

And I think he saw that as an advantage.

Narrator: In Central Mexico, Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán's

territory is mostly empty desert.

Grillo: Guzmán did not have a major city

in his territory.

The Juarez cartel and Tijuana cartel could both move

a lot of drugs over the border bridges

in cars and in trucks.

A lot of the trafficking in Sonora

was more through the desert,

where there was nobody there, but it was hard

to move the really bigger amounts of cocaine.

So you could see a certain jealousy

of these really profitable areas like Tijuana,

like Sierra Juárez.

Narrator: So El Chapo gets creative.

Just how far or how deep will the drug smugglers go?

Well, now, at one point in the Mexican border with Arizona,

they have built a drug tunnel.

Nothing like it has ever been seen.

Man: The tunnel was called one of the most sophisticated

drug-smuggling schemes authorities have ever seen.

What you see with Chapo Guzmán is a real investment in tunnels.

So, "Rather than just, we're gonna build a little hole

under the ground, we're gonna hire

professional engineers

who have done proper construction."

And you're gonna make a tunnel with air vents,

with electric lights,

with rails where you can take things on railcars.

Even if you spend $1 million, $2 million on a tunnel,

it doesn't matter if you can make tens of millions,

hundreds of millions out of these things.

So you start seeing real ambition,

vision from a criminal point of view.

Narrator: They dub it "Cocaine Alley."

We thought there were tunnels every 100 feet

with the way this guy was going.

Narrator: El Chapo Guzmán's network of tunnels

is a critical innovation,

and it sets him apart from his competitors.

♪♪

He's moving more product than either Fuentes

or the Félix brothers.

But for a drug smuggler,

crossing the border is just the beginning.

His problem is once he gets the product into the United States,

how does he distribute it?

How does he get it beyond that area?

How does he get it into mainstream America?

Narrator: If he wants to get his supply to the US market,

Chapo Guzmán needs access

to the interstate highways that can only be reached

by cutting through the Tijuana territory...

...territory owned by the Félix brothers.

It's a declaration of war.

To get access to America's highway system,

he builds his largest drug-smuggling tunnel to date

right in the heart of the Félix brothers' territory.

♪♪

[ Indistinct chatter ]

Riley: The Félix brothers really ran the Tijuana corridor

like a Nazi-controlled prison camp.

Violence was used all the time.

Intimidation all the time.

And, matter of fact, I think more so than any cartel,

the Félix brothers kind of got away from corruption.

They weren't really interested in trying to bribe their way.

They just killed people.

And lo and behold, here's my man Guzmán

tunneling right underneath

the Félix brothers' headquarters.

[ Indistinct chatter ]

When they found out Guzmán was responsible

for the Tijuana tunnel, it shocked them.

And I'm certain many people died in their organization

for not knowing that.

Narrator: El Chapo's tunnel breaks a cardinal rule

of the underworld...

don't cut in on someone else's turf.

It's a direct challenge to the Félix brothers.

[ Chickens clucking ]

The most bloodthirsty narcos in Mexico strike back.

♪♪

♪♪

[ Bomb beeps ]

[ Clucking continues, dogs barking ]

♪♪

Riley: That was like the shot heard around the world.

I think when Guzmán's car got bombed,

I honest to God think he expected it.

He called his security council together and said,

"Boys, holster up 'cause we got to go to work now."

And it started with a couple of pissed-off brothers

who got outsmarted by a little guy

by the name of Guzmán, and that was it.

So here we go.

Best man wins. [ Gun clicks ]

Narrator: War breaks out across all of Mexico.

[ Gun shots ]

♪♪

Hitman assassins working for Chapo Guzmán fighting

assassins working for the Arellano Félix brothers.

[ Gun shots ]

It was a serious turf war

involving hardened killers.

[ Police radio chatter ]

♪♪

[ Siren wailing ]

[ Gun shot ]

Narrator: Then El Chapo escalates the war with a cunning plan.

Navarro: [ Speaking Spanish ]

Hernandez: [ Speaking Spanish ]

Narrator: El Chapo disguises his team of hitmen

in police uniforms with orders to take out the Félix brothers.

♪♪

[ Gunfire ]

[ People screaming ]

♪♪

When the shooting stops,

innocent bodies litter the ground.

But the Félix brothers escape the carnage.

[ Tires squealing ]

[ Siren wailing ]

[ Horn honks ]

♪♪

You had essentially two insurgent groups

who have now identified and declared war.

And it's probably gonna impact a lot of innocent citizens.

And sure as [bleep] that's exactly what happened.

[ Woman yelling in Spanish, crying ]

♪♪

♪♪

So, if you are asking what it was like to be...

or to live in Culiacán back then... 1993...

right in the middle of this war, this bloody war...

[ Rooster crowing ]

Narrator: The entire country is trapped

between two warring factions

that have no intention of surrender.

♪♪

♪♪

But as Mexico bleeds, one man stands to gain

from the ongoing warfare...

competing narco Amado Fuentes.

I-I think when Sinaloa went after the Félix brothers,

it... it took heat off of Juarez.

It took heat off of Carrillo Fuentes

because so much was focused on them,

and even, in my opinion,

a lax response of the Mexican government to intercede,

what little response there was was focused

on those two organizations. Meanwhile, here we go.

This guy's crossing tons across the border

and hoping no one looks at him.

And indeed, that happened for a while.

Narrator: The longer his rivals keep up the fight,

the more money Fuentes stands to earn.

And the more they lose.

The Félix brothers are losing millions of dollars

fighting El Chapo.

Determined to take him out,

they dispatch scouts all over his territory

on the hunt for the elusive drug lord.

Okay.

Narrator: In May of 1993,

the Félix brothers send a team of hitmen

to track Guzmán down.

Their orders... "Don't come back until he's in the ground."

♪♪

The sicarios scour Guadalajara for five days

before they discover Chapo Guzmán

is on his way to flee the city.

[ Gunfire, people screaming ]

♪♪

This was real war, and it was in broad daylight

in a busy parking lot outside a-a pretty busy airport.

♪♪

[ Gunfire continues ]

♪♪

This was urban warfare, and there were so many people

that were gonna get caught in it.

[ Gunfire ]

[ Helicopter flies overhead ]

♪♪

Narrator: The white car the sicarios

had been targeting is destroyed.

Riley: The car had over 60 bullet holes in it.

Narrator: The only problem...

it isn't Guzmán's car.

Juan Jesús Posadas Ocampo had been elevated to cardinal

by Pope John Paul II in 1991.

Anastasia: Well, first of all, Mexico is a Catholic country.

That's the dominant religion.

Ocampo... Bishop Ocampo is revered.

He... He's almost a legend.

He's loved by the people.

And now he's sitting in a car at the airport

riddled with 14 bullets.

It's the perfect storm at this point

between the two cartels at war,

an innocent Catholic cardinal gets killed in broad daylight.

It's like the Mexican pope got shot at an airport.

W-What else bad can happen?

I mean, you can't get worse than that.

♪♪

Narrator: The news quickly spreads across Mexico.

Fuentes has been profiting from the war.

When he hears about the cardinal's death,

he should see disaster.

But Fuentes is a man who can see opportunity in anything.

The war between Fuentes' two main rivals

has already been a boon for his business.

Now he can take one of them out of the game for good

without taking on any direct risk.

The only question is who to turn in...

the real killers or the narco right next door.

Fuentes fingers the adversary he fears most

and makes El Chapo Guzmán

Mexico's public enemy number one.

Fuentes fingers El Chapo Guzmán,

who immediately becomes the most-wanted man in Mexico.

The real killers, the Félix brothers,

are in the clear.

[ Exhales sharply ]

Reporter: And in Mexico today, a funeral mass

for Cardinal Juan Posadas Ocampo.

The Mexican government has offered a $5 million reward

for the drug traffickers who gunned him down.

[ Man speaking Spanish, bells tolling ]

♪♪

Riley: Right after the shooting, Mexican authorities

at that point worked around the clock to track this guy.

So he goes underground.

He goes, you know, to let the fires burn down,

but still control his organization.

He has security force in place.

He had his communication apparatus set up

where he could continue business.

He really thought he could weather it out,

and he was gonna leave the country.

Narrator: El Chapo leaves $200 million for his family

and another $200 million to keep the cartel running.

$400 million, and he does it without a blink of the eye.

♪♪

Narrator: El Chapo wants to clear his name.

And there's only one person he knows

with the connections to make it happen.

[ Dial tone ringing ]

[ Telephone ringing ]

Fuentes: Bueno?

On his way out of the country, he makes the call.

He doesn't know that Fuentes is the man who turned him in.

Mm-hmm.

El Chapo Guzmán is playing right into his rival's hands.

As he flees across Mexico's southern border,

Guzmán has no idea

the government is tracking him the whole time.

♪♪

I think he chose Guatemala because he had

some fairly strong business ties there

and had some confidants there that he could trust.

Narrator: But bribes aren't enough to keep the heat off.

With Fuentes pulling the strings,

the Mexican government makes a direct appeal

to their counterparts in Guatemala,

urging them to capture the fugitive. [ Gunfire ]

♪♪

♪♪

[ Camera shutter clicks ]

♪♪

[ Camera shutter clicks ]

Fuentes' plan works perfectly.

[ Speaks Spanish ]

Anastasia: What this says is Fuentes understands where he is

and how to operate.

And it's not about getting a gun and shooting somebody.

It's about bribery and manipulation.

General?

♪♪

[ Camera shutter clicks ]

Riley: You love getting calls saying bad guys got locked up.

When Guzmán got hooked up in Guatemala, when the word got...

got through the agency, it was great.

We knew from a practical point of view

how valuable he was to the whole organization

and the dope that was coming north.

And there was somewhat of a sigh of relief to think that,

"Hey, maybe this open warfare in Mexico wasn't gonna escalate,

and maybe a lot of people weren't gonna die

that didn't have to."

Narrator: Guzmán is sentenced to 20 years

in maximum-security prison.

Prison in Mexico is not like prison in the United States.

If you're a drug lord and you've got the money

and you can make the payments you need to make,

it's a mini vacation.

♪♪

[ Indistinct chatter ]

Riley: Prison... that's just a word.

It didn't mean anything to him.

♪♪

He probably fathered 10 of his 20 kids

while he was incarcerated.

And to be honest with you, it provided a sense of security

for him not having to be on the street,

not being exposed to some of the other rival guys

that would like to really not just see him in prison

but see him with a bullet in his head.

Narrator: El Chapo runs his cartel from his jail cell.

His arrest ends the bloody turf war.

The Félix brothers come out on top,

making the Tijuana Cartel

the most brutal gang in the business.

[ Rooster crowing ]

But with one rival locked up and out of the game,

there's only one man standing between the Félix brothers

and total control of the multi-billion-dollar

Mexican drug trade.

And they want to beat him at his own game.

♪♪

[ Conversing in Spanish ]

Amado Fuentes is now a man marked for death.

[ Conversing in Spanish ]

[ Bell dings ]

♪♪

♪♪

[ Conversing in Spanish ]

♪♪

♪♪

[ Indistinct chatter ]

♪♪

♪♪

[ People scream, gun shot ]

[ Gunfire ]

♪♪

♪♪

[ Gun cocks ]

[ Screaming continues ]

♪♪

Anastasia: Fuentes has to be livid after this happened,

but he's also smart and sophisticated.

For him, murder is a negotiating tool of last resort,

and he wants to see what other options he has.

Narrator: And just then, Fuentes catches a lucky break.

The Mexican economy collapses.

Man: Mexico's economic crisis deepened today

with stocks dropping sharply and the peso still under fire.

Billions of dollars in assistance from the US

apparently have not bolstered the confidence of investors.

Anastasia: Hard to believe, but it's the North American

Free Trade Agreement.

The peso collapses.

Fuentes' money is in American banks.

Now he's even richer than he was before...

one of the wealthiest men in Mexico.

Narrator: Fresh from surviving the attempt on his life,

Fuentes emerges from the crisis wealthier than ever.

And then another windfall 2,500 miles to the south.

In Medellín, Colombia,

the biggest drug kingpin in the world,

Pablo Escobar, is killed in a shoot-out with the DEA.

The hunt for Pablo Escobar, the Colombian drug lord,

ended today.

Man: Escobar's body was taken to the morgue,

where it was identified by his mother.

He was 44.

Narrator: At the time of his death,

Pablo Escobar controls 80% of the world's cocaine.

With Escobar out of the game, his empire is up for grabs.

Anastasia: Pablo Escobar is the supplier.

Everybody was buying their coke from him.

Now he's gone.

Now the question is, "Where are we going to get it?

Who are we gonna deal with?

And are we gonna be able to deal with whoever it is?"

Narrator: Fuentes makes a major power play.

He travels to Bolivia and Peru

and buys up Escobar's cocaine production operation.

A network of jungle kitchens

that brings in nearly $30 billion a year.

But Fuentes' plans are far bigger

than just making a fortune.

Now that he owns the supply, the Félix brothers and Guzmán

have to buy their cocaine from him,

and he's going to use this leverage

to finally gain the upper hand on his two rivals.

He sends a lieutenant with a message.

"If you want to buy cocaine, it has to be on my terms.

If you don't like my terms, go somewhere else."

There's nowhere else to go.

Narrator: The Félix brothers have no choice but to submit.

Hanging on to his cartel from prison Chapo Guzmán

has even less power to resist.

♪♪

Years of careful scheming pay off,

putting Fuentes at the top of the cartel food chain.

Fuentes is patient. He's not violent.

He realizes how to play the game.

And at this point, he's controlling all the product.

[ Camera shutter clicks ]

Anastasia: He wasn't only the most powerful

narco trafficker in Mexico.

He might have been the most powerful narco trafficker

in the world.

Narrator: But his spectacular rise to the top draws

the attention of Mexico's newly elected president,

Ernesto Zedillo,

who vows to clean up government corruption

and take down the narcos.

Born in Mexico City, Ernesto Zedillo

earns his Master's degree at Yale University.

Now he's back in Mexico determined to save his country

from the grip of poverty and narco traffickers.

He starts by salvaging the economy,

accepting a $20 billion loan from President Bill Clinton

to rescue and restructure the Mexican banking system.

With one crisis averted,

he turns his attention to the narcos.

Anastasia: President Zedillo is promising to eradicate narco traffickers.

It's words. It's not actions.

Fuentes has been down this road before.

He's a veteran of this world.

He's heard this all before.

He doesn't think anything's going to happen.

Narrator: But Zedillo is determined to prove

he's a different kind of president.

♪♪

When Fuentes makes a rare public appearance

at his sister's wedding,

Ernesto Zedillo strikes.

He sends in a crack team of police officers with one goal...

put Amado Fuentes behind bars.

He barely escapes. This is a public embarrassment.

He loses face when that happens.

He's angry. He's livid.

Narrator: The drug lord calls the president

to levy a bold threat.

No, no, no, no, no!

Most presidents would be happy to have

their country's number-one drug lord leave,

but the drug trade is still the nation's biggest industry.

Mexico's biggest legitimate export business is petroleum,

worth $7 billion a year.

Fuentes' drug-smuggling operation alone

is worth nearly five times more...

a massive $30 billion.

Anastasia: He tells the president, "You gonna come fool with me?

You're gonna come after me?

I'm gonna pick up my toys and go.

I'll take my operation somewhere else.

Then where's your economy gonna be?"

Vámanos! Vámanos a calle!

Narrator: Zedillo has no choice but to abandon his mission

to bring down Fuentes.

♪♪

In one stroke, the scheming drug lord

becomes more powerful than the state,

but not the US government.

When President Zedillo backs down,

it reveals the depths of the corruption

that plagues the Mexican government.

If the US wants to turn the tide of the failing war on drugs,

it needs allies that will stand up to the drug lords.

Anastasia: Law enforcement in Mexico is not working.

Nobody's bringing down the narco traffickers.

Nobody's even trying.

And the government of the US shifts

its attention to this corruption.

One of the key figures in this investigation

is General Rebollo,

who's head of the anti-drug Mexican police.

Narrator: General Rebollo has been in Fuentes' pocket for years.

The DEA makes him target number one.

Early in 1997, Rebollo is captured and interrogated.

The general's confession blows the lid

off the entire operation.

The confession proves what the US government

has feared all along...

drug lords own the Mexican government.

With the corruption exposed to the world,

the US has the leverage it needs to escalate

their war against the narcos.

The State Department stepped up a little bit.

It's about that time that,

while it's classified, I can't tell you...

We stepped up our presence there,

along with some other agencies.

So we were being welcomed in,

where, for a while, we were shunned

'cause I think the Mexicans recognized that

this really was a two-country fight.

Narrator: For the first time since Agent Camarena's death,

the DEA drops the hammer,

conducting an unprecedented number of raids

and arrests on both sides of the border.

And most of their operations are aimed directly at Fuentes.

[ Speaks Spanish ]

Anastasia: Fuentes got where he was because he was astute

and he could analyze the situation.

He knew sometimes you push, sometimes you back away.

Narrator: So in March of 1997,

the world's most powerful drug lord

disappears without a trace.

[ Bells jingle ]

Soon rumors swirl that he's been spotted in Chile,

Europe, Cuba, even Russia.

Fuentes had won the war. He controlled all of Mexico.

They had to buy their drugs from him.

He was in the power seat.

Now he disappears. Is he dead?

Is he in hiding? Nobody knows.

And that creates uncertainty and instability.

Nobody knows what to do.

Narrator: Four months later, in July of 1997,

Fuentes reappears.

♪♪

This guy's the most powerful drug lord in Mexico,

maybe in the world.

And he dies because of some plastic surgery operation?

That's crazy. Was he vain trying to change his appearance?

Was he trying to change his appearance

'cause he intended to run away?

We don't know.

Narrator: Almost as soon as his death is reported,

rumors begin to surface that it's all a hoax.

Days after his death, Fuentes' girlfriend also disappears,

and the doctor who performed the plastic surgery

turns up dead in a cement-filled barrel.

Due to the mysterious circumstances

surrounding his death,

Fuentes remains on the FBI's Most Wanted List

for another five years.

But whether dead or in hiding,

Fuentes is out of the game for good.

Fuentes doesn't last long because he opts,

at the end of the day, not to fight the government.

Bribery was a tool he could have used. He didn't use that.

Violence was a tool he could have used.

He opted not to use that.

If you want to control an empire,

at a certain point, you've got to stand up.

You've got to say, "This is mine.

Nobody's gonna take it from me."

In this situation, Fuentes didn't do that.

Narrator: With Fuentes out of the picture,

the Juarez Corridor is up for grabs.

And the bloodthirsty Félix brothers

plan to claim it for themselves by force.

For El Chapo Guzmán, the stakes could not be higher.

If the Félix brothers seize power in Juarez,

they'll have his territory completely surrounded.

He'll need to fight to keep control of Sinaloa,

but he can't wage a war from prison.

El Chapo needs a new plan.

Hmm?

Anastasia: Guzmán decided to go in a different direction.

Instead of challenging the Félix brothers directly,

he'll back a different leader for the territory...

one who's weaker and one he can slowly manipulate

while he waits to get out of prison.

Narrator: El Chapo taps Vicente Fuentes,

the younger brother of Amado Fuentes,

to inherit control of the Juarez empire.

El Chapo secretly backs Vicente Fuentes with men, money,

and an arsenal of heavy artillery.

The Félix brothers are more powerful,

but if Chapo can mount a show of force,

it may force them to negotiate

and accept Vicente without a war.

El Chapo sends Vicente Fuentes

to make his case to the Félix brothers.

♪♪

♪♪

Anastasia: Guzmán's plan is to make the Félix brothers believe

they're the most powerful narco traffickers in Mexico.

And they can be that without going after Vicente Fuentes.

Guzmán basically initiates a holding operation.

Then it's status quo till he gets out.

Then he can figure out what to do.

Narrator: But it all hinges on the unpredictable

Félix brothers going along with a bitter rival.

And for the first time, the Félix brothers disagree

on how best to move forward.

Anastasia: The Félix brothers have spent years and years

fighting brutal wars, but they had evolved somewhat.

They knew that Fuentes had succeeded

by not resorting to violence.

So they took a page out of his book.

♪♪

Narrator: Looking to avoid a costly war,

the brothers back down and accept Vicente Fuentes

as the head of the Juarez corridor.

♪♪

Four years pass in relative peace.

[ Camera shutters clicking ]

And when it's finally shattered,

it's not by the cartels, but by the Mexican government.

In 2001, the US and Mexico

sign a long-sought treaty of extradition.

El Chapo is the highest-ranked cartel boss

in government custody,

and now he has a target on his back.

Riley: Guzmán... He's terrified of coming to the US,

sitting in our prison, in our judicial system

that he can't bribe and buy his way out of,

and he knew that was a fate worse than death for him.

So I think he made a systematic decision

that it's time to get out of jail.

Now is the time to go.

♪♪

Narrator: El Chapo is resourceful and cunning,

and he has a plan.

He's bribed a guard to help him escape.

♪♪

He vanishes in broad daylight.

[ Alarm blaring, Indistinct yelling ]

[ Blaring, yelling continues ]

♪♪

♪♪

[ Sirens wailing ]

♪♪

[ Car engine starts ]

♪♪

The Mexican government launches a nationwide manhunt,

but it's too late.

Anastasia: Guzmán escapes from prison, and he's got to be

thinking about the situation.

He knows law enforcement is going to be looking for him.

More important, he knows the Félix brothers

are gonna be coming for him.

And that leads to war.

Narrator: Guzmán returns to his headquarters and closes it down.

Narrator: And takes his operation on the road,

never staying in one place for longer than a day.

But Chapo's most critical move of all

is his strategy of spreading misinformation.

The Félix brothers take the bait.

When a tip reveals the whereabouts

of El Chapo's top commanders,

Ramón personally heads out to make the kill.

Ramón spends five days searching.

He even changes his appearance so he doesn't stand out.

But the truth is Guzmán's not in Mazatlan.

The tip was a trap to lure the Félix brothers

to one location where El Chapo can take them out.

And on the fifth day, Guzmán springs his trap.

[ Tires squeal, people screaming ]

His sicarios flush Ramón onto the streets of Mazatlan,

where he flees for his life.

[ Screaming continues ]

♪♪ Narr

[ Police radio chatter ]

♪♪

[ Dogs barking ]

[ People screaming ]

[ Gun cocks ]

[ Sirens wailing ]

Guzmán's sicarios flush him out.

But it's an honest cop who guns down Ramón Félix.

♪♪

♪♪

[ Conversation in Spanish ]

And at the same time he's plotting against Ramón,

Guzmán lays a different trap for Benjamín.

Guzmán bribes high-ranking government officials,

then gives them a location to raid.

Man: [ Speaking Spanish ]

Narrator: After over a decade of fighting Joaquín Guzmán

has finally taken out the Félix brothers.

The Félix brothers' forte was violence.

That was the only note they knew how to play.

Guzmán could be violent,

but he also knew how to adapt to situations,

and so he was able to come out on top.

Narrator: El Chapo takes over the Tijuana Corridor.

Narrator: Now running Mexico virtually unopposed,

El Chapo cashes in on the bet he made over a decade earlier

and knocks over Vicente Fuentes.

For the first time since the reign of El Padrino,

one kingpin controls the entire country.

♪♪

Guzmán has been able to defeat his rivals

because he's the one who adapted...

... knowing when to be violent...

♪♪

...when to use corruption...

♪♪

... when to strike first...

♪♪

[ Gun shot ]

...and when to let others do the dirty work.

Now Mexico belongs to him.

Guzmán would do damn near anything to hold power,

to gain power.

This is a guy that is a business genius,

and had he chosen to do the right thing,

he would have been just as successful in my opinion.

But he is probably the number-one bad guy

in the world as far as I'm concerned.

His zest for control... not necessarily wealth.

I don't think that was ever his... his thing.

I think he wanted to be the most powerful cartel leader.

I think he accomplished it.

I also think he's a mass murderer.

I'll bet he's responsible for tens of thousands

of innocent people's lives.

Narrator: The Mexican drug trade has a new kingpin.

And for the next 10 years,

Guzmán turns Mexico into a war zone.

[ Indistinct chatter ]

[ Gunfire ]

♪♪

A drug war with more than 100,000 victims.

Started reporting on things like mass graves with 193 bodies,

arriving at places with 49 corpses

that would all have their hands

and their feet and their heads cut off.

[ Gunfire ]

Gun battles...

with 500 cartel gunmen

against 2,000 federal police.

♪♪

Narrator: And while he terrorizes Mexico,

Guzmán builds the largest drug cartel the world has ever seen.

This was the biggest, most powerful bad guy in the world.

You really began to see it as you looked

across the United States,

where every major city was being controlled

by some part of Sinaloa.

And he pushed it almost from a corporate point of view.

He had an HR department.

If you wanted to go to work or run dope for him,

you had to fill out a-an application.

And it was reviewed for accuracy

'cause you had to say where your parents were,

where their house was, where your cars were,

where your kids were, if you had a bank account,

where that was because if you got caught

on that side of the border,

well, he had... he had some...

he had some leverage on you not to talk.

After he takes control of Mexico,

Guzmán turns his sights on the rest of the world.

And eventually, he's the dominant drug trafficker

on seven continents.

He's got a fleet of submarines he uses to ship product...

submarines that, in a crisis,

can be sunk merely by pushing a button.

He's got an army. It's an empire.

Narrator: But every kingpin must fall.

Riley: That day... I remember that day

because we had eyes on him the night

before we actually made the move.

And I knew once we saw him... we physically saw him...

Him and a couple of his bodyguards

went out to get tacos, believe it or not,

the night before they made the raid,

or several hours before they made the raid,

I put it out there. I said, "We're gonna get him.

We... We've seen him. We're there.

We just need a little luck."

[ Gunfire ]

[ Explosions ]

[ Gunfire ]

Man: Mexican Marines forced their way into Guzmán's main hideout.

He sneaked out of the house through an escape tunnel

beneath a bathtub to a network of tunnels

and sewer canals under the city.

And one of my execs came... pulled me aside and said,

"They got him hooked up. They got a picture inbound.

You'll get to see it."

And sure as [bleep] there he was,

locked up in that dirty t-shirt

that he went through the sewers with.

And he sent that picture to say, "Hey, we did it."

We turn now to the other headlines tonight.

Late word coming in... notorious drug lord

El Chapo is being extradited to America.

He famously escaped from prison twice.

He's wanted on drug trafficking charges in the US.

Authorities say he's being flown to New York.

Narrator: El Chapo's reign of terror comes to an end

on January 19, 2017,

when he arrives in the US to face prosecution.

As part of the extradition process,

we had to assure the Mexican government

that the death penalty would not be sought in this matter.

So he is, as it stands, for all of the narcotics-related...

narcotics-trafficking sentences,

he is also facing a maximum sentence of life.

Riley: You know, the whole...

the whole thing of war on drugs I hate

'cause it depicts a beginning and an end.

There's no end to this.

♪♪