Original subtitles

[dramatic orchestral music]

- This guy's a stone-cold killer.

- He makes Pablo Escobar look like a choir boy in comparison.

male narrator: He's been called "The Last Godfather."

- He's the world's most powerful and vicious narco-trafficker.

narrator: Billionaire. Drug lord.

Master of escape.

- He is like a cat.

He has many lives.

narrator: From the mountains of Mexico

to cities all across the U.S.--

[gunshots fire]

This is the amazing story

of the world's most notorious narco,

called by many "public enemy number one."

Joaquin Guzman Loera.

"El Chapo."

[intense electronic music]

[lighter flicks]

[orchestral drone music]

If you've ever smoked a joint,

if you've ever had anyone offer you drugs at a party,

odds are you're more connected to El Chapo

than you ever realized.

¶ ¶

From small-town America to the major urban centers,

Chapo's Sinaloa cartel distributes most of the drugs

brought into the United States.

- He is probably responsible for 70% to 80%

of all the illegal drugs that we see,

certainly in the Midwest, and around the country.

¶ ¶

[dramatic rock music]

narrator: But after four decades in the business,

El Chapo's more than just a drug smuggler.

- He is a folk hero.

He's created this mystique

that people are just mesmerized with.

- Chapo Guzman is like a major criminal CEO.

On one side he's like a paramilitary leader,

and on the other he becomes like a rock star.

- Here's a man who's worth over $1 billion.

He's got a beauty-queen wife

who's 32 years younger than he is.

- Women get the likeness of El Chapo Guzman

painted on their nails.

Young men get tattoos of El Chapo Guzman.

- Sometimes it can be hard to see where the reality starts

and the myth stops.

[gunshots firing]

We're never gonna know exactly how many people

were killed in his name,

but his legend has grown and surpassed

that of all the other traffickers.

[eerie chamber music]

narrator: So how did a poor fruit seller

with a third-grade education

become a legend?

¶ ¶

For many Americans,

his story starts with a vanishing act.

July 2015.

Altiplano.

Mexico's supermax prison.

- It's the most maximum-secure penitentiary in Mexico.

narrator: It's just before 9:00 p.m.,

and Joaquin Guzman Loera, El Chapo,

paces under the surveillance cameras in his cell.

- Chapo Guzman was the highest-risk prisoner

that they had there.

narrator: The TV blares.

The prison guards seem distracted.

[indistinct prison chatter]

And suddenly, he's gone.

¶ ¶

25 minutes later,

guards find an empty cell.

[men speaking Spanish]

narrator: All that's left is a hole.

20 inches square.

Some 30 feet below,

a modified motorcycle on rails

awaits as a getaway

through a tunnel almost one mile long.

- He's been called the most dangerous

cartel leader in the world,

and he just staged a spectacular escape from prison.

- This is the first time I've heard in modern day

that somebody literally tunneled

through dirt to escape from prison.

- What's most impressive is how well this tunnel is built.

There are steel beams.

There's wood. Electricity.

This is a generator to run all the lights, we're told.

narrator: As for Chapo,

he's long gone.

¶ ¶

[intense orchestral music]

Mexico is stunned.

It's the most brazen prison break in the country's history,

embarrassing a police force,

a government,

an entire nation.

- It's extremely frustrating.

You know, this is a blow to the good guys

on both sides of the border.

- [speaking Spanish]

- The Mexican government seemed incapable of keeping

the most high-profile criminal

in the nation behind bars.

That really shook the government.

¶ ¶

[upbeat ranchera music]

narrator: Soon, ballads about El Chapo

hit the airwaves,

from Mexico to the U.S.

[men singing in Spanish]

¶ ¶

narrator: And a national figure becomes an international icon

as the legend of the narco Houdini

explodes into the media worldwide.

- He's able to escape some of the most seriously hardened

prisons in Mexico in these miraculous escapes.

That is something mythical.

all: Chapo! Chapo!

narrator: From Sonora to Southern California,

El Chapo's brand goes global

and businesses cash in.

- [speaking Spanish]

- This one, this model here,

is the one that is most popular.

It's selling a lot. A lot.

- [speaking Spanish]

narrator: On July 12th, 2015,

a search begins.

An international manhunt

led by Mexican, U.S., even Colombian forces.

- As a former U.S. Drug Enforcement official

put it bluntly today,

"If Guzman isn't caught within 48 hours,

we may never find him again."

female reporter: Flights have been suspended

at local airports about 50 miles west of Mexico City.

- The U.S. Government will act swiftly.

- The guy needs to be behind bars.

[dramatic electronic music]

narrator: Suspects in Chapo's escape

are rounded up and pressed for intel.

- [speaking Spanish]

narrator: With a $5 million reward,

Chapo sightings run wild.

- Chapo was like Elvis.

People were seeing him everywhere.

narrator: A multi-national team of law enforcement officials

works to track him down.

- Within three weeks,

the Mexican marines

were listening to his communications.

- The Mexican government started to do wire intercepts

on his attorneys, on family members,

getting bits and pieces of information.

narrator: That information leads them to one region:

El Chapo's Mexican homeland,

the so-called "Golden Triangle"

in the mountains of Sinaloa.

¶ ¶

- He was up in that mountainous region,

which is highly rugged.

If you don't want to be found,

you're never gonna be found.

[intense electronic music]

narrator: For nearly three months,

thousands of law enforcement officials worldwide

try to catch El Chapo Guzman

with no luck.

But then, the 61-year-old fugitive kingpin slips up.

- Chapo made the ultimate mistake.

He wanted to meet with Kate del Castillo,

who played a female drug lord in "La Reina Del Sur,"

"The Queen of the South,"

and he was enamored with her.

The big weakness of Chapo Guzman

are beautiful women.

narrator: In October 2015,

El Chapo invites del Castillo

and actor Sean Penn

to a secret meeting at a Sinaloa ranch,

and leaked pictures will soon cause a social media frenzy.

- He agreed to meet with them

in order to create a movie about his life.

He became very much interested in growing his legend.

narrator: Photos obtained by "Rolling Stone"

show the actors meeting with the fugitive drug lord.

For the first time,

Chapo grants an exclusive on-camera interview,

later released by "Rolling Stone" magazine.

- [speaking Spanish]

narrator: Meanwhile, the authorities on both sides

of the border are listening in.

- When Chapo Guzman gave a Blackberry cell phone

to Kate del Castillo,

the tracking really started.

- The Mexican marines were getting closer and closer

all the time by monitoring, by eavesdropping

and triangulating signals and communications.

- Well, if I was Chapo,

I'd be lookin' over my shoulder,

because we're comin'.

¶ ¶

[intense music]

narrator: Then, less than a week

after the meeting with del Castillo and Penn,

Mexican forces make their move.

Following intercepted cell phone signals,

they track El Chapo into the heart of the Golden Triangle.

Residents say Black Hawk helicopters arrive...

and open fire.

- [speaking Spanish]

- [speaking Spanish]

narrator: 600 villagers have to leave their homes.

Chapo himself is nowhere to be found.

- [speaking Spanish]

[dramatic orchestral music]

narrator: Soldiers sweep through

18 of his homes and properties

and come up empty.

- They got very close,

but El Chapo Guzman, as he's incredibly good at,

escaped through a hidden passageway.

male reporter: The search is expanding now

for escaped drug kingpin El Chapo.

narrator: Then, on October 9th, 2015,

he's spotted again

near a remote village in Sinaloa.

Black Hawks move quickly into the area,

and soon, a sniper has Chapo in his crosshairs.

- The Mexican marine was authorized

to kill Chapo Guzman.

narrator: But there's one problem.

He can't get a clean shot.

- As El Chapo Guzman started to run down a mountain trail,

he was carrying the small child of one of his cooks.

Guzman held that little girl in front of him as a human shield.

The Mexican marine radioed into his commander,

who told him to stand down.

The risk of hurting that little girl was too great.

narrator: El Chapo makes a run for it,

then loses his footing.

- He toppled down a steep part of a trail

and was evidently injured.

narrator: But before the marines can grab him,

Chapo's henchmen drag him off into the woods.

Once again, El Chapo disappears.

It will take another three months

before his trackers get a new lead.

[mellow guitar music]

In January 2016,

Mexican officers trail one of Chapo's men

to the seaside town of Los Mochis.

- The Mexican marines very carefully watched

a particular house that was undergoing

a great deal of construction.

- And they intercept a phone call where

they indicate the "tía,"

or the "aunt," is coming,

and they believed that was code word for Chapo Guzman.

narrator: On January 8th, the Mexican officials

get a surprising tip-off.

- They watched a white armored vehicle

travel to pick up a large taco order

quite late, around midnight.

At that point, they realized that it was El Chapo

and one of his top lieutenants,

and they were having a party in Los Mochis

in this house that had been retrofitted.

[intense bass music]

narrator: At 4:30 a.m.,

all is dead quiet in the affluent neighborhood

as an elite squad creeps into position.

After a six-month hunt,

Operation Black Swan is about to begin.

¶ ¶

17 special ops soldiers from the Mexican marines,

packing assault rifles and helmet cams,

approach the house.

- [speaking Spanish]

narrator: But when El Chapo's men go on the offensive,

all hell breaks loose.

[gunshots firing]

[explosion booming]

[dramatic orchestral music]

narrator: January 2016.

El Chapo, the most wanted drug lord in America

and the world,

has been on the run since his dramatic escape

from a maximum security prison.

¶ ¶

Now, after a nearly six month chase,

an elite squad of Mexican marines is closing in on him

in the town of Los Mochis.

[men speaking Spanish]

narrator: But they walk into a hail of bullets.

[gunshots firing]

- There is shooting.

All hell breaks loose.

[gunshots firing]

There's automatic weapons fire,

and the screams and the agony and the blood...

[explosion booming]

- They hit the Mexican marines

with everything they had.

[gunshots firing]

- From AK-47s to M4s to hand grenades.

narrator: The brutal gun battle will go on for nearly an hour.

[gunshots firing]

[speaking Spanish]

[mellow ambient music]

narrator: By 6:30 a.m., the shooting is over.

Marines have locked down the safe house.

- [speaking Spanish]

¶ ¶

narrator: In the chaos,

five cartel gunmen have been killed,

six others arrested.

Marines search the house,

looking for the fugitive drug lord.

They turn up an arsenal--

19 guns, RPGs, armored cars.

But El Chapo...

is nowhere to be seen.

- They found two escape hatches.

One behind the refrigerator in the kitchen,

which turns out to have been a ruse,

a trick merely meant to confuse

El Chapo's pursuers.

The second, in a mirrored closet.

[dramatic electronic music]

narrator: It takes the marines 90 minutes

to find the hidden switch that opens a concealed door.

¶ ¶

The full-length mirror they've walked past

several times swings open,

leading down to a secret passage.

El Chapo, the master of escape,

has gotten away again.

It's no wonder thousands of officers are hunting for Chapo.

The 58-year-old is the head

of the richest criminal organization in history.

But his start is very different.

He's born poor--

so poor, his cradle is a wooden tomato crate.

He grows up in the late 1950s

in a tiny village in the hills,

with no electricity, no running water--

nothing but ambition.

- La Tuna, where he was born, is so remote,

these families are so impoverished,

they look for any way they can to put food on their table.

¶ ¶

narrator: The oldest of seven kids,

young Joaquin gets the nickname "Chapo",

or "Shorty."

His father pulls him out of school in the third grade

and sends him to work the poppy fields.

- His father was abusive, an alcoholic,

spent all of the money on, allegedly, alcohol and women.

- His father was a very brutal man.

He would beat up Chapo Guzman, his brothers, and his sisters.

¶ ¶

narrator: By the time he's a teenager,

Chapo runs away to start his own business,

in the drug trade.

- If you're a small kid from a village out there,

you're gonna go for the drugs.

¶ ¶

His only role models were drug traffickers.

They're the ones that had the beautiful women on each arm,

they had bling, they had...

you know, beautiful cars.

So Chapo Guzman wanted to emulate these individuals

because it was a way out of poverty for him.

¶ ¶

narrator: And so Chapo turns to his cousins,

the Beltran Leyvas, who are already in the business.

They show him the ropes.

- And they help him to-- to make his own fields

when he was between 15 or 16 years old.

¶ ¶

narrator: Chapo's homeland,

Sinaloa, in the Golden Triangle,

is rugged. Remote.

It's also ground zero for narcos.

- The state of Sinaloa

is to the Mexican drug cartels

a bit like how Sicily is to the Italian mafia.

It's the cradle of Mexican organized crime.

Chapo Guzman was, in many ways,

born into the drug trade.

¶ ¶

narrator: Soon, he begins at the bottom

of Mexico's main crime syndicate,

the Guadalajara gang,

headed by Felix Gallardo, the man they call El Padrino--

The Godfather.

- He brought Chapo Guzman in,

initially as a driver,

and then started to give him more responsibility.

narrator: Young Chapo pays his dues running errands.

- If you go back to his earliest days,

he was a logistics guy,

primarily for marijuana.

narrator: He's coming into the business at the right time.

- The United States drug consumption

exploded in the 1960s.

narrator: With the cultural revolution,

the demand for, first, marijuana,

then heroin, skyrockets.

¶ ¶

And when Colombian cocaine arrives

in the late '70s,

it's a game changer.

- Cocaine made the business way larger

than it was in the past.

narrator: The Mexican gangs work as drug runners

for the famed Colombian kingpin

Pablo Escobar

and his infamous Medellín cartel.

- The Mexican traffickers were the transporters

and they would receive a fee

from the Colombians.

- This is when cocaine flows

through Mexico in really massive quantities.

narrator: By the mid-1980s,

Felix Gallardo and his boys from Sinaloa

are running the largest criminal syndicate in Mexico,

working directly under Pablo Escobar himself.

¶ ¶

Chapo Guzman, now in his late 20s,

shows the brains and the drive to get ahead.

- He very quickly proved himself as a--

just a smart, savvy operator.

- He was very adept at coordinating flights

from Colombia containing large shipments of cocaine.

- If you're able to get loads

safely into the United States,

your worth is absolutely tremendous.

narrator: He and the cartel are moving

up to 20 tons of coke a month

into California.

His two main weapons are cash

and fear.

- His ability to corrupt

and to convince is probably boundless.

- They start to pay bribes, directly, to very

high-level members of the government--

generals,

members of the federal police.

narrator: It's said he'll stop at nothing

to get what he wants.

- People were afraid of making mistakes.

- He was vicious.

Killed people.

- When individuals lost loads,

he would put a bullet in their head.

- He personally,

by his own hand, would execute them.

¶ ¶

narrator: He's the most notorious drug trafficker

in the world, a wanted man in the United States,

but back in the mid-1980s,

30-year-old Joaquin Guzman Loera,

El Chapo,

is rising quickly through the ranks

of the Guadalajara cartel.

- He was well-known as an executioner.

When loads were late,

when individuals showed up for work drunk

or unprepared,

he would execute them.

narrator: But he's more than just a hit man.

Although he can't really read or write,

he has an uncanny ability to move the product.

- And he had many ingenious ways of trafficking drugs,

such as hiding cocaine in tins of chili.

- They were one of the most innovative.

This was an organization that would essentially use

any route available.

narrator: Shipping containers,

panga boats, trucks,

even mules are used to move concealed drugs

across the border.

By sea, Chapo and his cartel ship immense loads

right under the coast guard's nose.

- They perfected the art of building these so-called

"narco submarines" carrying tons of cocaine,

worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

narrator: But then Chapo gets his most inspired idea yet,

the one that will put him on the map.

narrator: Smuggling tunnels have been around for decades,

running underneath the U.S./Mexico border--

some of the most heavily patrolled terrain

on the continent.

But Chapo takes it to a new level,

turning them into an art form:

the super tunnels.

He has the first one built in 1989.

male reporter: The tunnel was called

one of the most sophisticated drug-smuggling schemes

authorities have ever seen.

- This type of tunnel is not an amateur operation.

It's a highly sophisticated

engineering feat that took place.

narrator: Even the way in is surprising--

an entrance hidden under a pool table.

Turning an outside water spigot triggers a hydraulic system,

lifting the table,

revealing a ladder heading down.

More than three stories below,

the tunnel runs 300 feet under the border,

from Mexico into Arizona.

It's the prototype for dozens of arched Sinaloa tunnels

that will follow,

complete with ventilation,

electricity, and more--

infrastructure marvels called

"the Taj Mahal of tunnels."

narrator: In 1990, U.S. authorities are startled

to discover this passageway is funneling massive drug loads

into the U.S.

They set out to shut down El Chapo's tunnels.

It's a battle that continues to this day.

- We believe that there are tunnels

under construction as we speak,

and it's our job to find those

and put them out of business.

If we come across a tunnel that's being built,

you know, we will just fill it in

on the United States side.

narrator: A lot of tunnels come up

in the Otay Mesa warehouse area

in San Diego,

where Mexico and the U.S. sit side by side

less than a mile apart.

- So as you can see, right over here,

that fence is the international border with Mexico,

and where we stand is the commercial district

in San Ysidro, San Diego County,

where there's no shortage of commercial warehouses

to utilize as a tunnel exit point.

narrator: Here, there's more than 2 million square feet

of vacant real estate available at any given point,

which gives cartels like Chapo's

a lot of room to maneuver.

[metal clanging]

- Gloves and harnesses.

Anybody else? Helmets?

narrator: Day in and day out,

a crew from the San Diego Tunnel Task Force,

known as the "Tunnel Rats,"

suit up to investigate these tunnels

that run under the U.S./Mexico border.

They rope off

and rappel down into the darkness.

70 feet under the Earth's surface,

they find passageways more than a half-mile long.

All told, U.S. and Mexican officials

have found nearly 60 of these sophisticated tunnels

in the past decade and a half,

many masterminded by Chapo himself.

This tunnel was discovered in 2009, December of 2009.

Our partners on the south side found a warehouse.

When they entered the building, they later discovered

the whole bathroom lowered, toilet, vanity, and all.

To access the actual tunnel entrance itself,

the whole bottom floor actually lowered into the tunnel.

They found they had ventilation systems, electrical,

a phone line was actually in there,

and a rudimentary rail system.

narrator: For El Chapo's builders,

these are no simple tasks.

- Well, it takes time. It takes effort.

They're digging tunnels 3,000 feet.

Some of these take, on average, about a year, year and a half,

to span these distances,

so I mean, that's-- that's persistence.

narrator: They also take money,

as much as $1 million apiece to build,

but it's money well spent for the cartels like El Chapo's.

- It's a priceless venture for them,

meaning having a completed tunnel into the U.S.

is, you know, worth its weight in gold.

- One single load

would pay for whatever expenses they incurred

multiple times over.

Classic example is the Calle de Linea tunnel

where we found 34 tons of marijuana.

At that time, I believe it had

a $60 million plus estimated value.

Cost would probably be about a million, tops,

is what I've heard, so it's just--

you do the math-- that's a huge profit margin.

One load.

¶ ¶

narrator: By 1989,

El Chapo's smuggling tons of cocaine and marijuana

through tunnels like these

and many other inventive methods.

With his flair for logistics,

he earns a brand-new nickname.

- He became known as El Rápido

because he could move cocaine loads very, very quickly,

from Colombia through Mexico to the United States.

narrator: It's said that before

the planes are back in Colombia,

his coke is already in Los Angeles.

- Wires were tingling

with the name El Chapo Guzman.

narrator: Chapo's savvy earns him another promotion

in Mexico's Guadalajara cartel.

Now in his mid-30s,

he's reportedly making millions of dollars.

And so, El Chapo starts living the high life.

He's got cars, planes,

dozens of houses, and throws extravagant bashes,

where he's known to fly in prostitutes for the occasion.

- He used to rent a complete floor

in one hotel in Guadalajara

or Puerto Vallarta and make huge parties.

And he was very young,

and I think that he didn't know what to do

with all that money and power.

narrator: While Chapo's living large,

U.S. and Mexican officials are working hard to crack down

on drug smuggling,

and in November 1989, they catch a break.

- And from Mexico tonight, news of what may be a major victory

in the war on drugs--

the arrest of a man called the kingpin behind a drug pipeline

into the United States.

narrator: Felix Gallardo, El Chapo's boss,

is sentenced to prison for 40 years

on drug trafficking, bribery, and weapons charges.

Brokaw: Mexican authorities say that Felix Gallardo

ran the ring that funneled Colombian cocaine

through Mexico into this country--

two tons of cocaine every month.

narrator: Now there's a power vacuum

at the top of the Guadalajara cartel,

and Chapo is about to seize his moment.

- Everyone else seemed to be content with their little patch.

Not him.

It's a power-grab world,

and Chapo went for the grab.

¶ ¶

narrator: In just 15 years,

El Chapo Guzman has risen to become

one of Mexico's major drug smugglers

into the U.S.,

flooding American streets with cocaine and marijuana.

By November 1989, he's a top lieutenant

in the Guadalajara cartel

when his boss, kingpin Felix Gallardo,

is sentenced to 40 years behind bars.

Recognizing a void in power,

Chapo is poised to seize the moment.

- U.S. officials are praising Mexico

for the arrest of a man said to be one of the world's

biggest drug dealers.

narrator: But right before his arrest,

knowing his days were numbered,

Gallardo called Mexico's crime families

to a meeting in Acapulco.

His plan: to carve up the country into turfs.

- Once he was imprisoned, the Guadalajara cartel

splintered into various organizations.

narrator: Each group gets a corridor

to the all-important U.S. border.

There's a Tijuana cartel,

a Juarez cartel,

a Gulf cartel,

and El Chapo and his partners form the Sinaloa cartel,

covering the corridor from Sinaloa and Sonora

into Arizona.

The division seems to make sense,

but it will actually set off a chain of narco wars

that are still going on.

- There is no honor among thieves.

These alliances fracture very, very quickly.

We're talking about massive amounts of power.

Incredible amounts of ego.

narrator: In 1992,

Chapo is looking to expand his territory

and makes a bold move

into Tijuana.

- The port of entry between Tijuana and San Diego

is the most lucrative corridor

for drugs coming in from Mexico into the United States.

- You traffic drugs into California,

you reach San Diego, Los Angeles, San Francisco--

meanwhile, Chapo Guzman was moving drugs into Arizona.

It's obviously not quite as profitable.

narrator: Chapo's infiltration into Tijuana

will put him up against some tough adversaries:

the Arellano Felix brothers.

- They had a reputation for real, real thuggery.

They'd be sitting in a bar

and they would say, you know,

"I feel like killing someone. Let's--let's go."

narrator: And so a vicious turf war begins.

- What was a rivalry turned into bloodshed

between Chapo Guzman and the Arellano Felix brothers.

- Chapo Guzman sends emissaries

to meet with the Arellano Felix brothers,

and they kill these emissaries,

and that is what started the blood feud.

- They started waging war between themselves.

- The Tijuana cartel put a hit out on El Chapo Guzman,

recognizing him as an up-and-comer

and a threat to their continued dominance.

narrator: In early November 1992,

Chapo is driving down a busy avenue in downtown Guadalajara.

A white pickup pulls up,

and Ramon Arellano Felix and four gunmen jump out...

[gunshots firing]

And open fire.

Chapo's car is riddled with bullets,

but the armor plating holds

and he survives.

A few days later, he strikes back.

[eerie dance music]

At the Disco Christine nightclub in Puerto Vallarta,

a party is underway for two of the Arellano Felix brothers.

300 guests are dancing and drinking.

Chapo's hit men burst in, dressed in police uniforms,

a deadly deception.

Then...

[gunshots firing]

They open fire.

When the shooting stops,

a half-dozen people are dead on the dance floor.

- The conflict between the Arellano Felix brothers

and Chapo developed into a mafia-type arrangement,

where, you know, Chapo would try and have one of them killed

and they would send someone to Sinaloa

to try and have him killed.

¶ ¶

narrator: The violence comes to a head in May 1993.

- The ongoing feud escalated.

- They sent a hit team to execute El Chapo Guzman.

- The Arellano Felix brothers contracted some thugs

from the San Diego area,

known as the Logan Heights gang.

narrator: The hit men have been trying, and failing,

to track Chapo down

when they get a call.

- They had word that El Chapo Guzman

was at the airport in Guadalajara

and that he would be riding in a white sedan.

They came across that sedan and opened fire.

[gunshots firing]

narrator: But in the crossfire, Chapo,

the master of escape,

makes his way under cars to the terminal.

And in the confusion,

the assassins hit a very different target:

a Roman Catholic cardinal.

- It became a horrific assassination

that sent headlines around the world.

narrator: For over two decades,

Joaquin Guzman Loera,

king of the narco super tunnel,

has been making his mark

as a leading transporter of cocaine

into the United States.

But the drug lord, now in his 30s,

wants to expand his territory.

In May 1993, El Chapo is in a bloody battle

with rivals over Tijuana,

a key corridor into the U.S. drug market.

A hit is ordered to take him out

at the Guadalajara airport.

But when the assassins open fire,

they get a shock.

- El Chapo Guzman was not in that vehicle.

He was in another vehicle.

In that vehicle...

was the Archbishop of Guadalajara.

- The cardinal Posadas Ocampo

is just getting out of his car

and they hit him 14 times with rounds from AK-47s.

- Two suspects are in custody this morning in Guadalajara

following a shootout that left at least seven people dead,

among them a Roman Catholic cardinal.

Authorities think the shootout may have been a battle

between rival gangs of drug traffickers.

[solemn mass music]

narrator: Mexico is stunned.

The shooting receives international coverage.

- The then Mexican president

was so outraged at this assassination

that he vowed

to bring the full force and effect

of the Mexican government down on the narco-traffickers.

narrator: Rumors swirl about the Cardinal's death,

that perhaps it wasn't an accident at all.

Some experts believe that the real target

was the cardinal himself.

They allege he held a list of Mexican government officials

with ties to organized crime.

- There are many conspiracy theories

that really they killed they cardinal

because he had some information.

- Apparently, the cardinal has a list of people related

with the president that receive money from the drug cartels.

narrator: But the government insists

the cartels are behind it all.

- [speaking Spanish]

- There was a lot of pressure

following the killing of the cardinal

to detain some significant drug traffickers.

narrator: Chapo's cronies haven't been happy

with his feud over Tijuana.

To them, he seems like the perfect scapegoat.

- The government said, "Okay, we have to put someone in jail.

"It's an international scandal,

we have to do something."

And they said, "Well, El Chapo just bring problems.

We can't control him."

narrator: And so Chapo is offered up as a fall guy

for this, a crime he didn't commit.

And the first massive manhunt

for Joaquin Chapo Guzman begins.

- El Chapo Guzman, realizing that the heat was on,

decided to hightail it,

crossed the border with Guatemala,

paid off a Guatemalan official

over $1 million to keep it a secret.

narrator: But, hiding in Guatemala,

he'll soon be double-crossed

when that official pockets the money

and tips off the DEA,

which alerts local authorities.

- We provide the Guatemalans the information,

and he is arrested in a local hotel in Guatemala.

¶ ¶

narrator: On June 9, 1993,

Chapo Guzman is unceremoniously bound and bundled

into a pickup truck by the Guatemalans

and dumped just over the Mexican border.

- The Mexican military was waiting on the other side

with all the pomp and circumstance

of the Mexican military.

They were in full-dress uniforms,

and all of a sudden,

they see a rustic, beat-up old pickup truck

coming down the road,

and they see that Chapo Guzman

is in the bed of the truck, rolling around, you know,

getting, you know, battered and bruised.

narrator: El Chapo is arrested and sentenced to 20 years

for conspiracy, bribery, and drug trafficking.

- [speaking Spanish]

- Suddenly he was a name.

A real name.

- [speaking Spanish]

narrator: Through the 1990s,

Chapo's legend starts to grow,

operating out of cell 307,

block C3 in the maximum-security prison

at Puente Grande.

- There's been good documentation to show

an incredible network of bribery

by Chapo Guzman of prison officials.

- He was very adept

at knowing who to bribe and how to bribe them.

- If you're a guard, you're earning, you know,

$15,000 a year.

What are you gonna do?

If he's offered you money,

you can take the money and be corrupt,

or you can report it to someone

who you have no idea whether you can trust that person.

narrator: Those who turn down Chapo Guzman's generosity

do so at their own risk.

- We will pay you handsomely for that.

We will make you very, very rich.

And if you decline our offer, we will kill you.

Or even worse, we will murder your wife

and your daughters and your sons.

- You take our money or you take our bullet.

¶ ¶

narrator: Seduction.

Intimidation.

That's Chapo's way of doing business,

inside the prison

and out.

- Chapo has a lot of people

in various parts of the governments,

all over Mexico.

In my day, we had the Chief of Police of Mexico's

Federal Judicial District a trafficker.

So corruption can go to the highest levels.

narrator: The end result--

inside one of the toughest prisons in Mexico,

El Chapo is living a life most only dream of.

- He was able to essentially live

in a presidential suite of sorts during his incarceration.

- Within weeks of Chapo's arrival,

the prison guards were calling him "jefe," or "boss."

- He had parties.

He had the best food that he wanted,

that was brought in and cooked by private chefs.

narrator: And there are women,

lots of women,

sent to the prison,

including a steady rotation of prostitutes

for himself and others--

even the guards, as seen in these security camera images.

- He used to get visit of many women in the jail

and make sexual competitions with other people

that was in jail--

who has more sex in during the day than the other.

- He was able to enjoy a lot of relationships

with female staff, even cleaning staff,

even one particular female prisoner

who he fell in love with

and wrote love letters to later.

narrator: Meanwhile, it's business as usual

for Chapo and the Sinaloa cartel,

controlling the flow of drugs across the border into Arizona.

- He was using cell phones, using couriers,

using a computer.

He was still fully operating and functioning

as the de facto leader of the Sinaloa cartel

while imprisoned in Jalisco.

narrator: And then,

a pivotal moment in Chapo's career

when a bullet brings down

Colombian kingpin Pablo Escobar.

- The death of Pablo Escobar in December of 1993

created an opening for the Sinaloa cartel

and Chapo Guzman at its helm.

El Chapo Guzman's genius is that he saw

the Medellín cartel fall apart

and he realized that the Sinaloa cartel

could control that trade into the United States.

He saw that Mexican traffickers

could actually dominate the market.

narrator: All through the mid to late 1990s,

Chapo's men start moving more and more narcotics,

as he calls the shots from the inside.

- They began to buy the cocaine in Colombia

for about $2,000 a kilo

and sell that on the border of the United States

for about $30,000.

So these vast profits of cocaine

that used to go to the Colombians

were now staying largely in the hands of Mexican traffickers.

[indistinct shouting]

narrator: Meanwhile, U.S. authorities

have been tracking this activity,

and soon, they decide to make their move.

Even though he's in a Mexican jail,

El Chapo is indicted in Arizona and California

for drug trafficking and money laundering.

By 2001, as officials put the wheels in motion

to extradite the drug lord to the U.S.,

he tries to cut a deal.

- They don't want to serve time in the United States.

It's hard time.

¶ ¶

- So one of our agents traveled to Puente Grande,

escorted into a waiting room,

and then they bring in Chapo Guzman.

Immediately gets on the floor

and looks underneath the door

to make sure that nobody's listening,

and then he makes an offer, and he says,

"Look, if you don't extradite me to the United States,

"I will give you all of the routes that I have,

"and I will tell you all of the high-ranking Mexican officials

that I have been paying off."

narrator: But the U.S. government isn't biting.

The DEA turns him down.

- We were not gonna strike a deal with him

because we want him in the United States.

- If he were extradited to the United States,

it would be game over for him.

narrator: Out of options,

Chapo begins to think about a great escape.

narrator: For the last eight years,

drug lord El Chapo Guzman

has been running the powerful Sinaloa cartel

from behind bars of a Mexican prison,

but he's still a wanted man in America.

With trafficking indictments in California and Arizona,

U.S. authorities are pushing to extradite the kingpin

to the States and bring him to trial.

Out of options, Chapo makes a bold move.

- There's an individual that walks up to his cell

with a laundry cart.

Chapo Guzman jumps in,

they cover him with towels and dirty laundry,

and wheels him out of the penitentiary

into a car.

[sirens blaring]

They leave the area,

they stop at a gas station,

and the driver goes in to buy water,

which Chapo Guzman requested, and when he came out,

Chapo Guzman had gone into the night.

narrator: After 9:00 p.m. on that January 2001 night,

El Chapo Guzman is gone.

Word spreads about his daring laundry cart escape,

but others later say the prison break is even more brazen--

that he simply walks out the door disguised as a policeman.

Mexican authorities are stunned as their investigation uncovers

widespread corruption within the prison,

with alleged payoffs running into the millions,

from prison guards to the highest levels

of the Mexican government.

- He escaped from Puente Grande,

and none of the other guys have.

The Godfather, Miguel Angel Felix Gallardo,

who once ran the drug trade,

is still sitting in prison,

yet Chapo got out.

narrator: And so the myth of the elusive El Chapo,

the escape artist, is born.

- The fact that he was able to escape

from a maximum-security prison

just lends greater support for his mystique.

- People have always been fascinated by the--

by the bandito, the bad guy.

From Pancho Villa

to the Godfather

to Al Capone

and now El Chapo.

narrator: On the run, Chapo goes underground

and on the offensive.

In the eight years Chapo was behind bars,

there was an unspoken truce amongst the Mexican cartels,

but now the turf wars reignite.

- He decided that he was going to expand his territory

and take over a lot of these major corridors

into the United States because he could expand his business.

narrator: In early 2002,

Chapo's bitter rival, the Tijuana cartel,

suffers a loss when one of the Arellano Felix brothers

is killed in a shootout with the police.

Some believe the authorities are intentionally going after

Chapo's enemies.

Either way, Chapo finally takes control

of the Tijuana territory he's coveted for years.

- The Sinaloa cartel fought a very, very vicious war

against the Tijuana cartel.

Really beat them.

Bloodied them into near-submission.

narrator: And that's just the start.

Looking to expand his power,

Chapo goes after the Gulf cartel in the east.

- I think it's a business calculation.

He probably saw the risks and said,

"Okay, I'll lose some people, but we're gonna gain this turf."

narrator: Chapo's team of hit men move in,

but they're met by the Zetas,

the Gulf cartel's army of mercenaries.

- Chapo Guzman sent gang members,

guys with tattoos and shaved heads,

to try and take this territory,

but the Zetas reacted with extreme violence

and they changed the nature of the fighting in Mexico.

narrator: Many of Chapo's men are taken down

in this ongoing battle against the Zetas.

Meanwhile, Chapo is still hungry for Texas

and sets his sights on the Juarez cartel,

the gatekeepers of El Paso.

[dramatic orchestral music]

Over the next five years, the narco wars reach

an unprecedented level of violence.

- You never saw that kind of pictures before the war--

people without head,

people hanged in public places--

I mean, horrible things.

narrator: In Juarez alone,

there are reportedly an average of eight murders a day--

a death toll that will one day reach 11,000.

And in the entire country, that number will top 100,000.

- The slaughter was just wholesale,

and the blood was running into the drainage systems there

in Juarez at that time.

- [speaking Spanish]

- [speaking Spanish]

narrator: By the late 2000s, Chapo's forces dominate

in the fight against the Juarez cartel.

Seizing control of the Texas border,

Chapo makes a savvy business decision.

- Anticipating legalization of marijuana in certain states,

they shifted to production of heroin and methamphetamine.

That ability to pivot, to sense changes in the market,

to be nimble and quick and adroit,

is what truly distinguishes the Sinaloa cartel

from all of the other cartels.

- The Sinaloa cartel brings heroin into the United States,

through Texas, up Arkansas, Missouri, and Illinois,

and to Chicago.

narrator: Chicago is one of Chapo's main hubs

where drugs can be distributed

to almost any part of the country in a matter of days.

- You got two international airports,

you got a really large train network,

you got eight interstate highways that intersect here,

and you have the third largest Mexican-American population

in the country.

¶ ¶

narrator: Chapo entrusts the Chicago operation

to a family with ties to the Golden Triangle.

- The Sinaloa cartel was very savvy in establishing

a bulkhead, essentially, in Chicago

through two Mexican-American twin brothers,

Margarito and Pedro Flores.

- They decided to become really,

really sophisticated drug traffickers,

and they-- they were.

- It's alleged that those two twin brothers alone brought

$2 billion worth of narcotics and drugs into the Chicago area.

¶ ¶

narrator: The effects are startling.

Over the next ten years, violence and murder rates

in Chicago's south side skyrocket,

as gangbangers selling Chapo's drugs kill

to protect their turf.

[siren wailing]

Meanwhile, the Sinaloa cartel's

highly addictive black tar heroin

is causing an extraordinary number of overdoses.

- Addiction is incredibly prevalent.

You got people who are seizing on the misery.

Right? If there's money to be made,

people are taking advantage of it.

narrator: Realizing the scope of the problem,

Chicago authorities will soon declare El Chapo

"public enemy number one."

- The last time we did that was with Al Capone,

and Capone is a minor figure in the world of crime

compared to Chapo Guzman.

- Al Capone killed people who were in the game.

This drug is killing our kids.

- Enough is enough.

This man has got to be caught.

[intense electronic music]

narrator: 2007.

Fugitive kingpin Chapo Guzman

is one of the most wanted men in America.

As the main supplier of marijuana,

cocaine, methamphetamine, and heroin into the United States,

he's built his drug trafficking business into an empire.

An estimated 150,000 people work for Chapo's Sinaloa cartel

in 50 countries around the world, including the U.S.

- It's an illegal enterprise, but he's a CEO.

- I've never seen a criminal entity

this powerful, this wealthy, this vicious.

narrator: El Chapo has become so big that "Forbes" magazine

will soon list him as one of the elite billionaires

and most powerful people in the world.

- The big news there is that we put on

a drug trafficker,

and his name is Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman Loera.

He is not available for interviews because

he's on the run.

- The Sinaloa cartel has the most diversified

money-laundering portfolio of any organized crime network

in the world.

They do commodities trading.

They buy gold.

They buy diamonds.

They have daycare centers.

They have shopping centers.

You know, they have horse farms, agricultural farms,

and a lot of banks.

[mellow piano music]

narrator: An international criminal,

Chapo has grown larger than life,

making him even more of a folk hero back home in Culiacan.

- Chapo Guzman is a Robin Hood to the people of Mexico,

particularly the poor people.

- [speaking Spanish]

- He has built churches, soccer fields--

he has provided low-income housing for individuals.

narrator: A mythical fugitive,

Chapo is even said to come out of hiding every so often.

- He has, on occasion, been known to enter a restaurant

with all of his bodyguards,

demand that all of the patrons

in that restaurant enjoying their meals

surrender their cell phones.

- In walks Chapo and has a quiet meal

and, you know, will at least respectfully pay your bar tab

for the inconvenience.

¶ ¶

narrator: In January 2007,

Chapo arranges to go to an annual festival

in a neighboring village.

Security is tight.

Allegedly, 200 henchmen toting AK-47s close down roads

to protect their boss.

There, he meets up with 17-year-old Emma Coronel,

the pageant queen of the fair.

- [speaking Spanish]

narrator: Chapo is known as a ladies man.

He's been married at least twice before

and is said to have at least ten children.

His courtship with Emma is swift,

and within a year, on her 18th birthday,

she becomes the 53-year-old crime boss' next wife.

¶ ¶

- Emma, she was almost a child

when she get married with El Chapo Guzman.

She looks very innocent and pure.

narrator: Many believe Emma and Chapo's union is arranged

to strength a family alliance.

Although Emma denies the claims,

her uncle is said to be murdered drug lord

Ignacio Coronel--

infamous for building Sinaloa's mega meth labs.

- Emma Coronel has grown up in the drug trade.

Her father was a lieutenant under Chapo.

Her brother is incarcerated

on drug trafficking charges.

narrator: But American-born Emma

says her husband is not the dangerous kingpin

the world has made him out to be.

- Chapo Guzman, like most drug traffickers,

will take a life without flinching,

but when it comes to their families--

they adore their families,

and they will protect their families.

¶ ¶

narrator: But as El Chapo continues to expand his empire,

it's family that threatens to tear it apart.

For years, Chapo's cousins, the Beltran Leyvas,

have worked the Arizona border for the Sinaloa cartel.

It's a relationship that dates all the way back to when Chapo

first got into the drug game.

As a young teenager, the Beltran Leyvas

helped him grow marijuana.

Nearly 40 years later,

greed and jealousy unravel the alliance.

In January 2008,

the Beltran Leyvas allegedly start moving loads to the U.S.

behind Chapo's back, undermining his authority.

- The Beltran Leyva brothers--

they were controlling as much dope and as much territory

as Chapo Guzman.

- The betrayals start

when the business became bigger,

so the cake was really good

and you don't want to share the cake anymore.

- It seems like, for Chapo Guzman to consolidate

his power in the cartel,

it was necessary to confront the Beltra Leyva brothers.

[helicopter blades whirring]

[dramatic orchestral music]

narrator: Chapo Guzman takes it to the next level

when he reportedly informs on his cousin,

Alfredo Beltran Leyva,

sending the police to nab him.

The Beltran Leyvas accuse Chapo of treason

and viciously retaliate.

- Chapo Guzman's son, Edgar Guzman,

who was a college student,

was gunned down and murdered in Culiacan, Sinaloa.

narrator: The death of his son rocks Chapo Guzman to the core.

- It became a very personal battle

between Beltran Leyva and Chapo Guzman.

narrator: And now a family feud escalates

into an all-out war

as Chapo's henchmen carry out retaliation killings.

- When Edgar Guzman was murdered,

the people of Sinaloa knew the bloodshed

after that would be immense.

And there were shoot-outs happening right near

the central square.

- [speaking Spanish]

- [speaking Spanish]

- They carried on this crazy tit-for-tat against

the people of Beltran Leyvas,

particularly Arturo Beltran Leyva.

[gunshots firing]

narrator: After hundreds of deaths in Sinaloa,

the war comes to a head in December of 2009

when an informant tips off the Mexican marines

to the whereabouts of Arturo Beltran Leyva.

- The Mexican marines stormed an apartment building

and shot dead Arturo Beltran Leyva

and some of his cohorts.

narrator: The Sinaloa cartel fractures,

and members are forced to pledge allegiance

to either Chapo and his men

or the remaining Beltran Leyva brothers.

- It's like a divorce.

You don't know if you go with your mother or father.

¶ ¶

- It started becoming a free-for-all

and a very, very bloody place.

narrator: During the war, wholesale drug traffickers,

like the Flores brothers from Chicago,

had found themselves caught in the crossfire.

- When drug cartels leave piles of severed heads

in the center of a town,

when they leave bodies hanging from bridges,

they're sending different messages to different people.

- The Flores brothers were in a really, really hard place.

They were working with Chapo Guzman

on the one hand, and they were working

with Arturo Beltran Leyva on the other,

and they've been given ultimatums from each side

that they were to do business with that side or nobody at all

and that was a no-win proposition for them.

narrator: The Flores brothers

decide to take the only out they can--

to gain protection from U.S. authorities

by becoming informants.

¶ ¶

¶ ¶

- The Flores brothers, collectively, were moving

between 1,500 and 2,000 kilos a month from Chicago.

It was jaw-dropping.

That's a lot of dope.

narrator: It doesn't take them long

to get Chapo to discuss the price of a heroin shipment

on a recorded line.

- When that voice ID came in, and we knew we had him,

the DEA and I did a little backflip.

We had the world's most wanted criminal on tape.

narrator: With the list of indictments

against Chapo and his cartel growing

since they first came down in 1994,

prosecutors now have evidence to build an even stronger case

against the drug lord in the United States.

But Chapo, who's been underground

since escaping prison seven years ago,

is still at large, and he's even more elusive than ever.

- It was very difficult to capture Chapo Guzman

in those mountains

because if these people saw any unusual movement,

Chapo Guzman would know within minutes.

- When you arrive in Sinaloa,

there's a clear network of informants going on there.

There are people at the airport

who are documenting who's coming in.

- He had a very large security apparatus,

hundreds of bodyguards in concentric circles

throughout the Golden Triangle.

- We attempted to capture him twice.

Chapo Guzman and his men, about 40 or 50 of them,

jumped into these all-terrain vehicles

and scattered like cockroaches,

so, you know, you didn't know which one was Chapo Guzman.

narrator: That's as close as authorities will get

to El Chapo for another five years.

Finally, in 2014,

with the U.S. pressuring the Mexican government

to capture the world's most wanted criminal,

they get a break.

Intelligence operatives learn

the Sinaloa boss has come down from the mountains

and is rotating among six safe houses in Culiacan.

- Here's a man who's worth over $1 billion.

He's got a beauty queen wife

who's 32 years younger than he is.

She wants to go to restaurants.

She wants to go shopping.

So he goes to Culiacan.

Mistake number one.

narrator: U.S. and Mexican forces surround the city,

ready to take down the fugitive once and for all.

narrator: For 13 long years,

U.S. and Mexican authorities have been trying to track down

one of the most notorious criminals of the 21st century.

Chicago's "public enemy number one."

Drug lord Joaquin Guzman Loera.

After a series of near misses,

a joint special ops task force has El Chapo in its sights

at one of his safe houses in Culiacan.

On February 16th, 2014, the mission begins.

¶ ¶

- When the marines raided a house in Culiacan,

the doors had steel bars.

They were completely reinforced.

narrator: It reportedly takes the marines ten minutes

to penetrate the compound.

- By that time, Chapo Guzman,

using the bath tub with hydraulic lifts,

had gone down into the drainage system of the city and escaped.

narrator: Chapo gets away yet again,

but for his trackers, not all is lost.

One of his lieutenants is captured

and he tips off authorities,

leading U.S. and Mexican forces

to the beachfront resort of Mazatlan.

- We knew he was there because of telephone conversations,

and then some of his "sicarios," or confidants,

provided information.

narrator: Authorities then intercept a text message

pinpointing El Chapo's exact location.

On February 22nd, 2014,

just after 6:00 on a Saturday morning,

they make their move.

- So the marines go to this condominium complex

called Miramar.

They kicked down the door.

- He was there with his wife, Emma Coronel, their daughters--

El Chapo was caught completely unawares.

- Chapo Guzman has an AK-47 right next to his bed,

and he looks at it but then thinks twice

'cause he knew that, you know,

he would die before he even touched the AK-47.

- Emma Coronel started yelling at the marines,

"Don't kill him. Don't kill him.

He's my husband."

narrator: Within minutes, Operation Gargoyle is over.

- No shots were fired.

Nobody was injured.

narrator: After more than 4,700 days on the run,

El Chapo has finally been caught.

[indistinct shouting]

- [speaking Spanish]

narrator: Taken into custody,

Chapo makes a startling admission.

- El Chapo Guzman told the Mexican marines

that he himself was directly responsible

for the murders of 2,000 to 3,000 Mexican citizens.

[blades whirring]

narrator: El Chapo is sent to Altiplano Prison,

Mexico's only supermax facility.

It's said to be escape-proof.

For U.S. and Mexican authorities,

it's a sweet victory.

- The first time he got caught in 2014

was probably the best day I've had on this job in 30 years.

narrator: But not everyone is happy.

- When El Chapo Guzman was arrested,

it was not met with cheers or celebrations in Sinaloa State.

It was met with great sadness.

narrator: Masses take to the street in protest.

[people chanting in Spanish]

narrator: They demand the return of their hero--

a man who rose to be one of the world's elite billionaires

with only a third-grade education.

- [speaking Spanish]

- And they're demanding his release

because he is seen as a folk hero of sorts.

¶ ¶

narrator: Charged with multiple counts of cocaine trafficking,

El Chapo could face up to 400 years behind bars,

but the master of escape has no intention of serving his time.

- He started to plan his escape almost immediately.

narrator: Using his far-reaching power,

Chapo enlists an elite team of German engineers

to help design the perfect escape route.

His team sets up shop in Santa Juanita

to begin construction

on Chapo's most remarkable tunnel to date.

- They bought a piece of property

about a mile away from the penitentiary,

and they built a rustic cinder block house,

and that's when they started to build the tunnel.

narrator: Over the next 16 months,

over 350 truckloads of sand and dirt are hauled away

as the team methodically digs towards Chapo's cell.

It's said prison blueprints guide the way.

- They had to have the floor plans.

Why? Because they needed to know where the waterlines were.

They needed to know where the electrical lines were.

They also used sophisticated surveying equipment,

and it's a system that shoots out a laser.

With this equipment, they can tunnel 2 or 3 miles

and have a variance of maybe 6 to 8 inches,

and that's why they were able to pinpoint Chapo Guzman's cell

right into the shower.

narrator: And then, on July 15th, 2015,

El Chapo Guzman makes that epic escape,

vanishing out of his cell and into thin air.

narrator: Setting an international manhunt

into motion.

Chapo is out and on the loose.

- He is like a cat.

He has many lives.

male reporter: The latest tonight

on the drug kingpin El Chapo,

who remains one of the most wanted men in the world.

narrator: July 2015.

Notorious narco kingpin El Chapo,

whose Sinaloa cartel is the leading trafficker of drugs

into the United States,

makes international headlines with his daring escape

out of Mexico's maximum-security prison,

Altiplano.

- We're here today to voice

our extreme displeasure

at the Mexican authorities

for the escape of one of the most dangerous criminals

in the world.

narrator: The tunnel escape is signature Chapo,

complete with a motorcycle that runs a mile on rails.

- I expected nothing less.

That's just his style.

Tunnel was perfect.

narrator: Like his first prison escape back in 2001,

he's had help from the inside.

Prison officials ignored motion sensor alarms

and the sound of jackhammers.

[motored equipment clacking and whirring]

- My reaction was,

how do you build a tunnel,

which is a pretty loud venture,

up into a prison without, you know,

the prison officials knowing?

- El Chapo did not escape because there blind spots.

He escaped because some people

on this spot decided to be blind.

narrator: Publicly humiliated,

authorities launch the largest manhunt in Mexico's history.

Six months and several near-misses later,

the chase comes to a head in the seaside town of Los Mochis.

On January 8th, 2016,

Mexican marines raid that safe house

where Chapo and his men are hiding.

- [speaking Spanish]

[gunshots firing]

narrator: But at some point during the hour-long gun battle

that leaves five people dead,

Chapo and his top lieutenant escape.

They flee into a secret passage beneath the house

and follow a tunnel that leads to the sewer system.

- There was a dramatic rain storm.

- The water level in the sewers started rising.

- El Chapo Guzman found himself up to his neck in human waste.

and was forced to pop out about half a mile away

in the middle of the street through a manhole cover.

We now know he was with one of his most prized lieutenants,

Ivan El Cholo.

They hijacked a Volkswagen.

narrator: The getaway is all caught on camera

in this footage released by the Mexican government.

But they only get a few blocks

before smoke starts pouring out of the car.

- He gets one of the worst cars in Los Mochis

that breaks down, you know, just a few hundred feet

from where he commandeered it.

And Chapo Guzman has got to be thinking,

"This is the worst day of my life."

narrator: The men hurry to hijack a second car--

a red Ford Focus.

Then they take off heading south down highway 15.

- Calls were coming in to the local emergency control center

about these carjackings.

By this time, many people had seen

federal Mexican marines spreading throughout the city,

heard the gunfire, knew that some sort of military operation

was underway.

narrator: As heavily armed troops surround the area,

a lookout notice for the two carjackers goes wide.

- Local police officers went to investigate

these two carjackings

and found the Ford Focus on the back of a flatbed truck.

¶ ¶

They also found

El Chapo Guzman and Cholo Ivan in that car.

narrator: The cops take Chapo and his man into custody,

not realizing that they have detained

the most wanted criminal in the world.

- I have been advised that El Chapo Guzman

was threatening those local police officers.

He told them, "You must know who I am.

You know how much money I have."

narrator: Allegedly, El Chapo offers the police

a life-changing bribe to look the other way.

- "And if you don't accept my generous offer,

"I'm not only going to kill you, I'm going to kill your wife,

and I'm gonna torture, rape, and kill your daughters."

narrator: The police reportedly get a tip

that dozens of cartel assassins

are en route to free their boss,

so they hide El Chapo and El Cholo

in the first place they can find.

- They took both individuals, El Chapo and Cholo Ivan,

to a sex motel,

where they could drive a car in

and the garage door behind them would close.

narrator: In a room with a satin bedspread,

eight hours since escaping the marine firefight,

Chapo sits quietly, handcuffed.

It could all be over in an instant

if his hit men swarm the motel.

But the marines get there first.

- Luckily, the Mexican marines arrived,

figured out what was happening, secured the situation.

narrator: The fugitive drug lord's

six months on the lam are over.

¶ ¶

One of the officers takes a cell phone video

to capture the moment.

- Those pictures being broadcast around the world

tell the world that he ran for a long time,

he's escaped before,

but here is a defeated person,

and that should do something,

hopefully, to chip away at his folk hero status.

narrator: The myth has ended.

El Chapo has fallen.

- One of the most wanted and feared men in the world

has been captured again,

six months after his escape from a maximum-security prison.

narrator: January 8th, 2016.

After 181 days on the run,

Joaquin Guzman Loera has been recaptured in Mexico.

America's most wanted criminal,

the man responsible for flooding U.S. streets

with an endless supply of narcotics,

is paraded in front of the world.

El Chapo is loaded onto a helicopter

and flown back to Altiplano,

the same prison he escaped from just six months earlier.

¶ ¶

President Enrique Pena Nieto tweets a message

that resounds across the globe--

"Mission accomplished: we have him."

- This is a significant achievement for Mexico

and a major step forward in our shared fight against

transnational organized crime, violence, and drug trafficking.

- This is an incredibly important arrest.

It sends a incredibly strong message to narco-traffickers

or would-be narco-traffickers around the world

that a multi-national coalition of nation states

will not tolerate your brutality and your viciousness.

¶ ¶

narrator: Meanwhile, federal courts across the U.S.

are waiting to get their chance

to prosecute the world's top drug lord.

- If you look at everywhere from New York to San Diego,

Chicago to Texas,

Phoenix to Miami,

there literally is probably not

a single community in the United States

that was not impacted

by the trafficking of the Sinaloa organization.

¶ ¶

- El Chapo Guzman faces seven different federal indictments,

issued by seven different Federal Grand Juries,

for crimes involving narco-trafficking,

money laundering, and murder.

- When Chapo Guzman finally goes on trial,

ideally, I think in the United States,

it'll be amazing what we find out if he talks.

narrator: The list of those who have financially benefited

from El Chapo is long and distinguished:

police,

politicians,

business leaders,

people on both sides of the border.

- I have every reason to believe

that he will be extradited to the United States

and that he will be convicted

and that he will spend the rest of his life behind bars.

- The notorious drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman

has been moved to a new prison this morning,

and it's just across the border from El Paso, Texas.

narrator: May 8th, 2016.

A Mexican federal judge rules in favor of extradition

to the United States.

Hours later, in the middle of the night,

Chapo is secretly moved from Altiplano supermax

to a new prison in Juarez near the U.S. border.

Authorities say it's for security reasons.

Others fear this transfer could increase his chances

for another escape,

especially since Juarez is largely controlled

by Chapo's Sinaloa cartel.

- I would be willing to bet that he has escape plans

from every prison in Mexico.

- The prison system is as full of the corruption

and intimidation as it was before his last escape.

Nothing fundamental has changed.

It's a race between extradition or a new escape.

My guess is that the Mexican authorities

are really, really afraid that he might escape again.

narrator: While the drug lord's future hangs in the balance,

no matter how Joaquin Guzman Loera's personal story ends,

it's not clear that anything will ever change.

- Let's be honest-- if Mr. Guzman is incarcerated,

is the Sinaloa cartel gonna stop running narcotics

into the U.S.?

The answer's no.

- Search warrant! We've got a search warrant!

- It still remains the most powerful,

the most vicious, the wealthiest,

and the scariest narco-trafficking organization

around the globe.

- The Sinaloa cartel is like an NFL football team

that is very strong and they have a strong bench,

so even if the quarterback gets injured,

there's another strong quarterback that can come in

and run the team.

[car sirens blaring and honking]

- As long as we have the consumers here in America

spending $100 billion every year

on cocaine, crystal meth, marijuana, and heroin,

we're gonna have people in Mexico trafficking drugs.

narrator: And so, even as the legend of El Chapo lives on,

there's always another kid

in another dusty village in the Golden Triangle

just waiting to make his mark.

In the words of El Chapo himself...

[gunshots firing]

"This will never end."