All language subtitles for Gangland.Chronicles.S01E02.1080p.WEB.h264-EDITH_track3_[eng]

[♪]

Gangs rule their territories
through ruthless enterprises,

fear,

and a strict code.

Deviate from this code

or challenge their power...

and retribution soon follows...

especially
for the most powerful

and dangerous
drug trafficking operation

in the world...

the Sinaloa Cartel,

a criminal enterprise

built on terror

and a devious business strategy.

Here are three stories

about their quest

to become the world's
largest drug empire.

First, the Sinaloa Cartel

takes their business
deep underground.

[Riley] These tunnels
were engineered to the max.

It was a real wake-up call.

[Narrator]
Then, a power struggle

pushes the Sinaloa Cartel
into a deadly war across Mexico.

[Donovan]
They would use extreme violence

to make sure that they control

and send a message
to their enemies.

[Narrator] And finally,
authorities must crack

the cartel's sophisticated
communication system

to bring down its leader,
El Chapo.

This technology
really became his undoing.

[Narrator] These are stories

from the El Chapo years
of the Sinaloa Cartel.

This is Gangland Chronicles.

1985. Mexico.

The Guadalajara Cartel,

one of Mexico's largest

and most brutal drug trafficking
organizations,

falls apart.

As the Guadalajara Cartel
buckled under the pressure

of U.S. and Mexico
law enforcement,

that left a bit
of a power vacuum,

and so we see this period
of reorganization.

[Narrator]
The Guadalajara Cartel

splits
into three separate factions,

Tijuana, Juarez, and Sinaloa,

turning former partners
into competitors.

A ruthless former
Guadalajara lieutenant

takes control
of the new Sinaloa Cartel.

His name, Joaquín Guzmán Loera,
aka El Chapo.

Chapo Guzmán is clearly
the leader of Sinaloa

as it evolved
and became as violent...

and really as dominating
in the drug market,

certainly in the United States.

I also think he's one of
the most cunning criminals

of our lifetime.

[Narrator] By 1989, El Chapo
runs the Sinaloa Cartel

alongside two other former
Guadalajara lieutenants,

"El Mayo" Zambada
and Héctor Salazar.

Beneath them,
a well-oiled machine

takes the cartel's reach
around the world.

They had a security department,

they had
a communications department,

and they had hundreds
of sicarios

who, when needed,
would go do the dirty work.

I don't like giving him credit,

but Chapo was one hell of a CEO.

The Sinaloa Cartel is massive.

Not everyone reports
directly to Chapo.

If there's a conflict

that is serious enough
where it rises to the top,

Chapo will make a decision,

who's right, who's wrong,

who needs to live,
who needs to die.

[Narrator] The Sinaloa Cartel's
swift violence

works hand in hand

with their strategy
to deal with law enforcement.

With police agencies,

they'll pay 'em off,
they'll bribe them,

and if they
don't take the bribe,

then they'll often target them
for assassination.

[Narrator]
During El Chapo's reign,

Sinaloa will become the richest
drug cartel in Mexico,

earning over $12 billion

from trafficking drugs
to the United States...

but in the beginning,

the cartel has challenges
reaching its number-one market.

The initial methods
that Sinaloa would utilize

to smuggle drugs
across the border

was straight through
the port of entry,

expecting to lose
several of the vehicles,

hoping to get the majority
of that shipment through.

[Narrator] The Sinaloa Cartel
has a better plan,

one they hope will turn
their criminal enterprise

into a multi billion-dollar
industry...

by taking it underground.

1989. Mexico.

El Chapo dispatches a lawyer
to buy a home in Agua Prieta,

a few hundred yards
from the U.S. border.

Then, he buys a warehouse
in Douglas, Arizona.

[Hurowitz] People started
to notice that something's up,

and he said, "Oh, you know,

I'm building a pool
for my kids."

Instead of building a pool,

his workers were
actually digging a tunnel.

[Narrator]
This isn't just any tunnel.

Excavated to a depth
of 30 feet,

the tunnel stretches the length
of a football field

beneath the border.

Full scale, fully operational,
ventilated, lighting...

They'd set up
hydraulics in Mexico

so that they could drop
a ton of cocaine

and then put it
on a rail system.

[Narrator] From 1989 to 1990,

El Chapo moves tons of drugs
into the U.S.,

all under the noses
of law enforcement.

Chapo built his legend
on transporting narcotics

from Mexico to, say, LA,
or Chicago, or New York,

and doing that
within 24 to 48 hours.

Before long, he earned
the nickname "El Rápido,"

the speedy one.

The Sinaloa Cartel
was responsible

for upwards to 75 to 80%
of all the narcotics

being trafficked
in the United States.

[Narrator] All of this success

puts a target
on the Sinaloa Cartel.

1990. Agua Prieta, Mexico.

The Sinaloa Cartel's
super tunnel

to Douglas, Arizona

has made them Mexico's
top drug traffickers.

[Hurowitz]
El Chapo was able to move

a staggering amount of drugs
under the border,

virtually undetected.

Now, this sort of golden age
of El Chapo's tunnel success

lasted only about a year.

[Narrator] In May,
U.S. law enforcement gets a tip

about a suspicious warehouse
located in Douglas, Arizona.

U.S. law enforcement
followed a truck

from Douglas
up to Phoenix, Arizona,

and they found a whole bunch
of kilos of cocaine.

[Narrator] U.S. Customs
and Border Protection agents

raid the warehouse

while Mexican authorities
storm the house in Agua Prieta.

At first,
authorities are stumped.

There's nothing suspicious
in either location.

But then, after hours
of searching,

they discover
the tunnel entrance,

cleverly concealed
in the most unlikely place.

On the Mexican side,

it was
covered by a pool table.

If you found a hidden switch,

it would rise up
and reveal the entrance.

It was really something.

[Narrator] Inside the tunnel,

authorities seize
2,000 pounds of cocaine,

worth over $46 million.

The first tunnel

brought everybody to their knees
in law enforcement

because we realized
how vulnerable we were.

[Narrator]
But authorities don't realize

that the Sinaloa Cartel
is already at work

building more tunnels
from Arizona to California.

The whole art
of building tunnels

is much like
a cat and mouse game.

The difference is
we have to play by the rules,

and Chapo made up the rules
and has unlimited budget.

[Narrator] Despite the Sinaloa
Cartel's massive growth,

El Chapo wants
to make even more money.

For Chapo
to control a desolate area

really was not
money-making for him.

He wanted to get into those
high-volume corridors

and increase the volume
of what was going across.

Everything was at stake here.

[Narrator]
El Chapo sets his sights

on taking control of the most
lucrative smuggling routes...

even if that means war.

1989. Tijuana, Mexico.

One of
the most lucrative regions

of the U.S.-Mexico border

for drug trafficking.

It is also the territory
of the Tijuana Cartel,

led by the ruthless
Arellano-Félix brothers.

There was some latitude

for other drug traffickers
to operate in Tijuana,

but they had to pay,

and El Chapo didn't want
to pay anymore.

Chapo wasn't afraid
to move in

and infringe on that territory.

[Narrator] Sinaloa's brazen
disregard of Tijuana's rules

upsets a fragile peace
between the two cartels.

What these cartels
often fight about

is controlling
the flow of drugs into the U.S.

and the money coming back south.

It always came down
to money, greed, power, control.

[Hurowitz] In the early 1990s,
there started to be

these sort of tit-for-tat
acts of violence

between the two crews.

[Narrator] The Tijuana Cartel
kills two Sinaloa associates.

Then they behead the wife
of El Chapo's business partner,

Héctor Palma Salazar,

and send her head
to her family in a box.

Cartels in Mexico
are extremely violent,

so beheadings,

all these other ways they would
torture and kill people

was really about
sending a message.

[Riley] It's on now,

and retribution
is really important

that it happens quick,
violently,

and surprise is crucial.

[Narrator]
The Sinaloa Cartel learns

that the Arellano-Félix brothers
are celebrating a birthday

at a discotheque
in Puerto Vallarta.

El Chapo sends his men
to the club,

armed to the teeth.

Several of the Arellano-
Félix brothers

and their bodyguards

are relaxing,
having a good time.

Outside, El Chapo and his men
pull up.

They're dressed as cops.

[Narrator] The hitmen
of the Sinaloa Cartel

have one mission...

kill the heads
of the Tijuana Cartel

and anyone
who gets in their way.

November 8, 1992.

Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.

In an escalation of their war
with the Tijuana Cartel,

gunmen from the Sinaloa Cartel
charge into a crowded nightclub

to assassinate
Tijuana's leaders,

the Arellano-Félix brothers.

They unleash hell
on the nightclub.

A rain of bullets,
shooting at random.

Several people were shot,

but the brothers
made it out of there alive,

and they were not happy,
to say the least.

[Narrator] On May 24th, 1993,

the Arellano-Félix brothers
punch back

after learning El Chapo

is flying out
from the Guadalajara airport.

[Hurowitz] El Chapo
was driving to the airport,

and as he's getting out
of the car,

gunmen from Tijuana
jump out and open fire.

[Narrator] As gunfire sprays
across the front of the airport,

El Chapo bolts through
the baggage terminal.

On a nearby road,
he hijacks a car and escapes.

Back in the parking lot,
it's just a scene of carnage.

Seven people are dead.

[Narrator] Among the casualties

is Cardinal
Juan Jesús Posado Ocampo,

Archbishop of Guadalajara,

a popular figure
from the Catholic Church.

His death sends shockwaves
across the country.

The killing of the cardinal

was one of those things
that set the house on fire.

The Mexican government
now had to get serious.

[Hurowitz]
Suddenly El Chapo goes

from being a successful
anonymous drug trafficker

to being one of
the most wanted men in Mexico,

and he immediately heads south,

crosses the border
into Guatemala.

[Narrator] June 9, 1993.

El Chapo is captured
by the Guatemalan Army,

and extradited back to Mexico.

He is convicted of
drug trafficking and bribery

and sentenced to 20 years
in a maximum security prison.

But jail has one advantage...

El Chapo is now out of the reach
of the Tijuana Cartel.

He solidified power
while he was in jail,

and at the same time,
he was protected

about as much as you could be.

[Narrator]
But there is one adversary

El Chapo isn't safe from...

U.S. law enforcement.

In 2000,
the Mexican Supreme Court

hands down a decision

to allow extradition
of drug traffickers

from Mexico
to the United States.

The worst possible fate
to El Chapo

was being extradited
to the United States,

so he started
to plan his escape.

[Narrator] After seven years
behind bars in a Mexican prison,

El Chapo masterminds his escape
by hiding in a laundry cart.

And this begins the second era
of El Chapo's career.

[Narrator] After years
of operating in the open,

El Chapo and the Sinaloa Cartel

must now adapt
to working on the run...

with the DEA on its heels.

2001. Sinaloa, Mexico.

El Chapo vanishes into
the security of the mountains.

Chapo began plotting what
was the next move for Sinaloa.

[Hurowitz] El Chapo's
main business for many years

had been cocaine,

but he and other traffickers

start manufacturing
methamphetamine

and flooding the market
in the United States.

[Narrator] Through the 2000s,

the Sinaloa Cartel ramps up
production of synthetic drugs

like methamphetamines
and opioids

including the deadly
but lucrative fentanyl.

The Sinaloa Cartel

could generate hundreds
of millions of dollars

right there in Sinaloa,

utilizing chemicals
to generate fentanyl.

[Narrator] As Sinaloa cashes in
on these lethal narcotics,

it creates a crisis
on American streets

that the DEA can't ignore.

[Riley] Notre Dame Stadium
holds 80,000 people,

and I think to myself,

last year, more U.S. citizens
died of drug overdose

than are in this stadium...

and it's because of people

like Chapo Guzmán
and his organization.

So we really understood

how important it was
for us to pursue him

so that the organization itself
would crumble.

[Hogan]
Not only was it a manhunt,

but it was also
a drug investigation.

We're not solely looking
to take down just Chapo.

We're looking to dismantle
his entire organization.

[Narrator] But with
the Sinaloa Cartel leader

always one step ahead,

law enforcement needs to first
crack El Chapo's secret weapon.

2011. Mexico.

El Chapo for years has
operated the cartel on the run.

The secret to his success
is in the palm of his hand.

Chapo had to have
a communication apparatus

that was effective

and that he could deliver
his message to his subordinates,

otherwise, they
weren't going to make any money.

[Narrator] The Sinaloa Cartel's
communication network

is custom-built
by a young computer whiz

named Christian Rodriguez.

El Chapo commissions
Christian Rodriguez

to set up Blackberries
with this encrypted technology.

The system was
next to impossible to crack.

[Narrator]
U.S. law enforcement realizes

the only way to break the cartel
is to hack their communications.

The one weakness
of this system

was if you have
the guy who built it,

you can get inside it,

and so the FBI set about

trying to find and entrap
Christian Rodriguez.

[Narrator] The FBI track
and secretly record

the young encryption expert

bragging about his work
for the Sinaloa Cartel.

They tell him,
"Look, man, we got you,"

and Christian,

after a few hours
of interrogation, cracks.

[Narrator] Rodriguez agrees

to give them
the key to the software

in exchange for immunity
from prosecution.

Suddenly federal agents
of the United States

have access to all of El Chapo's
communications.

Before you know it,

we're painting this picture
of Chapo's inner world

and actually his true
organization that he's running.

Was he moving drugs? Yes.

Was he moving money? Of course.

[Narrator] The Sinaloa Cartel's
communications

reveal the extent
of their global empire,

and the secret partnership

fueling
their fentanyl production.

We started seeing
Chinese groups

and different factions
of these gangs

collaborating
with the Sinaloa Cartel.

They were primarily
bringing in the chemicals

that they needed
to produce fentanyl.

[Narrator] And by hacking
cartel members around El Chapo,

U.S. law enforcement
is finally able

to track Sinaloa's
elusive leader.

[Donovan]
We would identify, well,

who's making contacts,
who's paying bribes,

who's receiving money,

who's delivering money to him?

And it changed our ability
to infiltrate him very quickly.

[Narrator] But with El Chapo
constantly on the move,

it takes years
to pin down his exact location.

We start reading the messages
of Chapo's cartel members

that are sending messages
to a man

that they were calling
"El Señor."

My partner and I were like,

the communication stops here,
and he's right here.

We were essentially
staring Chapo in the eye.

[Narrator] After several
near-misses and escapes

over a two-year period,

El Chapo is captured
for a final time

on January 8, 2016,

and extradited
to the United States.

[Donovan]
The fact that we were able

to bring this bigger than life
criminal leader

to face justice
in the United States,

it basically said
if we could do that with him,

then we could do that
with anyone.

[Narrator] Three years later,

Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán Loera

is found guilty on 17 charges

in the United States
District Court of New York.

He's sentenced to life
plus 30 years,

and imprisoned in ADX,

the most secure prison
in the United States.

Despite El Chapo's
incarceration,

the Sinaloa Cartel
is as strong as ever.

Believed to be run by El Mayo
and El Chapo's sons,

today the cartel profits
up to $3 billion a year.

In the years since
El Chapo was arrested,

the amount of cocaine,
fentanyl, meth

coming over the border
has not gone down.

If anything, it's gone up.

[Donovan] The Sinaloa Cartel

has distribution cells
in 47 countries worldwide.

It is a full-scale
criminal organization

that is very powerful
and very dangerous.

[Riley]
I would consider Sinaloa

the largest, most influential
cartel still in Mexico

and probably in the world.