Narco Wars (2020) s01e06 Episode Script
Rise of the Narco Army
1
♪
(gunshots)
(gunshots)
(rapid gunfire)
♪
Man (over tv): Shake this
square world and blast
off for kicksville.
Nixon (over tv):
Public enemy number
one is drug abuse.
Nancy (over tv):
Just say, "no."
Reagan (over tv): Solving
the drug problem in america
Is like carrying
water in a sieve.
Bush (over tv):
Take my word for it,
This scourge will stop.
Woman: There's now an
understanding that the war on
Drugs was an abject failure.
Man: You have to stop
and ask yourself,
'how did we get here?'
Trump (over tv):
We will build a wall.
♪
Man (over tv): Mexico's drug
cartels have turned roads into
The us into super-highways
for their narcotics.
Man (over tv): It occurred
last month in downtown
Matamoros, mexico.
An fbi and a dea agent were
riding with an informant when
They noticed they
were being followed.
After a pickup truck
blocked their path,
15 armed men emerged and
ordered the agents and
Informant out of the car.
As one of the gunmen
leveled an ak-47,
The agents flashed their
badges and pleaded for
their lives.
Daniel: My name
is daniel fuentes,
And I was that fbi agent.
♪
In 1999, this
individual assisting
us there in matamoros,
He was showing us some
residences that were
Associated with members
of the gulf cartel,
Including the house of
osiel cárdenas guillén.
Osiel cárdenas guillén
started off his career,
Believe it or not,
helping out a local
law enforcement
Agency in matamoros.
He rose to sole leader
of the gulf cartel right
around July 3rd of 1999,
When it is said that he
murdered his partner,
Chava gómez.
As we're driving through
these neighborhoods,
My partner thinks that
we may be followed by
a dark colored pickup.
We're seeing multiple
cars joining.
One particular vehicle,
there's an ak-47 weapon
Sitting on the bench of his
truck right next to him.
We're realizing that,
that things are about
to start going bad.
I start collecting
all of my ammunition,
And the informant told us,
you know, "here comes osiel."
He recognized his vehicle.
We're boxed in,
we're completely
surrounded,
And that's when we were
forced off the road.
They start exiting
their vehicles.
They're completely in uniform,
in tactical gear,
Like soldiers.
They're all heavily armed
with high-caliber weapons.
Osiel comes over to my window.
And he proceeds to point
his gold-plated ak-47,
Cussing up a storm,
demanding who it is
that we are.
So, I show him my
diplomatic passport
saying we're
Diplomats from the us
consulate in monterrey.
You know, 'who are you?'
And I could see
osiel kinda grinning.
He said, "I don't give
a (bleep) who you are.
You're gonna die.
I'm gonna kill you."
He sticks his head into the car,
And he looks to the backseat,
and he says,
"ah, so it's you. You're
with the fbi, huh?"
The guns go up,
total chaos.
He wants this
guy really badly.
He says, "you give him to me,
and I'll let you go."
And we said, "no, no-one's
getting out of the car."
We were literally in a
mexican standoff.
If I fire a shot,
we're all dead,
Because everyone's
gonna start shooting,
And so osiel continues to
point his ak-47 in my head.
I start getting what's referred
to as "tunnel vision."
I can't see beyond this
hole that's in front of me.
Everything else is black.
Although you resign
yourself to the fact that
you're going to die,
Your training kicks in.
My partner tells him,
"you better think about
what you're doing here,
Because if you kill us,
You're gonna have 30,000
enemies from the us that
Are coming out here
looking for you.
They're gonna hunt
you down like a dog."
And it seems like something
clicked in his mind,
And he realized,
"they're gonna find me,
And it's going to affect
my operation here."
So, osiel says, "I'm
gonna let you go.
And you in the backseat, I'm
gonna deal with you later,
And I don't want you guys
to ever come back here,
Cause if you do come back,
I'm gonna kill you."
We later learned that amongst
those individuals were some
Former special forces
mexican soldiers.
♪
Ioan: The zetas were
created by the gulf cartel
In a corner of northeast mexico
on the border with texas.
The gulf cartel controlled key
towns from the gulf of mexico
Right up to the city
of nuevo laredo,
And the hub of their
operations is the border
Crossing between nuevo
laredo and mexico, and
laredo, texas.
♪
Arturo: My name is art,
arturo fontes.
I was an fbi agent for
approximately 28 years.
People laugh at me because
I left sunny san diego,
With beaches and everything,
and nice big house,
To be in a small
town in laredo.
They call it the
"armpit of texas."
(laughing)
♪
It takes you all
the way to dallas,
And it even goes all the
way to the north in the us.
Ioan: Now, this is an area
where there was the biggest
Number of trucks crossing
the whole border.
It was a very important route.
The gulf cartel was
shifting marijuana, cocaine,
And heroin through texas to
across the united states.
The gulf cartel was
on to a good thing,
But it was about to get a
whole lot better with the
North american free
trade agreement.
Clinton (over tv): After we
tear down trade barriers
between our three nations,
It will create the world's
largest trade zone.
Today we have the
chance to do what our
parents did before us.
We have the opportunity
to remake the world.
(applause)
♪
Arturo: Nuevo laredo
is more important than
Almost any other
area in mexico,
And that's why it's
a battle ground.
It's the crown jewel
for drug trafficking.
Everybody wants that.
♪
Mike: Osiel was a genius at
being able to read people and
Manipulate them.
He was brilliant at
influencing people to do
Things that they
shouldn't be doing.
Ioan: In the special forces,
they had radio code with the
"z" letter, so they
would have, like
(speaking native language)
Would be, like, you know,
"zed two, I'm on alert."
They quickly became
called the "zetas,"
Or the "zeds"
after that radio code.
Mike: Osiel saw in them a
discipline that your regular
Trafficker did not have,
and that was a
militarized discipline.
A respect for chain of command,
loyalty,
The willing to attack
the hill when told,
Regardless of the outcome.
(sirens)
We saw that the zetas
were becoming a threat.
There was definitely a
foreboding of things to come
As the zetas began to
grow and become stronger,
And they were learning
the drug trade from
the gulf cartel.
♪
Daniel: Osiel is definitely
in the crosshairs
Of, of the fbi and dea.
He is public enemy number one.
(speaking native language)
(speaking native language)
Daniel: The arrest
was like a scene out
of afghanistan, iraq.
(speaking native language)
(gunshots)
Daniel: The mexican military,
I believe,
May have lost one or two
soldiers during the course of
That gun battle.
(speaking native language)
(gunshots)
Daniel: Osiel survived.
He was apprehended,
but it was quite
the shootout.
♪
♪
Mike: After osiel was
out of the picture,
What we didn't anticipate
was how strong the zetas
Were going to become.
(speaking native language)
Mike: They were outta control.
(speaking native language)
(gunshots)
Mike: They turned mexico
into one giant war zone.
(speaking native language)
Man (over tv): Good evening!
Suddenly guns are back
in the middle of the
presidential campaign,
Triggered by
what happened today,
A ten-year ban on 19
kinds of military
assault weapons ran out.
Man (over tv): Gun
manufacturers are already
Preparing for what
some predict will be
a gun buying frenzy.
♪
♪
Ioan: You have the
sinaloa cartel
going in to try
And take the city of nuevo
laredo from the zetas.
But they did not
understand the zetas.
They underestimated the zetas.
Arturo: Nuevo laredo
was on fire.
There were shootouts
in the streets,
Grenades being
launched in the house.
It was just extremely violent.
They had commando
hit squads operating.
It was brutal.
(gunshots)
The zetas and the gulf cartel,
they have the help of fire
Power to actually
counter any threat,
and they did.
They kicked ass.
Ioan: This was the beginning
of the mexican drug war
As we know it.
(gunshots)
When you talk to
people who live this,
Who fight in this conflict,
and who do see themselves as
Being soldiers and,
you know, like,
They might not live
till they're 25.
(speaking native language)
♪
♪
Ioan: Now, the zetas became
so powerful the gulf cartel
Could not contain them.
So, you had the zetas breaking
away from the gulf cartel.
♪
So, suddenly it wasn't
only northeast mexico.
They started spreading all the
way down the gulf of mexico.
And then across, penetrating
into these states on the
west coast, as well.
They were going to new
towns and villages and start
Recruiting or
saying, you know,
to local criminals,
"you either work for us or
we're gonna kill you."
The zetas were really starting
to pioneer these tactics,
Controlling a
territory through fear.
The zetas started
hanging bodies up.
It wasn't enough just
to kill somebody.
You wanna hang their body up.
So suddenly you start to see
bodies hanging from bridges,
So people,
kids, families
who are there,
See hung up bodies when
they wake up in the morning,
When they're going to school,
and they put messages,
Big banners saying,
"if you inform on us,
this is gonna happen
to you."
And this propaganda of fear,
Propaganda of terror,
started to spread
around mexico.
So, as violence
increased in mexico,
The united states didn't
know how to react,
And didn't even know
what to call this thing
that was happening.
Joel: The zetas changed the
entire game in the drug world.
My name's joel saldaña.
I'm a retired dea agent.
I was assigned to
monterrey, mexico,
from 2003 to 2009.
In October of 2008,
zeta members threw
a hand grenade
And an m67 grenade
at the us consulate.
They had gotten approval
from el treviño.
And I'm, like, 'I think
we should retaliate.
We need to hit 'em back and
show 'em that we're not weak.'
(sirens)
(sirens)
Joel: We decide to
go with an operation.
We have this warehouse
we wanna hit,
So that night we found
18 tons of marijuana,
We found a room full of ammo,
five gallon buckets of
.40 caliber,
9mm, .223.
We also found 26 grenades,
and of those grenades,
Two or three of 'em had the
same lot number of the one
That had been thrown
at the us consulate.
We arrested one
guy at the place,
and he told us,
He said, "hey, they just left,
like, ten, 15 minutes ago.
If you're still here, they're
gonna show up in ten,
15, 20 vehicles,
.50 calibers used.
They're gonna kill all you guys.
It's gonna get messy."
We're, like, "we need
to call the military."
So, it's three in the morning,
so I called the general up.
(phone ringing)
His aide answers.
I tell the aide, I said, "I
need to speak to the general."
He says, "well, the
general's asleep."
I said,
"look, I'm a dea agent and
we're in a world of (bleep).
If you don't wanna
spend the rest of your
career washing cars,
You better wake him up now."
(phone ringing)
General answers the phone.
I said, "look, general,
this is what we got."
He says, "what do you
need from me?"
I said, "I need manpower."
(phone ringing)
Within ten minutes,
lieutenant colonel
calls me to say,
"we're mobilizing
100 troops."
So, they showed up.
As soon as they arrive,
they get into a big
Shootout with the zetas.
(gunshots)
(speaking native language)
Joel: They start
taking heavy fire.
(speaking native language)
Joel: Two soldiers
were wounded and one
of our feda guys,
A mexican federal agent,
was also shot.
(speaking native language)
(gunshots)
Joel: They end
up getting away.
(speaking native language)
Joel: It was a long night.
It was a long night.
The zeta started
putting surveillance
at the military camp
And what they would do,
they'd pick up soldiers,
Kidnap 'em, torture
'em and then kill 'em.
So, within eight days they
killed nine soldiers because
Of, of this little operation.
They were between 18 and 20.
I think the outcome has
always weighed heavy on me,
Knowing uh, what happened
to those soldiers.
The retaliation
for this operation.
I guess hindsight, if
I would've know this
would've happened,
I prob, probably would've never
have gone through with it,
Since I kinda feel
spearheaded it.
Hillary (over tv): Drug
cartels are now taking
on the attributes of a
Lot of the insurgent and
terrorist groups that we see
Elsewhere around the world.
You see them being much
more organized in a kind of
Paramilitary way.
In fact, one of the
most violent of the
drug gangs are former
Special forces members from
the mexican army who went over
To the dark side.
So, this is a, this is
a struggle that has a
huge consequence
For the united states.
Ernest: We had reports
that they were killing 150,
200 people in one month.
That they would
dismember people,
That they would behead people.
The goal that we had,
I believe,
Was an admirable goal.
The goal was to try to get
these guys captured and
Arrested so that the
killings would stop.
♪
There were some individuals
that we interviewed who were
The original founding
members of the zeta cartel,
And even they were amazed at
the amount of brutality that
Miguel treviño had brought
to the organization.
There were some that were
willing to cooperate
because of that,
Who wanted out
of the organization.
They indicated, "we got into
this business to make money.
We didn't get in this
business to kill hundreds
of people at a time."
I mean, I, I personally
felt the impact that these
Individuals were having on
the innocent people of mexico.
As a human being,
as a prosecutor,
You wanna see justice done.
♪
♪
♪
Ernest: Treviño never
slept in the same place.
They had hidden tunnels
that they would hide from.
They were very shrewd,
and they had the structure
Where they had evaded
capture for a very,
very long time.
♪
♪
Ernest: Obviously,
we could use the
information on the
Cell phones to track
those individuals and
find their locations.
♪
That information is leaked.
The zetas are tipped off that
someone in their organization
Has provided us
that information,
And that unleashes
the furor of treviño.
♪
♪
♪
♪
♪
♪
Ernest: Now we know
that it was because of
the leak of information.
We know that it was
miguel treviño
trying to get some
Retribution for the
lack of allegiance from
some of their members.
I don't think I've ever
seen anything like that,
And I've been investigating
or, or prosecuting these
types of cases
For 25 years,
and this is the worst
Of the worst that
I've ever seen.
♪
♪
(gunshots)
(speaking native language)
Mike: I cannot compare zetas'
violence to anything that had
Ever been witnessed in
mexico from any cartel.
Just beyond the imagination
of what a human could
Do to another human.
The zetas brought violence
to a whole new level.
Joel: And it's fun for
them just killing people.
They have to be deranged.
I, I, I can't see how
some of these guys
could sleep at night
Knowing the crimes, the
atrocities they've committed.
I mean, how can you sleep?
Ioan: There's a
quote from a zeta,
"we use drugs to
finance the war."
The drugs almost become, like,
"ok, we'll keep on
turning that so we can
keep on financing,
And buying more guns,
and killing more people,
And taking more territory, and
then sell some more drugs."
It becomes this circle and what
really is the objective?
These attacks really
brought the wrath of
the united states.
They said, "we have
to stop the zetas.
We have to get the zetas.
This is too bad."
Ernest: It was a part of
the pattern that
Miguel treviño had somehow
developed that they were going
To stay in power,
but his thirst for
power is going to
Cause him to be less careful.
It's gonna cause him to
come out into the open.
♪
♪
♪
♪
Ernest: I wanted
to keep going,
I wanted to, to, to try
to achieve the goal
that we had set out.
(radio chatter)
Ernest: We continued
to work the case,
We continued to cultivate
information from
co-operators and informants.
(radio chatter)
Ernest: Information has
strong value in any
kind of investigation,
And especially in this one.
(radio chatter)
(radio chatter)
♪
Man (over tv): This is
yet another advance by
the people of
Mexico in dismantling
organized crime,
So we really commend
our mexican partners
in this regard.
♪
♪
(sobbing)
Arturo: It takes a toll on you.
It's toxic.
You know, it's not healthy.
Seeing and, and, and hearing
and, and talking to the families
And feeling the, feeling
the heat and the, and
the sorrow and the,
And the, and the hurt, and, it,
it really takes a toll on you.
Joel: It, it's a really
tough assignment,
it really is.
If someone tells you it isn't,
they're, they're lying.
Mike: Dea, in my
personal opinion,
Is that we're like gardeners,
and we have no choice but to
Keep cutting the grass,
because if we don't keep
Cutting the grass,
we're gonna have a
jungle of weeds,
And then we won't be
able to control it.
Ernest: Now it's other cartels
here, you know, the sinaloa,
You have juárez cartel, you
have the knights templar.
It's still a country under
siege by these cartels because
There's money to be made
and there's power to be had.
Captioned by
cotter captioning services.
♪
(gunshots)
(gunshots)
(rapid gunfire)
♪
Man (over tv): Shake this
square world and blast
off for kicksville.
Nixon (over tv):
Public enemy number
one is drug abuse.
Nancy (over tv):
Just say, "no."
Reagan (over tv): Solving
the drug problem in america
Is like carrying
water in a sieve.
Bush (over tv):
Take my word for it,
This scourge will stop.
Woman: There's now an
understanding that the war on
Drugs was an abject failure.
Man: You have to stop
and ask yourself,
'how did we get here?'
Trump (over tv):
We will build a wall.
♪
Man (over tv): Mexico's drug
cartels have turned roads into
The us into super-highways
for their narcotics.
Man (over tv): It occurred
last month in downtown
Matamoros, mexico.
An fbi and a dea agent were
riding with an informant when
They noticed they
were being followed.
After a pickup truck
blocked their path,
15 armed men emerged and
ordered the agents and
Informant out of the car.
As one of the gunmen
leveled an ak-47,
The agents flashed their
badges and pleaded for
their lives.
Daniel: My name
is daniel fuentes,
And I was that fbi agent.
♪
In 1999, this
individual assisting
us there in matamoros,
He was showing us some
residences that were
Associated with members
of the gulf cartel,
Including the house of
osiel cárdenas guillén.
Osiel cárdenas guillén
started off his career,
Believe it or not,
helping out a local
law enforcement
Agency in matamoros.
He rose to sole leader
of the gulf cartel right
around July 3rd of 1999,
When it is said that he
murdered his partner,
Chava gómez.
As we're driving through
these neighborhoods,
My partner thinks that
we may be followed by
a dark colored pickup.
We're seeing multiple
cars joining.
One particular vehicle,
there's an ak-47 weapon
Sitting on the bench of his
truck right next to him.
We're realizing that,
that things are about
to start going bad.
I start collecting
all of my ammunition,
And the informant told us,
you know, "here comes osiel."
He recognized his vehicle.
We're boxed in,
we're completely
surrounded,
And that's when we were
forced off the road.
They start exiting
their vehicles.
They're completely in uniform,
in tactical gear,
Like soldiers.
They're all heavily armed
with high-caliber weapons.
Osiel comes over to my window.
And he proceeds to point
his gold-plated ak-47,
Cussing up a storm,
demanding who it is
that we are.
So, I show him my
diplomatic passport
saying we're
Diplomats from the us
consulate in monterrey.
You know, 'who are you?'
And I could see
osiel kinda grinning.
He said, "I don't give
a (bleep) who you are.
You're gonna die.
I'm gonna kill you."
He sticks his head into the car,
And he looks to the backseat,
and he says,
"ah, so it's you. You're
with the fbi, huh?"
The guns go up,
total chaos.
He wants this
guy really badly.
He says, "you give him to me,
and I'll let you go."
And we said, "no, no-one's
getting out of the car."
We were literally in a
mexican standoff.
If I fire a shot,
we're all dead,
Because everyone's
gonna start shooting,
And so osiel continues to
point his ak-47 in my head.
I start getting what's referred
to as "tunnel vision."
I can't see beyond this
hole that's in front of me.
Everything else is black.
Although you resign
yourself to the fact that
you're going to die,
Your training kicks in.
My partner tells him,
"you better think about
what you're doing here,
Because if you kill us,
You're gonna have 30,000
enemies from the us that
Are coming out here
looking for you.
They're gonna hunt
you down like a dog."
And it seems like something
clicked in his mind,
And he realized,
"they're gonna find me,
And it's going to affect
my operation here."
So, osiel says, "I'm
gonna let you go.
And you in the backseat, I'm
gonna deal with you later,
And I don't want you guys
to ever come back here,
Cause if you do come back,
I'm gonna kill you."
We later learned that amongst
those individuals were some
Former special forces
mexican soldiers.
♪
Ioan: The zetas were
created by the gulf cartel
In a corner of northeast mexico
on the border with texas.
The gulf cartel controlled key
towns from the gulf of mexico
Right up to the city
of nuevo laredo,
And the hub of their
operations is the border
Crossing between nuevo
laredo and mexico, and
laredo, texas.
♪
Arturo: My name is art,
arturo fontes.
I was an fbi agent for
approximately 28 years.
People laugh at me because
I left sunny san diego,
With beaches and everything,
and nice big house,
To be in a small
town in laredo.
They call it the
"armpit of texas."
(laughing)
♪
It takes you all
the way to dallas,
And it even goes all the
way to the north in the us.
Ioan: Now, this is an area
where there was the biggest
Number of trucks crossing
the whole border.
It was a very important route.
The gulf cartel was
shifting marijuana, cocaine,
And heroin through texas to
across the united states.
The gulf cartel was
on to a good thing,
But it was about to get a
whole lot better with the
North american free
trade agreement.
Clinton (over tv): After we
tear down trade barriers
between our three nations,
It will create the world's
largest trade zone.
Today we have the
chance to do what our
parents did before us.
We have the opportunity
to remake the world.
(applause)
♪
Arturo: Nuevo laredo
is more important than
Almost any other
area in mexico,
And that's why it's
a battle ground.
It's the crown jewel
for drug trafficking.
Everybody wants that.
♪
Mike: Osiel was a genius at
being able to read people and
Manipulate them.
He was brilliant at
influencing people to do
Things that they
shouldn't be doing.
Ioan: In the special forces,
they had radio code with the
"z" letter, so they
would have, like
(speaking native language)
Would be, like, you know,
"zed two, I'm on alert."
They quickly became
called the "zetas,"
Or the "zeds"
after that radio code.
Mike: Osiel saw in them a
discipline that your regular
Trafficker did not have,
and that was a
militarized discipline.
A respect for chain of command,
loyalty,
The willing to attack
the hill when told,
Regardless of the outcome.
(sirens)
We saw that the zetas
were becoming a threat.
There was definitely a
foreboding of things to come
As the zetas began to
grow and become stronger,
And they were learning
the drug trade from
the gulf cartel.
♪
Daniel: Osiel is definitely
in the crosshairs
Of, of the fbi and dea.
He is public enemy number one.
(speaking native language)
(speaking native language)
Daniel: The arrest
was like a scene out
of afghanistan, iraq.
(speaking native language)
(gunshots)
Daniel: The mexican military,
I believe,
May have lost one or two
soldiers during the course of
That gun battle.
(speaking native language)
(gunshots)
Daniel: Osiel survived.
He was apprehended,
but it was quite
the shootout.
♪
♪
Mike: After osiel was
out of the picture,
What we didn't anticipate
was how strong the zetas
Were going to become.
(speaking native language)
Mike: They were outta control.
(speaking native language)
(gunshots)
Mike: They turned mexico
into one giant war zone.
(speaking native language)
Man (over tv): Good evening!
Suddenly guns are back
in the middle of the
presidential campaign,
Triggered by
what happened today,
A ten-year ban on 19
kinds of military
assault weapons ran out.
Man (over tv): Gun
manufacturers are already
Preparing for what
some predict will be
a gun buying frenzy.
♪
♪
Ioan: You have the
sinaloa cartel
going in to try
And take the city of nuevo
laredo from the zetas.
But they did not
understand the zetas.
They underestimated the zetas.
Arturo: Nuevo laredo
was on fire.
There were shootouts
in the streets,
Grenades being
launched in the house.
It was just extremely violent.
They had commando
hit squads operating.
It was brutal.
(gunshots)
The zetas and the gulf cartel,
they have the help of fire
Power to actually
counter any threat,
and they did.
They kicked ass.
Ioan: This was the beginning
of the mexican drug war
As we know it.
(gunshots)
When you talk to
people who live this,
Who fight in this conflict,
and who do see themselves as
Being soldiers and,
you know, like,
They might not live
till they're 25.
(speaking native language)
♪
♪
Ioan: Now, the zetas became
so powerful the gulf cartel
Could not contain them.
So, you had the zetas breaking
away from the gulf cartel.
♪
So, suddenly it wasn't
only northeast mexico.
They started spreading all the
way down the gulf of mexico.
And then across, penetrating
into these states on the
west coast, as well.
They were going to new
towns and villages and start
Recruiting or
saying, you know,
to local criminals,
"you either work for us or
we're gonna kill you."
The zetas were really starting
to pioneer these tactics,
Controlling a
territory through fear.
The zetas started
hanging bodies up.
It wasn't enough just
to kill somebody.
You wanna hang their body up.
So suddenly you start to see
bodies hanging from bridges,
So people,
kids, families
who are there,
See hung up bodies when
they wake up in the morning,
When they're going to school,
and they put messages,
Big banners saying,
"if you inform on us,
this is gonna happen
to you."
And this propaganda of fear,
Propaganda of terror,
started to spread
around mexico.
So, as violence
increased in mexico,
The united states didn't
know how to react,
And didn't even know
what to call this thing
that was happening.
Joel: The zetas changed the
entire game in the drug world.
My name's joel saldaña.
I'm a retired dea agent.
I was assigned to
monterrey, mexico,
from 2003 to 2009.
In October of 2008,
zeta members threw
a hand grenade
And an m67 grenade
at the us consulate.
They had gotten approval
from el treviño.
And I'm, like, 'I think
we should retaliate.
We need to hit 'em back and
show 'em that we're not weak.'
(sirens)
(sirens)
Joel: We decide to
go with an operation.
We have this warehouse
we wanna hit,
So that night we found
18 tons of marijuana,
We found a room full of ammo,
five gallon buckets of
.40 caliber,
9mm, .223.
We also found 26 grenades,
and of those grenades,
Two or three of 'em had the
same lot number of the one
That had been thrown
at the us consulate.
We arrested one
guy at the place,
and he told us,
He said, "hey, they just left,
like, ten, 15 minutes ago.
If you're still here, they're
gonna show up in ten,
15, 20 vehicles,
.50 calibers used.
They're gonna kill all you guys.
It's gonna get messy."
We're, like, "we need
to call the military."
So, it's three in the morning,
so I called the general up.
(phone ringing)
His aide answers.
I tell the aide, I said, "I
need to speak to the general."
He says, "well, the
general's asleep."
I said,
"look, I'm a dea agent and
we're in a world of (bleep).
If you don't wanna
spend the rest of your
career washing cars,
You better wake him up now."
(phone ringing)
General answers the phone.
I said, "look, general,
this is what we got."
He says, "what do you
need from me?"
I said, "I need manpower."
(phone ringing)
Within ten minutes,
lieutenant colonel
calls me to say,
"we're mobilizing
100 troops."
So, they showed up.
As soon as they arrive,
they get into a big
Shootout with the zetas.
(gunshots)
(speaking native language)
Joel: They start
taking heavy fire.
(speaking native language)
Joel: Two soldiers
were wounded and one
of our feda guys,
A mexican federal agent,
was also shot.
(speaking native language)
(gunshots)
Joel: They end
up getting away.
(speaking native language)
Joel: It was a long night.
It was a long night.
The zeta started
putting surveillance
at the military camp
And what they would do,
they'd pick up soldiers,
Kidnap 'em, torture
'em and then kill 'em.
So, within eight days they
killed nine soldiers because
Of, of this little operation.
They were between 18 and 20.
I think the outcome has
always weighed heavy on me,
Knowing uh, what happened
to those soldiers.
The retaliation
for this operation.
I guess hindsight, if
I would've know this
would've happened,
I prob, probably would've never
have gone through with it,
Since I kinda feel
spearheaded it.
Hillary (over tv): Drug
cartels are now taking
on the attributes of a
Lot of the insurgent and
terrorist groups that we see
Elsewhere around the world.
You see them being much
more organized in a kind of
Paramilitary way.
In fact, one of the
most violent of the
drug gangs are former
Special forces members from
the mexican army who went over
To the dark side.
So, this is a, this is
a struggle that has a
huge consequence
For the united states.
Ernest: We had reports
that they were killing 150,
200 people in one month.
That they would
dismember people,
That they would behead people.
The goal that we had,
I believe,
Was an admirable goal.
The goal was to try to get
these guys captured and
Arrested so that the
killings would stop.
♪
There were some individuals
that we interviewed who were
The original founding
members of the zeta cartel,
And even they were amazed at
the amount of brutality that
Miguel treviño had brought
to the organization.
There were some that were
willing to cooperate
because of that,
Who wanted out
of the organization.
They indicated, "we got into
this business to make money.
We didn't get in this
business to kill hundreds
of people at a time."
I mean, I, I personally
felt the impact that these
Individuals were having on
the innocent people of mexico.
As a human being,
as a prosecutor,
You wanna see justice done.
♪
♪
♪
Ernest: Treviño never
slept in the same place.
They had hidden tunnels
that they would hide from.
They were very shrewd,
and they had the structure
Where they had evaded
capture for a very,
very long time.
♪
♪
Ernest: Obviously,
we could use the
information on the
Cell phones to track
those individuals and
find their locations.
♪
That information is leaked.
The zetas are tipped off that
someone in their organization
Has provided us
that information,
And that unleashes
the furor of treviño.
♪
♪
♪
♪
♪
♪
Ernest: Now we know
that it was because of
the leak of information.
We know that it was
miguel treviño
trying to get some
Retribution for the
lack of allegiance from
some of their members.
I don't think I've ever
seen anything like that,
And I've been investigating
or, or prosecuting these
types of cases
For 25 years,
and this is the worst
Of the worst that
I've ever seen.
♪
♪
(gunshots)
(speaking native language)
Mike: I cannot compare zetas'
violence to anything that had
Ever been witnessed in
mexico from any cartel.
Just beyond the imagination
of what a human could
Do to another human.
The zetas brought violence
to a whole new level.
Joel: And it's fun for
them just killing people.
They have to be deranged.
I, I, I can't see how
some of these guys
could sleep at night
Knowing the crimes, the
atrocities they've committed.
I mean, how can you sleep?
Ioan: There's a
quote from a zeta,
"we use drugs to
finance the war."
The drugs almost become, like,
"ok, we'll keep on
turning that so we can
keep on financing,
And buying more guns,
and killing more people,
And taking more territory, and
then sell some more drugs."
It becomes this circle and what
really is the objective?
These attacks really
brought the wrath of
the united states.
They said, "we have
to stop the zetas.
We have to get the zetas.
This is too bad."
Ernest: It was a part of
the pattern that
Miguel treviño had somehow
developed that they were going
To stay in power,
but his thirst for
power is going to
Cause him to be less careful.
It's gonna cause him to
come out into the open.
♪
♪
♪
♪
Ernest: I wanted
to keep going,
I wanted to, to, to try
to achieve the goal
that we had set out.
(radio chatter)
Ernest: We continued
to work the case,
We continued to cultivate
information from
co-operators and informants.
(radio chatter)
Ernest: Information has
strong value in any
kind of investigation,
And especially in this one.
(radio chatter)
(radio chatter)
♪
Man (over tv): This is
yet another advance by
the people of
Mexico in dismantling
organized crime,
So we really commend
our mexican partners
in this regard.
♪
♪
(sobbing)
Arturo: It takes a toll on you.
It's toxic.
You know, it's not healthy.
Seeing and, and, and hearing
and, and talking to the families
And feeling the, feeling
the heat and the, and
the sorrow and the,
And the, and the hurt, and, it,
it really takes a toll on you.
Joel: It, it's a really
tough assignment,
it really is.
If someone tells you it isn't,
they're, they're lying.
Mike: Dea, in my
personal opinion,
Is that we're like gardeners,
and we have no choice but to
Keep cutting the grass,
because if we don't keep
Cutting the grass,
we're gonna have a
jungle of weeds,
And then we won't be
able to control it.
Ernest: Now it's other cartels
here, you know, the sinaloa,
You have juárez cartel, you
have the knights templar.
It's still a country under
siege by these cartels because
There's money to be made
and there's power to be had.
Captioned by
cotter captioning services.