Narco Wars (2020) s01e09 Episode Script

1
♪
(rapid gunfire)
(sirens)
(shouting)
REPORTER (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): Halting
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.
(theme music plays)
(crowd cheering)
MAN (over loudspeaker):
It's good to see y'all.
Happy St. Patrick's Day.
Chicago's annual St.
Patrick's Day Parade.
MIA: Growing up in Chicago,
we had a great life.
We came from great families.
MAN (over loudspeaker):
Chicago's finest.
Nice welcome to
Chicago's finest.
MIA: Our fathers
were police officers.
Our whole family is
in law enforcement.
We grew up in a blue
collar neighborhood where
city workers lived.
They were all striving
to do the same things.
They would send their
kids to private schools.
You don't really run into
drug dealers or gangs.
And Peter and Junior moved
down the block from me.
MIKE: The Flores twins were
born as Pedro Flores and
Margarito Flores Junior.
Almost nobody
called them that,
they were referred to as
Pete or Peter, was Pedro,
and Margarito went
by Junior or Jay.
OLIVIA: Well they
are identical twins,
so they just stood out,
out of everybody in the
whole neighborhood.
My father did tell me
to stay away from 'em,
but when we turned 18, 19
years old we became closer.
MIA: Peter and Junior would
go to extreme measures to just
put a smile on our face.
And even though I come from
a family of law enforcement,
I was always attracted
to these bad boys.
So I ended up falling in love.
JACK: The Flores twins,
Margarito and Pedro,
if you saw 'em on the
street you wouldn't
think twice about 'em,
because they're
very slender, small.
They looked like kids, punks.
I mean they were.
Not what you would picture
as a major kingpin.
MIKE: Without a doubt the
Flores twins became the
biggest drug dealers in
the history of Chicago.
Chicago sits at, at
the crossroads of many
interstate highways,
many rail lines.
For decades, big corporations,
FedEx, Amazon,
companies like that used
Chicago as a transit hub.
Cartels use it for
the exact same reason.
So the drugs that made it from
Mexico to Chicago could then
very easily be transported
to other US cities.
The Flores brothers were
more or less born into
the drug trade.
Their father was a
marijuana trafficker,
so from the earliest age they
were put in car seats on top
on loads of marijuana that
their father was moving back
and forth across
the Mexican border.
And they had an older
brother in a gang in Chicago.
So through those role models
they learned drug trafficking.
MIA: At a young age Peter and
Junior worked at McDonald's.
The process of McDonald's,
the fry guy does the fries,
the burger flipper
does the burgers,
they took this experience
into the drug world.
All their workers
only did one job.
So the money counter
counted the money.
The courier
delivered the drugs.
Nobody ever would cross paths,
so there wouldn't be a problem
if one got caught.
They always bounced ideas off
each other and they'd always
try to come up with
something better.
MIKE: They graduated from
hiding drugs in cars to hiding
drugs in trucks.
They graduated from
hiding drugs in trucks
to hiding drugs in massive
semis that could carry in
excess of 200 kilos of cocaine
or heroin every time.
JACK: They were moving a 1,000
kilos a month of pure cocaine.
A kilo was goin'
for about $60,000.
You can do the math.
MIA: I went into
a stash house.
I seen money stacked
up to the ceiling.
That's when I really
knew how big they were.
OLIVIA: We were very young.
We were very flashy.
When we would go out
we would go to clubs
and it was like we were
popping bottles of Crystal
and we were just
living that life.
I was known as the
Million Dollar (bleep),
just because like, you know,
I was the first girl to get my
boobs done and always wore
designer clothes and
I was very flashy.
You know, this was
a whole other level.
It was obvious to see
what they were doing
and how much money that
they were making.
I mean they were two twins,
driving around
the neighborhood
in a Bentley and they
were only 22-years-old.
MIKE: They built themselves
up from sort of neighborhood
dealers to a criminal
enterprise that existed on a,
on a truly national scale.
OLIVIA: Everyone in Chicago
knew where the drugs
were coming from.
The drugs they were
getting were coming
from the Sinaloa Cartel.
From Chapo.
Even though they didn't
owe him directly,
indirectly they
had to pay him.
WOMAN (over TV): Mexican
drug lord, Joaquin Guzman.
MAN (over TV): The man known
as El Chapo, aka, Shorty.
MAN (over TV): The top
drug dealer in the world.
MAN (over TV): Who runs the
world's largest drug cartel.
♪
MAN: He's the tunnel king.
He's responsible for more
sophisticated tunnels
than I think any other
criminal in history.
♪
CROWD: Chapo, Chapo!
JACK: He's supposedly this
Robin Hood, you know,
takes from the rich,
gives to the poor.
Building soccer fields,
churches.
That's all (bleep).
I never saw any of that.
He's nothin' but a
stone cold killer.
MAN (over TV): Tens of
thousands may have died
in the US and Mexico
because of him.
JACK: My name's Jack Riley and
for 32 years I was with DEA
and my man Chapo Guzmán
became my obsession.
In my opinion Chapo's
hand-in-hand
with Osama Bin Laden.
The only thing is I think
Chapo's killed tens of
thousands of more people.
He's a mass murderer,
make no mistake about it,
but he's also one hell
of a corporate CEO.
MAN (over TV): El Chapo's
cartel is believed responsible
for an estimated 25% of
the drugs entering the US.
MAN (over TV): Yeah, this
guy's been on the loose since
escaping from a maximum
security prison back in 2001,
reportedly by hiding
in a laundry cart.
JACK: I hate the guy.
I hate everything
he stands for.
He put a bounty on my head
and wanted my head cut off.
So that kinda changed it,
that made it personal for me.
So I said, okay, let's
see who wins this.
I always want the City of
Chicago to be remembered as
the best city in
this United States.
MIA: Anyone from Chicago knows
it's the place you really
don't leave unless
you really have to.
I can never go
back to Chicago.
MIKE: In 2004, the twins were
very much a known quantity
in drug trafficking.
They were indicted,
they learned of
that indictment
and that's ultimately
what caused them to,
to flee to Mexico.
MIA: We were
basically on the run,
hiding from the US Government.
We moved to Guadalajara
and we were just thrown
into this narco world.
But Peter and Junior continued
to run their infrastructure
as if they were in Chicago.
MIKE: Once the Flores
brothers were in Mexico
and were operating on this
truly international scale,
where, where they were moving
hundreds of millions of
dollars of cocaine and,
and heroin into the
United States each year,
they began to interact
directly with more and more
senior members of
the Sinaloa Cartel.
OLIVIA: I think they
felt invincible.
(phone ringing)
When you are taking
drugs from the cartel,
you're taking drugs
on consignment,
you owe millions and
millions of dollars.
Making the smallest mistake
can cost them their lives.
(phone ringing)
MIKE: In 2005
Guadalupe Ledesma,
one of the twins
sources of supply,
declared that the twins owed
to him a, a massive drug debt
of several million dollars.
Guadalupe ultimately received
his drugs from Chapo.
(ringing)
OLIVIA: I remember the day
when Junior's phone rang.
(ringing)
Peter had been kidnapped.
MIA: I seen the devastation
in my brother-in-law's eyes.
He was hurt beyond belief.
He knew exactly what he had
to do to get my husband home.
OLIVIA: Junior says that
he's gonna go to Sinaloa
to try to get to Chapo.
I was so frightened.
I didn't think that Peter
was gonna come back alive.
♪
MIKE: In 2005, Chapo is
already one of the most wanted
people on the planet.
It's hard to overstate how
dangerous it is for Chapo to
meet with a stranger
that could be bringing
the Mexican Marines with them.
OLIVIA: He was allowed to
go up to the mountain top
and see Chapo.
A lot of people that
go to the mountain top,
they don't return.
He had to get on a Cessna.
MIKE: To go meet with Chapo,
you effectively
surrender yourself to,
to Chapo's sicarios.
OLIVIA: They landed
on a manmade strip.
Junior is greeted
by Chapo's army.
They have AK-47s,
they're like ready
to go to war.
That's when he met Chapo.
Chapo told him that he
can have him killed
with his brother.
Junior asked him
for permission
to pull out these ledgers.
It was forensic detail
of their business.
Every drug shipment
they'd taken,
every payment that they
made to the cartel.
As Junior's flipping
through these ledgers,
Chapo realizes the amount of
drugs that they're moving.
MIA: The way they set it up
and the way they still run
their infrastructure
from Mexico,
he was amazed.
JACK: He sized up the ability
of the Flores twins to
navigate and to understand
the American market.
Chapo just couldn't do it and
he didn't really have anybody
who knew how to do it either.
OLIVIA: At that point he knew
that he was going to utilize
them to expand his
infrastructure.
MIKE: Chapo was convinced
that this drug debt
wasn't their fault.
Effectively that
Guadalupe Ledesma
was lying to Chapo.
And so Pete was released.
Under Chapo's order,
Ledesma was executed.
From that point on,
Pete and Jay began dealing
directly with, with Chapo.
JACK: I think it's at that
point that Chapo made it
pretty clear to them,
if they chose to buy
from other people
they were gonna be dead
and their family
was gonna be dead.
OLIVIA: Junior was getting
his brother back alive
and they were gonna be
able to work directly
with Chapo Guzmán.
JACK: This was just a massive
way of them evolving with a
supplier that had
an endless amount.
OLIVIA: So everything
began to change.
is to have a zoo.
So of course our
husbands had a zoo.
They had the tigers,
we had flamingos
running around.
That right there is
putting a stamp on that
you made it in the drug world.
Chapo really gravitated
to Junior and Peter.
He loved the way that
they ran their business.
He actually treated
them like his sons.
They were utilizing
tunnels to get the drugs
from Mexico to the US,
they were using
tractor trailers,
they were using airplanes.
Chapo had a fleet of 747s,
he used submarines.
When you're talking submarines,
I was like,
holy (bleep) this
is next level.
MIKE: So 2005 to 2008 the
Flores brothers were importing
into the United States
approximately two tons of
cocaine per month.
They also distributed
massive quantities of heroin.
JACK: If you had to take
two field representatives to
represent your organization,
the twins were it.
They would be your
star salesmen.
So I think he thought
from an early point
with the Flores twins,
he could trust them.
OLIVIA: Mia and I found out
that we were both pregnant.
MIA: It was very scary to
realize that we are gonna
bring up our children
in this drug world.
We realized how this cycle
was, was just going on and on
from generation to generation.
From my father-in-law
to my brother-in-law
and then to the twins.
OLIVIA: When you're working
for Chapo Guzmán and
you're bringing in the money,
$2 billion in their case,
he was never gonna
let them stop.
I started telling Junior that
I couldn't do this anymore.
"What do you mean?
Like, we can't stop.
Like, we're good.
Nothing's gonna happen to us.
No, there's gonna be
no end game for us,
like it's not gonna happen."
MIKE: The twins saw people
that were chained up
and, and beaten.
They saw people that
were dismembered.
They, they saw exactly
what could happen
if they ever lost Chapo's trust.
It was either,
they'll probably
die in Mexico
or work with us and try to
find a better path forward
for their family.
OLIVIA: I think it's the
hardest decision that they
ever made.
They basically went against
everything that they ever
learned their whole life.
I honestly looked at my
husband like he was the
bravest man in the world.
He knew that this is the
only way to save our family.
MIKE: We were not aware of
a single legally admissible
recording of Chapo, period.
Full stop.
The twins presented
that opportunity.
♪
If a recording device
was discovered during
a face-to-face meeting,
they would have been killed.
Instead, we tried to
get Chapo on the phone.
MIA: It was a
Saturday evening.
Chapo called.
(ringing)
Peter and Junior
go upstairs and
Olivia and I both know
what they're doing.
(phone ringing)
MIA: They got it.
MIKE: There was somewhat
of a sense of, of disbelief.
We had a powerful
admissible recording of the
world's biggest criminal.
OLIVIA: I knew at that point
that life was gonna change.
I knew that our husbands
were going to have to turn
themselves in to the
US Government and that
they were gonna go to prison.
♪
MIKE: Now, the focus of the
case shifted to actually
capturing Chapo and have
this tape mean something.
JACK: The evidence that was
gained from the Flores twins,
it was evidence you
couldn't refute.
I knew this guy had to go
and I was determined
we were gonna get him.
♪
♪
♪
♪
MAN (over TV): Guzmán was
quoted calling Chicago
his home port.
DAVID (over TV):
He's responsible for
80% of the drugs
on the streets of Chicago.
JACK: I grew up on the
south side of Chicago.
I hate what Chapo
did to my hometown.
Homicides were
through the roof,
gang activity was unabated.
It was very clear Chapo
established a
stronghold there.
But, what shocked me was he
was able to understand the
prescription drug issue.
WOMAN (over TV): Nationwide,
nearly seven million people
abuse pharmaceuticals.
MAN (over TV): The pills
are what people initially
become hooked on.
Now you have doctors
giving out fewer
prescriptions for opioids.
MIKE (over TV): I got like
five painkillers left.
WOMAN (over TV): What
happens after that?
MIKE (over TV): I don't know.
May have to go on the
street and get 'em.
JACK: Chapo capitalized
on all of that.
Doctors won't give
you the script,
what do you do?
Well it's an opioid so you
walk down the street to a
local gang member and you get
high potency cheap heroin.
Fentanyl can be
produced 24-7
and it's 40 to 50 times stronger
than street level heroin.
MAN (over TV): This influx
of heroin cut with fentanyl
is killing people.
WOMAN (over TV):
Overdose death rose to
more than 63,000.
JACK: He didn't care how
many people he killed,
he just wanted to make
literally billions of dollars.
Is everybody ready?
Okay.
I decided to go to the
Chicago Crime Commission
and push them to name
Chapo Guzmán Public
Enemy Number One.
MAN: We're using this
title which we first gave
to Al Capone in 1930,
because of the viciousness
and because of the evil
and because of
the power of this man,
American's most
wanted criminal.
JACK: There's one thing
that these people fear,
comin' to the United States
and facing our justice system
where they can't
buy their way out,
they can't bribe
their way out.
We're not backin' down.
The good guys are
not rollin' over.
We're comin'.
DREW: Being labeled
Public Enemy Number One
puts a target on your back.
My name is Drew Hogan,
I'm the former DA
Special Agent who
led the investigation of
Chapo Guzmán in Mexico.
He certainly had connections
at, at very high levels
and he was always
one step ahead.
Always.
JACK: Chapo built
the communication,
his security apparatus,
that literally took the
best minds
in the world to
try to break into.
DREW: The infiltration of that
sophisticated communication
structure took
us a lot of time,
but as we did that we were
able to open new doors
and new windows
into Chapo's world.
Once we had his patterns
established over the
course of several months,
it was time to go after him.
(banging)
DREW: I walked in,
into the bathroom.
I saw the bathtub propped
up at a 45 degree angle
with a tunnel beneath it
and we knew.
Chapo had escaped.
He didn't even have time
to grab his clothes.
We were told that he
escaped in his underwear.
And it was at that moment
puttin' frustration and, and,
you know, that anger aside,
that it was like, alright,
you know, well the hunt is on.
We ended up getting
intelligence that he fled down
to Mazatlán, Sinaloa.
It was a place
called Hotel Miramar.
We were exhausted.
Nobody had slept in, in days but
we had to give it our all.
So as we pull up
to the front gate,
the Marines flooded the
inside of the hotel.
I looked up and I could
see the, the lights
start to come on,
room by room.
All of a sudden the
radio chatter picked up.
We've got the target,
we've got the target.
It's like, oh my God, they've
got somebody, but is it him?
I remember running right
up to him and seeing
and it was Chapo Guzmán.
Couldn't believe it.
We got him.
Woo!
MAN: Woo!
DREW: The world's most
wanted drug kingpin.
There it is.
The escape artist.
There she is.
It was unbelievable.
MIKE: Chapo was the
symbol of the cartel.
He was the boogeyman
of the cartel.
Capturing him was a,
was a massive victory.
The evidence that we had built
over those six years would
finally be used in a courtroom
where we could seek justice
for the world's largest
drug trafficker.
(speaking native language)
♪
MAN (over TV): Reaction coming
in from the White House.
We congratulate the Mexican
Government on the capture.
This is a significant
achievement in our shared
fight against organized crime,
violence and drug trafficking.
MAN (over TV): He faces
multiple indictments in the US,
but will the Mexicans
ever really let him go?
♪
DREW: My wife sent
me a text message,
Chapo had just escaped a
maximum security prison.
Surprise, surprise,
via another tunnel.
WOMAN (over TV): Top
drug lord Joaquín
'El Chapo' Guzmán
has escaped prison
a second time.
MAN (over TV):
This freedom
tunnel was an
engineering marvel.
A mile long.
MAN (over TV): This prison
had ways of blocking cell
phone signals,
heavily armored vehicles,
they even had three foot walls
and yet El Chapo found a way
to burrow out right under the
noses of Mexican authorities
and go completely free.
How did he manage to do that?
(singing in native language)
JACK: I can remember the morning
that I got the phone call.
It was the worst
day of my life.
I was so angry.
This guy just rode a motorcycle
right out of prison?
(singing in native language)
It's just unbelievable.
Ventilation, electricity,
it's truly a, a work of art.
I remember tellin' our guys,
"He cannot be on the ground
floor and he cannot
stay in the same cell."
He was in the same cell
for nearly a year on
the ground floor.
And he's known for tunnels.
It was clearly an inside gig.
A lot of people had
knowledge of it
and did absolutely nothing.
I knew if we didn't stay in
the fight with a firm hand,
this guy wasn't
gonna get caught.
♪
Chapo felt invincible.
He'd escaped twice.
He felt like everywhere he went
he owned his surroundings.
I think it was his arrogance.
He made some mistakes.
We developed information
coming from a cell phone that
we were able to pinpoint the
location and it's from there
the Marines made the assault.
(rapid gunfire)
DREW: Chapo escaped
again out of a tunnel,
through the sewer,
popped up,
hijacked a car.
But they were stopped by
the Mexican Federal Police
and he was done for,
once again.
MAN (over TV): A
dramatic capture,
the world's most wanted,
most dangerous drug lord.
WOMAN (over TV):
Captured again.
JACK: When he was
captured the second time,
they put him right back in the
same prison he escaped from.
I couldn't believe it.
And I knew right then we had
to do everything we could to
get this guy to the States
to face prosecution.
e was a man known
for no other life than
a life of crime,
violence, death
and destruction
and now he'll have
to answer to that,
as I'm pleased to announce the
extradition of Chapo Guzmán to
the United States from Mexico.
WOMAN (over TV): Security
surrounding the case in
Brooklyn will be
unprecedented.
WOMAN (over TV): Yesterday
the court heard from
Chicago's infamous twins,
Pedro Flores
and his brother Margarito.
OLIVIA: We knew that our
husbands would have to testify
and we knew the whole
world was watching.
DREW: Chapo had grown
to this mythic figure.
The trial broke all
of those walls down.
The, the trial showed that,
that nobody is above the law.
WOMAN (over TV):
Good day everyone.
We're coming on the
air with breaking news,
a verdict has been reached.
JACK: I knew the evidence.
MAN (over TV): It took
the jury six days to
reach a verdict.
JACK: I knew he was
goin' away for good.
MAN (over TV): Joaquin "El
Chapo" Guzmán was just found
guilty on all counts.
JACK: I'm tellin' you it's
one of the best feelings
I've ever had.
It felt that I was done.
That my career
meant something.
I was completely exhausted
but there was an
inner sense of joy.
I'd like to see him try to get
out of the jail he's in now.
That's not happening.
♪
OLIVIA: Chapo getting
sentenced I feel like this was
resolution to what we
started 12 years ago.
Thank you, oh my gosh.
MAN: (inaudible).
MIA: Oh, how sweet.
OLIVIA: Even with them
being in prison we
just got these roses.
This is like what they do.
Basically it's a
sentence for life.
We're always gonna be hunted,
but we do it for the
protection of our family,
for our children.
This is gonna be
our life forever.
MIKE: The trial itself
was a fantastic victory.
But the trial was
largely symbolic.
It certainly does
not end anything,
it doesn't end the
Sinaloa Cartel,
it doesn't end the tons of,
of heroin and, and cocaine
that pour over our border.
Since Chapo has been convicted
the, the Sinaloa Cartel
keeps humming right along.
Now his sons are, are
massively important
within the cartel.
WOMAN (over TV): Like father,
like sons,
the children of infamous
drug lord El Chapo are
running his empire.
WOMAN (over TV): A heavily
armed drug cartel ambushed the
military and police,
masked gunmen lighting cars
on fire to keep police back.
♪
JACK: These cartels are like
military organizations.
If the general's removed or
killed there's someone
likely to step up.
MIKE: There is no alternative.
If the US government didn't
pursue people like Chapo,
we would just
have lawlessness.
It, it doesn't change the
reality that Chicago is still
devastated by drugs.
Devastated by violence.
You can prosecute all of
the Chapo's in the world,
but our drug problems
are as, as bad now as
they have ever been.
And it just highlights
that alone is never, ever,
ever going to be enough.
JACK: The whole mantra of the
war on drugs drives me crazy,
because it's depicts a
beginning and an end.
They'll be no end
to this addiction,
to the violence,
to the death that
associates it.
But it's how we choose as
a society to confront it.
Captioned by Cotter
Captioning Services.