01x06 - Rise of the Narco Army

[bunniefuu]

♪

(g*nshots)

(g*nshots)

(rapid g*nf*re)

♪

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 w*r 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

m*rder*d 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 k*ll 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 g*ns 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 sh**ting,

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 k*ll 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 k*ll 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)

(g*nshots)

Daniel: The mexican military,

I believe,

May have lost one or two

soldiers during the course of

That g*n battle.

(speaking native language)

(g*nshots)

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)

(g*nshots)

Mike: They turned mexico

into one giant w*r zone.

(speaking native language)

Man (over tv): Good evening!

Suddenly g*ns are back

in the middle of the

presidential campaign,

Triggered by

what happened today,

A ten-year ban on 19

kinds of military

as*ault weapons ran out.

Man (over tv): g*n

manufacturers are already

Preparing for what

some predict will be

a g*n 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.

(g*nshots)

The zetas and the gulf cartel,

they have the help of fire

Power to actually

counter any threat,

and they did.

They kicked a*s.

Ioan: This was the beginning

of the mexican drug w*r

As we know it.

(g*nshots)

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 k*ll 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 k*ll 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 a*mo,

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 k*ll 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.

(g*nshots)

(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)

(g*nshots)

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, t*rture

'em and then k*ll 'em.

So, within eight days they

k*lled 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

t*rror1st 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 k*lling 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 k*ll 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.

♪

♪

(g*nshots)

(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 k*lling 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 w*r."

The drugs almost become, like,

"ok, we'll keep on

turning that so we can

keep on financing,

And buying more g*ns,

and k*lling 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.