01x08 - Narco Cult

[bunniefuu]

♪

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 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.

(theme music plays)

(sirens)

Carl: I was a special

agent with the

Drug enforcement administration.

And I was in charge

of the mexico section.

All of a sudden you see

this new group popping up

On the radar screen.

They went to a nightclub,

And a small nightclub

there in michoacán.

♪

(cheering)

And our men dressed

in black came in.

(cheering)

(g*nshots)

Shot the g*ns off

into the ceiling,

Made everybody

lay on the floor.

And then they threw five

freshly decapitated heads

In the middle of

the dance floor.

Ioan: Next to these

five decapitated heads,

There was a narco

message saying,

"la familia doesn't

k*ll for money.

It doesn't k*ll women.

It doesn't k*ll

innocent people.

Only those who deserve to die.

Everyone should know that

this is divine justice."

This was one of the weird

features right away when

La familia michoacana

broke onto the scene.

They were claiming this

religious inspiration.

They were claiming

to be holy warriors.

Man (over tv): The

cartel's philosophy is

rooted in religion,

Saying that they are

protecting the state's people

As part of god's work.

Ioan: This was one of the

wake up calls about something

Really bad is

happening in mexico.

Who are this crazy drug

cartel down in michoacán?

What the hell is

going on down there?

♪

Man (over tv): Drug

enforcement officials call it

The crack of the 90s.

Ioan: You had loads of people

right across america who were

Getting really bad

crystal meth addictions.

Philippa: Meth gives

you a rush of euphoria.

You feel immense pleasure.

You feel invincible.

Even the most repetitive task

feels totally mind-blowing.

Carl: It's just such

a devastating drug.

You see people that you would

think were in their 50s and

Find out they're only

in their early 20s.

They would sit there

and just shake,

scratching their face.

Man (over tv): Meth destroys.

The high is a lie.

Philippa: The

problem with meth

Is that you can

make it yourself.

Man (over tv): What you need

to make meth is all legal.

Available at a hardware

or a discount store.

Philippa: A number of labs

exploded in the united states

And that's when it became

the wild, wild west.

Ioan: Now because the

united states saw a bunch

Of profit off crystal meth,

They passed the 2005 combat

methamphetamine act.

And this banned the

precursors for meth.

Carl: They pushed

the production from

the united states,

South of the

border to michoacán.

Ioan: Michoacán is a state

on the west coast of mexico,

To the south of the

sierra madre mountains.

About the size of virginia

in the united states.

Michoacán is a place with

having lazaro cardenas,

The biggest port in mexico.

Right on the pacific.

You could buy the raw

ingredients from

countries like china,

Bring them in

through lazaro cardenas,

And then create

massive super labs

And really start

churning meth out.

♪

Carl: This group was basically

started by a man by the name

Of nazario moreno gonzález.

The most crazy one

was his nickname.

Ioan: Nazario is one of the

most mysterious figures in all

Of mexico's narco wars.

There is no video of

him and few photos.

And even with

the ones we have,

There is doubt whether

they really are of him.

But we do have his writings.

He came out with this book,

me dicen: El mas loco .

They call me the maddest one.

He talked about growing

up in wretched poverty.

♪

Ioan: He grew up in a little

hamlet in the tierra caliente,

In the hot land of michoacán.

I mean, really kind of

desolate bandit country.

They had a long history

of drug trafficking,

Certainly a lot of people

living on the edge

Of the law there.

When he was a, a young man,

He had a really

crazy temper.

He would snap very fast.

He was playing soccer,

there was a fight broke out.

And these guys started

really smashing his head in.

So he was flown to a

hospital in mexico city

And they cut his head open

And put a metal plate

to bind his skull up.

His face would like

bulge as he got angry

Because he had this kind of

weird look with a metal plate.

So he was kind of a scary guy.

A kind of james bond villain.

He was kind of seen as the,

the craziest of all.

El mas loco.

♪

Ioan: Nazario moreno

was the founder

And head of la

familia michoacana.

His right-hand man is servando

gomez martinez, la tuta.

♪

Carl: What we saw was

it literally came in

Like a flood.

They made an enormous

amount of money very, very,

Very fast.

Ioan: So this one regional

cartel were suddenly pumped

With billions of dollars

and became a major player

In mexico.

♪

♪

Ioan: Now there's a lot of

bad publicity of the zetas.

We were seeing in the

newspapers about massacres

By the zetas.

About how evil, horrible

this drug cartel was.

So nazario moreno

declared w*r on them

And the familia michoana was

about defending the state of

Michoacán from the zetas.

Carl: La familia became so

dangerous because that was

Their instrument,

to run the zetas off,

So they could

regain their state.

Within three years of throwing

the heads on the dance floor,

Mexico declared la familia

the most dangerous body

To the security of

the state of mexico.

(laughs)

Carl: They do this thing we

call the robin hood effect.

They would repair a road

or they would clean out

an irrigation ditch,

Or build a school house.

And then they would

publicize that.

They were very

good at publicity.

Letting people know,

Especially in areas

they want to control,

What they were

capable of doing.

Either in a good

or bad situation.

The la familia essentially

became the de facto government

Because the local

government were so weak.

♪

Ioan: I mean you know, 2006,

nobody really understood or

Expected the level of

violence that would blow up.

The homicidal rate

skyrocketing by mass graves

Across mexico.

♪

Ioan: Felipe calderon

wants to show

He's the new sheriff in town.

That the state is

having power again.

♪

(speaking native language)

♪

Ioan: I went to aqualia

one of these big narco towns

And I saw the troops

pouring into the town.

Helicopters and

lining people up,

Putting their t shirts

over their head

And g*ns to their head.

Very quickly you start

seeing big problems

With military offensive.

(rapid g*nf*re)

♪

The military could

win those gunfights,

But the cartel could just

disappear into the mountains.

♪

So apatzingán is, is the

biggest city of the hot land,

Tierra caliente area.

Cradle of the la

familia michoacana.

Very close to where

nazario moreno grew up.

Ioan: But nazario moreno and

the la familia michoacana

Had the advantage of

knowing the territory,

So they have a guerrilla

group which is fighting very,

very dirty.

♪

Carl: What they realized was

they could move their market

To smaller rural cities.

But they were sending

people up there that

didn't have addictions,

Didn't have problems.

Just fit into society.

Strategy wise it was a

pretty brilliant move.

Woman (over tv): In

this surveillance video,

A man removes

methamphetamine from the

wheel well of an automobile

And hands it to a woman

who wraps it in a

Blanket before

picking up her child.

This is part of the smuggling

and distribution network

Of the mexican cartel

known as la familia.

Eric: While this cartel

may operate from mexico,

The toxic reach of its

operations extends to nearly

Every state within

our own country.

♪

Carl: We had to stop them.

We had to stop la familia.

Man: Stand by.

Man: Good to go.

(g*nshots)

(shouting)

Adrian: You're good.

Alright guys.

Here's, uh, here's

how this is gonna go.

We're gonna take this

house from the back.

Meth is our number one

narcotics issue in our county.

We've been conducting a

two-month investigation

On this drug dealer.

Man: Good?

Man: Good to go.

Adrian: We had intel that

he went to phoenix last

night and re-supplied,

So we're hoping

to find methamphetamines.

The intel we got is that

this subject's armed.

We don't know what to expect.

He's very dangerous.

Chris: Once you're on scene we

should have both doors taken

And breached.

Hopefully within a minute.

Okay guys, stand by.

I want you to stand by.

Man: Stand by.

Man: Stand by one.

(g*nshots)

(shouting)

Man: Hey, come down here

and get a g*n on this.

Man (over loudspeaker):

Residents, come out of

the house.

Man: Sheriff's office,

third floor!

Come out now out of the house!

Man (over radio): We got

the main target out.

Chris: Come to me!

Come to me!

Yeah, we got it.

We got cuffs?

It's here guys,

it's here somewhere.

It's here.

We just gotta find it.

It's right here.

Man: Nice.

Adrian: Mike, if we found

two little baggies with meth,

It's here.

Like there has to be more.

Another one?

Oh yeah, there you go.

Have you checked that jacket?

Oh, right here.

Woman: Woo!

Adiran: Boom, look it.

Woman: Good job.

Adrian: Jacket.

This is a w*r against

the drug cartels.

We're in southern

part of arizona,

united states,

And we're seeing this.

This came from mexico.

This came from a drug cartel.

♪

(speaking native language)

Ioan: The federal police found

out that nazario moreno would

Be in a little village

called el alcalde.

He would be there for some

kind of christmas party

Handing out presents.

They went in there with 2,000

federal police officers.

But the familia michoacana

were burning

Trucks on the road.

And there was about

500 cartel gunmen.

They were ambushing

the federal police as

they were coming in,

From the side of the hills,

And they just fired

down at them with

everything they could.

(speaking native language)

Ioan: Firing ak-47s

and firing 50 calibers,

Just laying onto the

federal police there.

(speaking native language)

♪

Man (over tv): Drug cartel

boss nazario moreno gonzalez,

Alias el chayo,

Was k*lled in a shootout with

the mexican army on Thursday.

Mexican authorities trumpeted

the incident as a significant

Victory in the country's

fight against organized crime.

♪

(speaking native language)

Ioan: Then these bizarre

stories came out,

Where mexican security

forces would raid cartel

safe houses and find,

Like, plastic helmets

they say were being

Used in rituals

of a drug cartel.

Ioan: So the story gets from

kind of being completely crazy

To being over the line nuts.

♪

Ioan: The knights templar

distributed this little

Pamphlet around with this

kind of weird series

Of religious commandments.

Ioan: There was a

real narco religion

And that was different

than anything we've seen

in mexico before.

♪

Ioan: They began

to extort people

On a very systematic level.

They began to shake

down lime farmers,

avocado farmers.

Really control little

institutions, mayors,

Security forces.

Really beyond corruption,

they really controlled the

Mechanisms of the state.

Some we could call

state capture,

And this was very,

very powerful.

Very hard to defeat.

♪

♪

♪

Falko: I first stepped into

tierra caliente in 2012,

I had heard all these horror

stories about the area.

They had told me,

of course you can get in,

But you will not be able

to make it out again.

I'm falko ernst,

I was a student

trying to learn

And find out about the

drug cartels in mexico.

I was able to link up with

local peasant organizations

And just by lucky coincidence,

one of the leaders happened to

Have gone to school with

servando gomez martinez,

or la tuta.

After three days on apatzingán

I received a visit by a

local envoy of the cartel,

Who was asking questions.

Checking out if I

really was a student.

And then a couple of days

later I find myself in the

Middle of nowhere in front

of an abandoned cemetery

Waiting for la tuta,

Who rolls in with

his security.

(speaking native language)

Falko: La tuta liked

to hear himself talk.

We got along.

He apparently took

a liking to me.

He promised me a even

better interview

With his boss,

as he said.

And I was kind of like, okay,

I thought you were the boss.

Because your boss

had gotten k*lled.

So this is me catching a ride.

I'm out off apatzingán,

into the more rural parts.

This one is gonna take us

right into the heart

Of the templar territory.

I get an invite to one

of the rural communities.

As the party was going on,

I see a convoy of six black

suvs are rolling in.

Heavily armed people setting

up a security perimeter.

One of his lieutenants came

over and told me that I was to

Accompany him to a

table to see el patron,

to see the boss.

He invites me to take a seat.

Introduces himself

as el chayo, nazario.

He had placed a anti-aircraft

r*fle right next to him

On the ground.

He had supposedly shot on a

federal police helicopter

With that very g*n.

He handed it over to me.

I handed it back

pretty quickly.

Very much, I think,

to the amusement

Of the by-standing sicarios.

This is so bizarre.

It's so out there that you're

talking about one of the most

Bloodthirsty narco warlords

in mexican history,

And then he

appears before you.

♪

♪

♪

(speaking native language)

♪

(radio chatter)

Ioan: This was a

breakdown of the rule of

law in mexico completely,

To the point where people were

committing vigilante justice.

And people were dying for it.

(speaking native language)

(rapid g*nf*re)

(speaking native language)

(woman crying)

(speaking native language)

♪

♪

Ioan: It's all very tense.

And I'm watching this thinking

when are the vigilantes gonna

Seize apatzingán?

When is the battle of

apatzingán gonna be?

And this is gonna

be a bloodbath.

♪

(speaking native language)

(radio chatter)

♪

♪

Ioan: Now I heard a

story from people in

the vigilante movement

And they said that the

vigilantes had plotted

With some bodyguards

of nazario moreno.

And they turned on him.

And, and beat him and shot him.

And he was k*lled

by his own people.

You had this figure,

this warlord,

Who really wanted to

be loved and venerated,

And he ended up being

hated and having people

turn against him,

Damning his legacy.

♪

(speaking native language)

Ioan: Very early on when

you had people raising g*ns

Against the knights templar,

Another cartel right away

saw this as an opportunity

To gain ground

in michoacán.

So it infiltrated elements

of the vigilante movement.

After the collapse of

the knights templar,

They went on to become

one of the most powerful

cartels in mexico.

(rapid g*nf*re)