01x09 - Chapo Public Enemy No 1

[bunniefuu]

♪

(rapid g*nf*re)

(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 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)

(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 g*ng 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 k*ller.

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 k*lled tens of

thousands of more people.

He's a mass m*rder*r,

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 w*r.

That's when he met Chapo.

Chapo told him that he

can have him k*lled

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 ex*cuted.

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 k*lled.

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,

g*ng 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 g*ng 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 k*lling people.

WOMAN (over TV):

Overdose death rose to

more than 63,000.

JACK: He didn't care how

many people he k*lled,

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 as*ault.

(rapid g*nf*re)

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

k*lled 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

w*r 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.