Narco Wars

Man: Shake this square world and blast off for kicksville.

Richard nixon: Public enemy number one is drug abuse.

Nancy reagan: Just say no.

Ronald reagan: Halting the drug problem in america

Is like carrying water in a sieve.

George h.W. Bush: Take my word for it, this scourge will stop.

Kamala harris: 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?

Donald trump: We will build a wall.

Terry kirkpatrick: First border wall was put up

Back in the days of the cowboys.

No-man's-land, as they call it.

I don't like it.

It's not gonna stop the drugs,

The lawlessness that takes place out here

And the shootings and bandits crossing the border

And cutting your fences and transporting the dope through.

My name is terry kirkpatrick.

My nickname's the grumpy gringo.

I was a customs agent for 28 years.

And I used to tell the new guys that would come on board,

I says, "this is the most fun you'll ever have on a job

With your pants on."

Primarily we worked narcotics, gun smuggling.

It was cat and mouse;

You're chasing them, they're chasing you.

And then all of a sudden, you get in trouble,

You get a death threat.

People are trying to kill you.

Well, this ain't the ghostbusters,

You can't call anybody, what are you gonna do now?

Well, our guys call you up and say, "pack one suitcase,"

And you'll hide out for 30 days, six months.

Well, I wasn't the smartest johnny in the classroom,

I was still that little kid in the back raising my hand,

Saying, "I'll go back, I'll go back."

And so, finally, after six months of investigation,

We raided the place, and as I wandered around,

A worker picked up a water hose

And started pouring water into the big drains.

No one would think that it was anything other

Than just a water main underneath.

Watch your fingers there.

Once we took out the lower drain,

There was a 8-by-10 room down there.

One by one, we descended into the dark pit of neverland,

Not knowing what was at the bottom.

Wow, what did these guys do?

This tunnel was so sophisticated,

It wasn't a fly-by-night group that did it,

These guys had studied mining engineering and stuff like that.

We're probably well over 30 feet down,

And it goes like this for about 150 yards into mexico,

Up to another house.

On the mexican side

There was a family room with a pool table in it,

And below that, was another room

Where they could store drugs there,

That's where the air ventilation pumps were, the water pumps.

Just when you think us as narcotics agents,

We've seen it all, it was, like, shocking.

We didn't know where we were going next with this.

What have we opened up, a pandora's box here.

It was, find everybody involved, find 'em now.

Jack riley: We knew there was an individual that was responsible

For all the logistical movement of marijuana and then cocaine,

But we weren't sure who he was.

Kirkpatrick: So we raided house after house after house.

One name pops up, and it continued to pop up:

Chapo guzmán.

Riley: People called him "chapo," which is "shorty."

Kirkpatrick: He was 5-foot-6 guy,

Who started out as a little kid selling oranges

On the side of the road down in sinaloa.

At that time, he was well down the ranks in the sinaloa cartel.

Riley: He was a border rat.

He knew virtually every corner of the border,

Where it was, the most highly patrolled area;

Where were desolate areas;

Where was the most valuable part of it

In terms of cocaine trafficking.

Kirkpatrick: Cartel bosses recognize

That he was extremely smart.

He was years ahead of anybody else

That ever came into the drug smuggling scene.

The flipside to that is

He was also a ruthless, cold, calculated killer.

30 guys were used to dig this tunnel,

Night and day for months and months.

They kept 'em locked up in a house,

And the cartel wanted to keep it secret so bad,

And they were worried that somebody would talk about it,

So, they executed 'em all and dumped 'em into a well.

So, basically, all the tunnel diggers

Dug their own grave for the cartel.

It was a gold mine for 'em.

Kilo of cocaine, back in those days, about $24,000 a kilo,

This tunnel probably would have ran, who knows?

One truck a day.

Two trucks a day.

Three, maybe.

Chapo went from the little guy over here in douglas

To captain in the cartel.

He was such a rising star.

J. Jesús esquivel: El chapo was nicknamed by the colombians

As el rapido, because he was so fast in moving the cocaine.

He didn't share his methods of transportation,

But he was a genius and troublemaker.

Chapo's ambition was to get tijuana.

Tijuana is an important city.

It's a door for drugs to cross the united states.

Martin corona: They were known as the most vicious crew in mexico.

They had no qualms about making an example out of somebody.

They have a reputation for being the most violent and bloody,

And they were responsible for thousands of murders,

More than 10,000 murders.

Juan carlos reyna: To me, to tell this story

Of benjamín arellano félix and his brothers

Is a way to tell the story of tijuana.

Esquivel: Tijuana was always a very important piece of the cake

For the drug business,

And it's an easy place to move drugs to the united states.

But to control that city, you have to kill a lot of people.

Reyna: Narcos in mexico, like el chapo guzmán,

Are campesinos, peasants,

That live in the mountains and wear hats and cowboy boots.

In tijuana, narcos were different.

Imagine fashionista narcos

That enjoyed listening to joy division, for example.

They're wearing suits, designer sneakers

With huge mink jacket

And a medallion, pure gold.

Everybody wanted to be like them.

My name is juan carlos reyna,

I'm an author, I was born and raised in tijuana.

While growing up in tijuana, the arellano félix organization,

The tijuana cartel, were like a living myth;

Both fascinating and terrifying.

Benjamín arellano félix was the leader and founder

Of the tijuana cartel.

He was a very charismatic character.

And the younger brother, ramón, was the muscle.

He was a very unattractive person,

With a high-pitched, annoying voice,

And a complete psychopath,

That assumed the position in the cartel as an enforcer

And to naturally embrace his thirst for killing people.

Esquivel: Benjamín and ramón, especially,

They don't even think twice to order killing of anyone

Involved in their business.

They wanted to be the only ones in tijuana.

The kings of tijuana

And the kings of the u.S. Market in california.

Reyna: Benjamín arellano félix was a pioneer.

He opened the tijuana route into california and los angeles,

Creating an international enterprise of drug trafficking

In such a perfect way.

Ioan grillo: The arellanos had an idea of,

Well, let's find rich kids

Who were attracted by the easy, big money and glamour

And recruit them.

Because if you have somebody who is educated,

Who can speak english,

Who has connections in the united states,

They could smuggle drugs into the united states.

Connections and ideas about business,

About moving the money, that can be useful,

Rather than just having some guy who's from the mountains,

Who can barely read or write.

Reyna: They began calling themselves the narco juniors.

Belonging to a cartel

Became part of the party vibe in tijuana.

The arellano félix family provided 70% or more

Of the cocaine consumed in the united states.

At the time, it was the most powerful criminal organization

In the north hemisphere.

Newscaster: Rich and ruthless, u.S. Drug enforcement officials

Say the arellano félix family has amassed a dirty fortune

In the billions of dollars.

Reyna: Among mexican drug lords, everybody became jealous,

Especially el chapo guzmán,

Who wanted what benjamín built up,

This highly successful,

Million-dollar operation in tijuana.

Esquivel: Chapo's ambition was to eliminate those brothers,

To have tijuana for his own purposes.

Riley: He wanted 'em dead.

That's the fundamental issue in narco trafficking:

No one's ever happy, everyone wants more.

And greed and guns lead to a lot of death.

Reyna: Benjamín arellano félix throws a huge party.

It was attended by el chapo's best friend and compadre,

El rayo lopez.

El rayo lopez had kidnapped

One of the arellano félix sisters years before,

And that was something that the arellano félix brothers