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Who Protects the Drug Lords? El Chapo Points Toward the Halls of Government · Beyond The Horizon

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: What's up, everyone, and welcome back to the program. A
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: few weeks ago, we were talking about El Chapo and
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: how he's not very happy with the conditions of his
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: newfound home here in America. Well, breaking news, pal, it's
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: not supposed to be fun. Well, now El Chapo has
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: a few other things to say, and this time he's
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: not complaining. Instead, he's talking about the inner workings of
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: how the whole entire narcotics trade is able to occur
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: down in Mexico and here in America. So let's get
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: to this article from Business Insider, and let's see what
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: author Luis Shaparo has for us. Headline. From inside the U.S.
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: 's most secure prison, El Chapo is pointing fingers at
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: what he says are the real powers in the drug trade.
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: If anyone thinks these narco traffickers are doing this on
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: their own without any help from people in the government,
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: they're crazy. One of the biggest power moves that the
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: narcos have is all of the money. So with this money,
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: what they do is they're able to bribe, they're able
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: to connive, and they're able to get things to move
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: in a flow that they're happy with. And this has
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: been going on in Mexico forever. And it hasn't changed. What,
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: you think AMLO's coming in and taking over because he's
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: out here talking about how he's for the people? That
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: things are going to change? Like usual, meet the new boss,
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: same as the old boss. Rinse and repeat. Five years
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: after being extradited to the U.S., Mexican drug lord Joaquin
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: El Chapo Guzman is pointing fingers at what he says
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: are the real powers behind the drug trade on both
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: sides of the border. Because we all know it's not
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: the drug dealer themselves, right? Of course, they play a part,
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: but if you really want to get to the issues,
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: you have to get to the core problems. And whenever
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: you follow the money, inevitably it leads you to some
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: sort of politician or elected official, and in Mexico, a
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: police officer or whatever else. But to think that these
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: cartels are operating in a place where they're not being
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: helped is just crazy. They most certainly are. So El
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: Chapo isn't lying about this. Through his attorney, Marielle Colon,
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: one of the few people allowed to have regular contact
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: with him, Guzman said that for the drug war to stop,
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  Speaker 1: authorities would have to go after politicians on both sides
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  Speaker 1: of the border. Now, you know, when I tell you that,
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: it's not just because I'm pulling it out of thin air, right?
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: The only way to stop this shit is to get
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: it at the core. It's no different than cancer. Sure,
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: you can treat all of the symptoms all you want,
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: but if you don't get in there and get rid
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: of that tumor, we all know the end result. So
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: if we continue to let all of the people who
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: are manipulating the situations, who are making these things happen
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: for their own benefit, if we let all of these
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: people continue to manage the situation, well, what do you
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: think is going to happen? For years, authorities have put
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: away these alleged leaders, but it is not serving any purpose.
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: But if you go after politicians that are allowing this
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: to happen, it's a different thing, Colon told Insider. That's
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: what he has expressed before. That's what he thinks. And
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: I don't disagree with him. We know that the decapitation
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: strategy doesn't really work. What it does is it gives
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: whoever the president at the time, it gives them a trophy, right? Oh,
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: I caught Bin Laden. Oh, I caught El Chapo. And
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: now I'm not saying it's not a good thing. It
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: most certainly is. It most certainly is. But is that
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: where it ends? Or is somebody else just going to
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  Speaker 1: pop right up and take their place? And we know
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: from past results that that is exactly what's going to happen.
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: It's a next man up mentality in the world of
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  Speaker 1: narco traffickers. So if you don't get to the root
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  Speaker 1: cause of this, the people that are allowing it to happen,
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: corrupt politicians and officials, it's just going to keep happening.
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: Guzman is aware that he may just be a political
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  Speaker 1: instrument for the U.S. and Mexican governments, Colon said. Oh,
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: let's not get carried away, bro. All right, El Chapo,
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  Speaker 1: nobody's over here crying crocodile tears for you. You were
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  Speaker 1: producing a fuck ton of this poison. You were dumping
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: it in America. You were burning people in tires. So
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: you're not a good guy here. You're not somebody that
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: should be defended. But that doesn't mean he's wrong about
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: what he's saying, about how this thing all goes down
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  Speaker 1: and how it operates. Every new U.S. president has his trophy.
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  Speaker 1: With Trump, it was Chapo. After him, Biden has his
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  Speaker 1: trophy as well, Colon added. It's always been just politics.
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  Speaker 1: That's not the case. I'm not going to let them
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  Speaker 1: get away with that BS. Your client is guilty of murder.
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  Speaker 1: Your client is guilty of mass narcotics exportation into America.
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: And on the back end of that, how many people
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: were killed? So this is not a good man who
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: should be lionized or who should be pumped up. None
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: of that, because he is what he is, a murderer
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: and a criminal. But that doesn't mean the buck should
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: stop with him. You know how we talk about Alexander
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: Acosta in the Jeffrey Epstein case, how the buck shouldn't
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: stop there? So all of a sudden we nailed up
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  Speaker 1: El Chapo and that's the end of it? Let's just
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  Speaker 1: stop the investigation? Who was he giving money to? Who
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: was he spreading that dough around to? Who was getting
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: their cheese buttered? In 2019, Guzman, who is now believed
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: to be 65, was sentenced to life in prison on
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: multiple drug-related charges. Since then, he has been held in
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: solitary confinement at ADX Florence, a Supermax facility in Colorado,
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: regarded as the U.S. most secure prison. And he only
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: has himself to blame for that. I'm not usually a
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: big fan of solitary confinement for the most part. I
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: find it to be a bit of an abuse of
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: human rights, if I'm being honest, for extended periods of time.
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: But when you're dealing with somebody like El Chapo, who
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: has escaped before, who has bribed guards, who has hurt
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: people to get out of jail, yeah, then certain securities
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: have to be put into place to make sure that
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: that doesn't happen. Guzman receives only one hour outside a
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: day and is only allowed 15 minutes of phone calls
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  Speaker 1: a month with three people previously vetted by the U.S. government,
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: his mother, one of his sisters, and his youngest child.
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: So I guess if I send him an email, that's
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: not going to get any response, eh? Guzman has been
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: in complete isolation. He has no access to any recreational
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: area or access to any other area around the prison
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  Speaker 1: other than his cell, Colon said, and this is all
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  Speaker 1: by design. What America is trying to do here is
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: show these drug lords, these narco traffickers, that if you
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: come to America, the party's over for you. Once you're
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: extradited here, it's not going to be like it is
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: down in Mexico or Colombia. You're going to come here
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: and you're going to sit in a jail cell and
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: rot away, homie. In 2020, his legal team submitted an
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: appeal complaining that he faced inhumane conditions, which was dismissed
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: by a federal judge. Guzman's treatment, which his attorneys say
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: is torture and the result of a political vendetta, has
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: not changed. Again, I don't believe that. I don't believe
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: it's a political vendetta and I don't believe it's torture.
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: What do you think? You're the only guy at this facility?
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: Guys like Vinnie Gorgeous there, Yusuf is there, the dude,
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: World Trade Center bomber guy, underwear bomber cat, you know,
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: a whole bunch of people are there. Not like you're
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: the only guy there. U.S. authorities said the security measures
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: are meant to prevent Guzman from escaping or engaging in
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: illegal activity. But even with Guzman behind bars since the
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: capture in January 2016, business has been booming for the
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: Sinaloa cartel. Of course it has. Again, when you go
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: after the head here, the decapitation strategy... Well, you're going
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: to get a prize and you're going to get yourself
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: a nice little victory lap. You're going to be able
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: to go on TV and say, hey, look, I'm doing something.
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: But the reality is you're not even putting a dent
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  Speaker 1: in what's going on. We all know that more cocaine
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: is being produced now than ever before. So what exactly
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: did getting El Chapo off the streets really do in
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: the big picture? And if a guy like El Chapo
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: doesn't move the needle when he's nailed, who will? During
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: the 2016 fiscal year, which ran from October 5th to
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: 2015 to September 30th to 2016, more than 5,000 pounds
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  Speaker 1: of cocaine was seized by U.S. Border Patrol. That spiked
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  Speaker 1: more than 9,000 pounds in 2017. After a decline in 2018, U.S.
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  Speaker 1: Border Patrol seizures of cocaine rose to over 11,000 pounds
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  Speaker 1: in 2019 and to over 15,000 pounds in 2020. You
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: know how much cocaine that is? Go get yourself a
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: little gram packet of sugar, and that is one gram
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  Speaker 1: of cocaine. Now, there are 28 grams in an ounce,
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: 16 ounces in a pound. So you do the math
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  Speaker 1: and you tell me how much blow that is getting
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  Speaker 1: dumped into the United States of America, considering that's just
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  Speaker 1: what was caught. How much do you actually think got
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  Speaker 1: to market? Seizures of other drugs in the U.S. have
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  Speaker 1: also risen over the period. A trend that experts say
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  Speaker 1: shows the flaw of focusing on the capture of cartel
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: leaders as U.S. and Mexican authorities have done for decades.
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  Speaker 1: It is all just another way for them to act
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  Speaker 1: like they're doing something. I don't know how much more
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  Speaker 1: clear I need to be about that. If they were
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: really interested in going after this problem, they'd be looking
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: at new drugs Bold ideas. Not doing the same thing
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: over and over and over again. But let's be very clear, okay?
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  Speaker 1: Drug enforcement is a big money game, folks. And there's
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: a lot of people that are making a lot of
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  Speaker 1: money by fighting this so-called war on drugs. America's longest war,
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: by the way. The agents are bought. Testimony during Guzman's
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: trial named several Mexican presidents, chiefs of police, and high-ranking
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  Speaker 1: military officers as involved in the drug trade. Huh, you think? Huh,
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: who would have known? I would have never guessed that
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: that's the case. Jesus El Rey Zambada, the youngest brother
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: of Sinaloa cartel drug boss Ismael El Mayo Zambada, alleged
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: on the witness stand that the real leaders of the
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: cartel were Mexican government officials and U.S. law enforcement. Look,
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  Speaker 1: this is what they're saying. Now you can take the
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: stance of, oh, they're just trying to save themselves at
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: trial and make it so they're not the ones in trouble.
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: And that certainly does track. But to think that there's
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: nobody who is making money as far as in an
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: official capacity on both sides of the border is just
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: bananas world for me. We know that these people have
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: no qualms about bringing fat dough in and they don't
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: ask any questions. Zambada pointed specifically at Genaro Garcia Luna,
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: who was Mexico's Secretary of Public Security from 2006 to 2012.
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: Garcia Luna was arrested in the U.S. in December of
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: 2019 and accused of taking bribes from the Sinaloa cartel. Look,
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: the whole government was. Yo, the whole entire government was
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: working with the Sinaloa cartel. At the same time they
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: were doing that, they were going after other cartels, Sinaloa's enemies,
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: and then telling the people of Mexico and the world, hey, look,
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: we're doing something. Once again, you see how this strategy
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: works for them? And a lot of people buy it, right?
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: Because people see that the boss of an organization gets nailed,
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: and they're like, well, you know what? They must have
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: had an investigation going. How did they get this guy?
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: But what doesn't happen after is any of the follow-up.
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  Speaker 1: What happened in the vacuum of this person being nailed?
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: All of the violence. And the main fact, the key fact,
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: that nothing changed. Garcia Luna has pleaded not guilty. His
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: trial was supposed to start in October of this year,
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: but was delayed until January 2023 at the request of
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: his lawyers. Must be nice. Ah, let's get that trial delayed.
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: Give us a little more time to work things out.
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: Garcia Luna is accused of accepting millions of dollars to
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: allow Guzman to operate with impunity in Mexico for more
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: than a decade, according to the U.S. Justice Department. At
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: the same time, Garcia Luna was allegedly making deals with
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: high ranking officials inside top U.S. national security and law
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: enforcement agencies. Now, I know there's people out there that'll say, no,
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: that never happened. Well, I don't buy that. Have you
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: seen the way that our law enforcement agencies conduct themselves?
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: You mean to tell me there are no corrupt people
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: within those agencies? Nobody willing to take money and look
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: the other way? Okay, I guess so. But if you
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: want me to believe that, I'm going to need to
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: see some evidence. In October 2020, Salvador Cienfuegos, Mexico's defense
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: minister from 2012 to 2018, was arrested as he arrived
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: in Los Angeles on a flight from Mexico City. Cienfuegos
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: also faced drug-related charges, allegedly as part of the investigation
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: of the Sinaloa cartel and Guzman's connections. He was accused
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: of using his authority to protect a faction of the
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: Sinaloa cartel while ordering operations against its rivals, like I
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: just stated earlier. Again, I don't just grab this shit
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: out of the, you know, the Netherverse. This is all
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: documented stuff that has been going on for years and
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: years and years. And unfortunately, our legacy media decides to
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: leave all of this stuff out when they're telling you
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: the story or the quote-unquote story about the war on drugs.
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: Cienfuegos pleaded not guilty at the first hearing, and in
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: a surprise move, U.S. prosecutors dropped the charges against him
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: after negotiations with the Mexican government. The ex-general was sent
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: back to Mexico and released. Isn't that nice? You mean
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: to tell me that this is a guy that shouldn't
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: pay the price? He's working with the Sinaloa cartel, helping
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: them kill and take out rivals from other cartels, and
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: he's not somebody that should pay a price for that?
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: Garcia Luna and Cienfuegos have not been convicted, but a
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: cartel enforcer in the Mexican border city of Juarez has
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: said Guzman's accusations are not far from reality. In October
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: of 2016, interview with the Mexican newspaper El Universal, the
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: mid-level boss of La Lina, the armed wing of the
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: Juarez cartel, said several U.S. border agents were on their payroll.
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: The agents are bought, the enforcer said at the time,
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: and there's no doubt we have seen border patrol agents
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: on the take. When somebody has this kind of money
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: and they're dangling it in front of you, it's hard
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: not to take the dough. As of 2016, the Center
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: for Investigative Reporting documented 153 cases of corruption investigations targeting U.S.
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: border officers, the majority of them members of U.S. Customs
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: and Border Protections. Drug trafficking was the most common offense,
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: followed by bribery and human smuggling, and the vast majority
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: of cases cited by the C.I.R. involved agents with 10
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: or fewer years of service. Most of the incidents were
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: in Texas, followed by California, and Arizona. So look, anyone
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: who thinks that the corruption isn't going hot and heavy
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: in the world of drugs and narcotic trafficking is not
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: paying attention. And if you think that border agents and
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: officials in the United States aren't also involved in the hustle, again,
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: you're not paying attention because they are. So when they
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: come out with these crazy strategies and they talk about
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: going after the head of the snake, just remember that
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: doesn't always work out. And we have to do something
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: differently because we've been using this strategy forever now. It
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: didn't work with Escobar. It didn't work with El Chapo.
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: And it won't work with whatever cartel member moves into
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: the space tomorrow. All right, folks, it's going to do
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: it for this episode. If you'd like to contact me,
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: you can do that at bobbycapucci at protonmail.com. That's B-O-B-B-Y-C-A-P-U-C-C-I
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: at protonmail.com. You can also find me on Twitter at
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: B-O-B-B-Y underscore C-A-P-U-C-C-I. The link that I discussed can be
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: found in the description box.