How Much Money Did The Dea Spend Taking Down El Chapo

The in one case-powerful leader of the Sinaloa drug dare was accustomed to being flanked by bodyguards. But in Jan 2017, he was escorted by federal agents -- 1 from Homeland Security Investigations and the other from the Drug Enforcement Administration.

Guzman'southward arrest in Mexico a twelvemonth before and extradition to the Us was the culmination of a near thirty-year investigation and hunt to bring him to justice.

The criminal mastermind who one time bragged well-nigh his power to evade capture and fifty-fifty shopped a biopic about his life to filmmakers looked around in wide-eyed confusion equally agents ushered him into a black SUV.

"He was no longer in control. He lost control," Ray Donovan, the special agent who spearheaded the 22-agency effort to capture Guzman, told CNN in an sectional interview. "He'south outside of Mexico. He'southward on US soil. And to me, that feeling of defeat that we felt when he escaped, that's what he felt at that point -- defeat."

Guzman'due south long-awaited criminal trial began in November in a New York federal commune court with unprecedented security measures. Guzman pleaded non guilty to x counts, including conspiracy to launder narcotics gain and international distribution of cocaine, heroin, marijuana and other drugs.

Testimony at the 12-week trial was often dramatic and sensational, exposing in item the lengths to which Guzman went to build his empire and kill his way to power. More than l witnesses, many of them police enforcement agents, delivered some 200 hours of testimony.

"I remember prior to the trial, El Chapo was a household name associated with wealth, ability, fame and fortune," Donovan said. "The trial, and all the spooky witness testimonies, introduced the world to the real Chapo: a ruthless killer, coin launderer, fierce drug trafficker, manipulator, liar, adulterer."

In the end, a jury on Tuesday found him guilty on all counts.

2 arrests, many escapes

The story of how Guzman escaped from two maximum security prisons in Mexico before beingness flushed out of hiding and arrested past a coordinated team of United states and Mexican agents has already been made into documentaries, made-for-TV movies and even a Netflix series.

Only Donovan, who oversaw the multi-bureau endeavor that finally brought Guzman down, tells the story from an entirely unlike perspective.

In 2001, Guzman escaped prison past hiding in a laundry cart. He was non apprehended again until 2014.

The post-obit year, Guzman escaped again. This time he crawled through an opening in the floor of his shower into a tunnel. That'due south when Donovan huddled with Mexican officials to effigy out who was responsible for the escape and, more importantly, how to recapture Guzman.

Investigators knew nearly possible safe firm locations in Los Mochis, a city in Sinaloa. Mexican marines went to ranches surrounding his birthplace in nearby Badiraguato, hoping the added pressure would draw Guzman out of his hiding place and force him to abscond to a condom house.

The Mexican marines didn't know which of the possible safe houses Guzman might selection, simply they had eyes on them all with 24-hour surveillance.

On January 7, 2016, investigators saw Guzman coming downwardly from the mountains, Donovan said. He took one truck, moved to another truck and ducked into a safe house that had been identified weeks before, according to Donovan.

Hours after, law enforcement made their move. Over again, Guzman tried to run, this time through a trapdoor in a cupboard that led to a sewage tunnel underneath the safety house.

Police force enforcement had done reconnaissance on the home and knew about the tunnel, which was full of water at the fourth dimension. They followed Guzman, merely at present, many had to stay backside to fight and capture members of the drug lord's security detail that included some of the most dangerous killers in Mexico.

Running out of fourth dimension

Meanwhile, Guzman was running with his most ruthless assassin by his side: Cholo Ivan.

Ivan carjacked a taxi commuter at gunpoint and sped away in his vehicle. The driver flagged down a swain cabbie and moments later on, police force enforcement heard the driver get on the radio and tell others he had simply been carjacked.

Guzman and Ivan decided to ditch the cab before police realized who they were and find a new escape vehicle. They picked a car driven by an elderly woman and her grandson, which they also stole at gunpoint. Only before they could accept off, they realized the engine was smoking and the motorcar wouldn't run. By so it was too late.

Mexican federal police, who saw the second carjacking take place, raced over and captured the pair.

Mexican marines, who also heard the altercation on their radios, raced to the location simply did not find anyone. A tow truck driver pointed them to a nearby motel, where they found the federal law, and both Guzman and Ivan, in custody in one of the rooms.

"Nosotros were jumping for joy," Donovan said, who was running the operation from headquarters in Washington. "Everyone was happy. Imagine how it was when he escaped. We were defeated. Nosotros were deflated. Nosotros felt like we lost. We put so much effort into it."

Donovan said Guzman was the brains and the muscle behind the Sinaloa Cartel. And while there are others as well on their list, Guzman was the ane who wanted to go to state of war with the other cartels, fighting for control of drug routes that led to the Usa.

He too said Guzman was the ane who pushed to lace heroin with fentanyl, a synthetic opioid that is common in drug overdoses, according to a written report in December from the Centers for Disease Command and Prevention. Guzman told his dealers to give the highly addictive drug abroad in club to claw people.

"There (are) evil people in this earth, and then there's Chapo Guzman," Donovan said. "There are people that make bad decisions and practise bad things. And then there are people that destroy the lives of thousands upon thousands of people."

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2019/02/12/us/what-it-was-like-to-capture-el-chapo-donovan/index.html

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