Timesuck with Dan Cummins - 239 - El Chapo, the Sinaloa Cartel, and the War on Drugs

Episode Date: April 12, 2021

What a wild one we have today. I set out, fascinated by his two escapes from prison, to only explore cartel leader El Chapo. And then I got sucked into the history of the War on Drugs. And what a crazy history it is. Saying drugs are bad and that's why they're illegal is to vastly oversimplify US drug policy. Does the War on Drugs make any sense at all to fight? Can it actually be won? Does it actually make things much, much worse and create a lot of additional crime? Even if you don't agree with me, I hope you find today's episode interesting and thought-provoking. Sinaloa Cartel leader Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán Loera certainly led an interesting life. Thanks for helping Bad Magic Productions donate at least $12,500 this month to The Saint Bernard Project. The SBP will be helping those in Texas, Oklahoma and Louisiana as they continue to work on their recovery from winter storm Uri. To find out more, go to https://sbpusa.org/ Watch the Suck on YouTube: https://youtu.be/i0WzJDeSE1c Merch - https://badmagicmerch.com/ Discord! https://discord.gg/tqzH89v Want to join the Cult of the Curious private Facebook Group? Go directly to Facebook and search for "Cult of the Curious" in order to locate whatever current page hasn't been put in FB Jail :) For all merch related questions/problems: [e-mail] (copy and paste) Please rate and subscribe on iTunes and elsewhere and follow the suck on social media!! @timesuckpodcast on IG and http://www.facebook.com/timesuckpodcast Wanna become a Space Lizard? We're over 10,000 strong! Click here: https://www.patreon.com/timesuckpodcast Sign up through Patreon and for $5 a month you get to listen to the Secret Suck, which will drop Thursdays at Noon, PST. You'll also get 20% off of all regular Timesuck merch PLUS access to exclusive Space Lizard merch. You get to vote on two Monday topics each month via the app. And you get the download link for my new comedy album, Feel the Heat. Check the Patreon posts to find out how to download the new album and take advantage of other benefits.

From selling oranges just to buy food to running the multi-billion dollar drug empire, El Chappell's tale is one of rags to cocaine-dusted riches. El Chappell Guzman is a name most of us have probably heard of and a name thousands of people have feared. El Chappell took his childhood entrepreneurial spirit and turned it into an international narcotics operation. He expanded his empire with a combination of bribes, government manipulation, and innovative shipment system, and brute force and terror when necessary. He took on a status as a legendary hero to some and as a heartless monster to others. Elchoppo maintained his control with an iron fist, no secrets got past him and no one disobeyed his orders. His employees claimed he's omniscient, like God, he sees everything.

As many people found out, betray Elchappel or any other leader of the Cinaloa cartel and you won't survive long. A man who seemed unstoppable with thousands of supporters willing to die for him, managed to escape the DEA and other law enforcement agencies for decades and escaped from prison twice until his desire for a flashy lifestyle

and city life led to his eventual and probably final arrest. But his drug empire did not end with El Chapo's capture. The Cinaloa cartel is still alive and well today, ran by El Chapo's own children and his old business partner, El Mio. The cartel still runs the majority of the drug trade in Mexico and seemingly will continue to do so for the foreseeable future.

They're still powerful enough to engage the Mexican National Guard in direct battle and win. What led to El Chapo becoming one of the most infamous drug lords in the world? We're going to look into that today. Also, we're going to look into the US war on drugs. Without it, there would be no El Chapo. If narcotics were legal, there would be no need to smuggle them into the United States. There would be no illegal narcotics demand for cartels to supply. Why are drugs illegal? Going to look into the history of drugs in the US today. At one time or another, they were legal. So what changed?

What would happen if we made drugs legal again? Would there still be cartels? Would our country fall into anarchy and despair? Or would life improve? I have some interesting stats to throw your way. Keep listening for a Coke Snorting government scandal laden rise of the Cinaloa cartel will we ever surrender in the war on drugs?

Oh, so many nicknames edition of Time Suck. This is Michael McDonald and you're listening to Time Suck, your listening to Time Sun. Happy Monday, Meet Sacks. I'm Dan Cummins, a suck master on a shame capitalist. Guy opened to a bit of socialism to help other succeed in capitalism. Man, many think he's a libertarian lunatic, guy who actually hardly talks about politics, and you are listening to Time Sun.

Hail Nimrod, Hail Lucifina, Melonitic, guy who actually hardly talks about politics and you are listening to time suck. Hail Nimrod, Hail Lucifina, Glory be to Triple M and Bojangles is calm again this week. Recording again to the suck dungeon out of Cordelaine Idaho, it is sunny. Today is a record and gotta hope it continues. Give me sun, sweet Nimrod. Recording a bit ahead now to ensure continued timely delivery of episodes. And since I'm recording the head of last week's Miles Adong suck, if I really fucked anything up there, I probably fucked something up.

I don't know about it yet. I have heard about how my mama picked in voice from two weeks ago, made many of you want to stab pencils into your ears. And I have to say, that's fair. Bawwila, bawwila, bawwila. That's it, she'll be quiet to suck. Live virtual bad magic productions horror show is almost here.

It's exciting. Scared to death live. Tell them the tale of the lie yearona and other scary allegedly true campfire tales. Doing some spooks Thursday, April 26th, April, what? April 22nd, 6pm Pacific time. That's when the virtual doors open for a 6.30pm start time. The show will be interactive with a chance to participate in a live chat, polls, a Q and a to the show all looped.com tickets available at badmagicmerch.com.

And that's Thursday, April 22nd, 630 PM Pacific time, scared to death live, visit badmagicmerch.com for more details. A super cool raglan among the stars, time sucked tea in the store today at BadMagicMurch.com. I think we finally got some more exotic animal parts to make it with. Pretty sure it's made out of 357% Australian Emu Nutseck. So you probably want to put that all over your skin. One last thing before the show, do you listen to Chad Daniel and Si Amensen's at Middle of Somewhere podcast. Very funny. Two dudes with very similar senses, a humor to my own. And I was a recent guest on their 100th episode.

Check out middle of somewhere. If you want to hear me reveal personal tales of debauchery, I probably should have not shared publicly. As far as the charity of the month, I'll have more charity info next week right now. Just pumped to jump into today's topic. I learned a lot. Hope you do too.

Hail Nimrod. Joaquin Guzman Loera. Loera, better known as El Chapo, Mexican Narco, and before his most recent arrest and incarceration, one of the richest, most powerful men in the world. Today we'll travel from a lonely ranch and seen a low amount, and thus seen a low amount,

and to a federal prison in the United States as we follow the life in crimes of El Chapo. We'll talk about drugs. So much drugs drugs drugs. Let's get into it. The war on drugs. Gonna be exploring that in addition to the life of El Chapo today since he was public enemy number one for quite some time in America's war on drugs might as well look into how the war on drugs might have created El Chapo.

When did the war on drugs start? When were drugs first declared illegal in the US and why? How's the war going? Forget what you feel emotionally about drugs, please. Forget how drugs have personally affected your life. On a peer, what do the numbers say on emotional level? Does the war on drugs make any fucking sense? I know many of you are well familiar with my libertarian stance on this issue that all

drugs basically all vice should be legalized, regulated, taxed. Rather than me just throwing out more uninformed opinions about all this today, we're going to look at Portugal. A country with the most relaxed drug laws in Europe, if not in the world today, and examine its crime rates. Does my belief in legalizing drugs make any practical sense? Has Portugal fallen into some state of near-anarchy? Are kids snorting blow off each other's dicks?

The bus stop? Parents just completely abandoned raising their families because they're just so fucking high 24-7. Is dad blowing off babysitting because he's down at 7-11, getting some more Molly? Or are things about the same as they are in the U.S. when it comes to crime? Or possibly better when it comes to addiction rates, do those skyrocket in a nation with more easily accessible narcotics and other drugs, or are things actually better? Also of course today we're going to be diving into the life of Joaquin Archivaldo Guzman

Loera in today's timeline El Chapo, shorty head of the Cinaloa cartel, And we're looking to how the cartel, he was one such an important part of that he ran operates. Okay, let's start by looking briefly at the structure of Mexico's most powerful cartel and recent memory, if not ever. Back in 2014, producer Angus McQueen and journalist Gierno Galdos created the documentary Drug Lord, the legend of Shorty, to show the world what they'd learned not just about El Chapo but also about the world of the Cinaloa cartel. The interviewed members of the Cinaloa cartel or at least the cartel's hired help who've been transporting drugs into the US across the border for many years. These drug runners describe working for the cartel like working as a subcontractor for a mysterious yet also very

professional corporation. They said you do your job, go where you're told, don't ask unnecessary questions. You never know the real identity of who you work for and you're paid well and you're paid on time. In Mexico, the drug trade has become at the highest levels, pretty corporate for many. I mean, you're not getting paid time off in a 401k, it's not that corporate, but an underlying corporate structure exists. There's the equivalent of a CEO, a director of operations, the financial staff, workers who follow orders, and many of them working offices where expensive suits have diverse

financial portfolios, et cetera. Not wearing a tank top and flip-flops, barking orders in a Coke field warehouse, waving machete or an AK around. They're working on a laptop in a posh office, sending encrypted emails, arranging shipments, having an assistant go grab lunch, running payroll, etc. And also making sure that someone is barking orders and waving a machete or an AK around in some Coke-filled warehouse. There is still plenty of that.

Just not only that. For the Cinaloa cartel, violence and intimidation are for sure used, have been used heavily since the cartel's inception. So many murders but generally used as a last resort and used for business purposes bribery is preferred they would rather grease a politician or a police officer's palm than fire any shots they're real good at bribing they make so so much money they can throw a lot of it around and still have plenty to keep for themselves they bribe the police the military military, lots of politicians.

We don't know how many are on or have been on the cartels payroll, but they're influenced, especially at the height of their power, started in the late 90s and last year until just the past few years immense. They had politicians from the local to the national level in their pocket, possibly maybe even probably even Mexico's president. Before El Chappell's arrest, they were considered by many to be the most powerful drug trafficking syndicate in the Western hemisphere, if not the world. They are still one of the biggest cartels in the world. A Michael Waldrop former director

of special operations for the DEA, described the Cinaloa cartel as a massive octopus whose tentacles reach all over the world into Australia, Europe, the Philippines, more. They're a massive multinational corporation selling a very popular product, actually many very popular products all over the globe. They do a lot more than just sell Coke. By 2012, what they're hiding, it was estimated they controlled 60% of all of Mexico's drug trade.

And with the primary trafficker of drugs into the US by far. They operated in some 50 different countries in 2012, likely bribing various officials and all of them. They operated globally and with a slightly decentralized structure with different geographic divisions of their empire working together as separate but cooperating organizations. That flexible structure has made them very hard to destroy. While Elchoppo was their head and most powerful member, taking him out of the picture did not come close to destroying the entire organization. Other leaders, including some of his sons and his original business partner, just picked up whatever operational holes his abs and slept and just kept going. In the drug lord doc, McQueen and Galdos illustrated the power

of the Cinaloa cartel wielded through a variety of interviews. The interview to man who calls himself El Flacco, the skinny. And all skinny he worked for a dude called El Signor, the Lord. Skinny oversaw shipments of drugs into the US and God sent the price of those shipments, which only makes sense. Who better to decide a price point than God? You know, 150 bucks for a gram? God goddammit who said the price of the shit the lord blasphemer the lord decides how much the faithful can buy a the a focus for

for me father price and and what happened by the divine knows candy for whatever price of lord has used his eternal wisdom to decrease the fair price according to skinny subsubcontractors chose to say fucked lord uh... when they didn't like the price he said and those people didn't last long. Elsenor, when someone boxed his price, would tell one of his cartel enforcers down motherfucker

in regards to that drug runner, and then that person would typically go down. They would permanently vanish or turn up dead. So the cartels are kind of like a giant corporation, except one where the CFO and other upper level managers can and will kill you instead of fire you. Talk about a hostile work environment. One area where the Cinaloa cartel definitely did not have a corporate like an environment or structure with HR. Can you imagine a cartel human resources office?

Hi, Mr. Martinez. Is this a good time to talk? Sure. Come on in, Miguel. Close the door. What can I do you for? Well, I want to talk to you about my distribution supervisor, Carlos the Hyena.

Yesterday we had some supply problems. We only had 476 pounds of package coke. We were supposed to have 500 pounds. I explained to Hyena that the DEA agents rated one of our warehouses. That's why we were short. And then he said, you know what happens when you come up short, right, Miguel?

And I started to say, yes, Hyena, but and then two of Hyena's men held my right hand down and cut off my left pinky with machete. And then he shot my assistant in the temple. Uh, not sure what I see with the problem is, Miguel. Well, it's just that after all that, Hyena took out some pictures of my kids and burned them and said, next time I burn your children alive in front of you. And I'd like to file a formal complaint about the photos.

Look, I get, I get the finger. I get the execution of my assistant. I understand that's all just corporate policy. That's business, nothing personal, but the pictures for a first time offense. According to the company employee handbook, uh, excessive on page 34 paragraph three, it clearly states that no one is to burn anyone's children alive in front of them until a third mistake has been made in 90 days. Uh, not even totally joking about this. Of course joking about this particular, very specific

HR scenario, but when mistakes were made, people were punished sometimes very severely. Sometimes people's families were killed. Those who worked for the Cinaloa Cartel often both loved and feared El Chapo and those who did his bidding on the one hand, they made a lot of money. On the other hand, if they made too many mistakes and cost of money, they generally ended up dead. And sometimes family members, like I said, friends, lovers ended up dead as well. El Chapo men control by showering those close to him with money and gifts and by murdering anyone who went against him.

We'll learn more about the structure and power of the Cinaloa cartel in the timeline. Now let's discuss what I think is my favorite part of this episode. How America's Drug Loss built the perfect market for El Chappos cartel to grow and thrive in? We meat sacks have always had a thing for drugs and various drugs have been popular in America since its inception. The beer cooler in my local gas station, right, is full of, you know, there's vast, a lot of a lot of beer there, plenty of five hour energy and other types of stimulants at the counter

Plenty of cigarettes behind the counter Whole bunch of caffeinated beverages in the cooler more caffeinated fountain drinks and espresso machine Most of the food there are so so much added process sugar and all that shit altered your mind and your mood We love drugs in America, but not the bad drugs. I got you know. Oh my heck. Hey having sub We love drugs in America, but not the bad drugs. I call you know, oh my heck, having a sabbath is not narcotics. Much better to die of sugar-induced morbid obesity than it is a cocaine overdose. Gosh dang. Let's look into America's history with drugs.

America's first settlers were introduced to tobacco by East Coast native tribes. Those first settlers brought beer, cider, whiskey as well. Even the Puritants had beer. That's right, even those fun-hating puritants like to smoke and drink from time to time. Sometimes it took a short break from being paranoid, uptight, kill joys to relax a bit. Those pilgrims that headed over on the Mayflower, by the time they made it to America, all the beer they'd brought was long gone, and apparently they'd stock quite a bit of it. By the 1700s, America already had its first whiskey distilleries.

And no one thought there was anything wrong with whiskey until 1784, when a Philadelphia doctor by the name of Benjamin Rush disputed the belief that alcohol was healthy and diagnosed drunkenness as a progressive disease. And most of Philly's other citizens at the time, I'm sure were like, shut your damn mouse, Ben! You good time killing son of a bitch! Poor him. Pass me a shot. You silly fuck. It wasn't until early 19th century that early religious leaders decided that a stiff drink was of the devil and led one towards life of sin. A real temperance movement was not born until the 1860s. Opium now. Opium first showed up in the 1840s.

Totally legal. Charlotte N. Winslow, a pediatric nurse, created Mrs. Winslow's soothing syrup as a cure for fussy babies. The syrup was first produced in 1849 by her son-in-law, Jeremiah Curtis, and his partner Benjamin Perkins in Bangor, Maine. It was widely marketed in both North America and the United Kingdom, and that syrup packed one hell of a punch. It contained 65 milligrams of morphine per ounce as well as alcohol. Mrs. Winslow's soothing syrup became incredibly popular. In an 1868 court summary, Curtis reported selling more than 1.5 million bottles of the remedy annually. And why was Curtis in court in 1868?

Because this shit was killing kids left and right. One teaspoon full contained enough morphine to kill the average child. Ha, whoops, who knew? A lot of babies went to sleep after taking that syrup and never woke up again, leading to the syrup's nickname, the baby killer, not the preferred nickname for a children's medicine product. Hey, when you swing to the market,

can you pick up another bottle of baby killer? Jeremiah has been real fussy lately and I am fucking over it. People then started smoking opiates in the US in the 1870s when Chinese immigrants working in mines and on railroads brought it over across, you know, from China across the Pacific. Next up on America's drug train, cocaine.

All aboard, snort that shit and grab a seat. Cocaine first showed up in America in the 1880s. In 1884, Dr. William Stewart Halsted, a man dubbed the father of modern surgery, right? Noted doctor. Read a report about the power of cocaine when used as an anesthetic. It was being experimented with in Europe.

You read about a report about how specifically when applied to the surface of the human eye, it was an amazing anesthetic. Nothing like some Coke eyedrops. Put enough Coke in your eye. In an addition to your eyeball being numb, you can also see the future. You can see the future. People's true intentions. Black helicopters in the distance tracking your remove and the heart of God. Dr. Hal said, tested the sweet Coke juice on himself and some of his medical students and they fucking loved it. Of course, they did. Coke. Coke is so dangerous and eventually it can very well ruin your life or kill you,

but before then, what a ride. So fun. Dr. Halstedt and his medical friends soon got really really addicted. Only he and one other colleague would actually not die from an overdose. The following year, Dr. Halstedt published an article in the New York medical journal that was described as being incoherent. It was just gibberish. And why was it gibberish? Because he was out of his fucking mind on co-coding about it. Check out the opening, long, meandering sentence of this article. An article intended for his colleagues to read.

Let me place a music in the background that feels extremely appropriate for this, it's a sentence, it's a real long one. I'm neither indifferent as to which of how many possibilities may best explain nor yet it is lost to comprehend why surgeons have and that's so many quite without discredit could have exhibited scarcity any interest in what as a local anesthetic had been supposed, if not declared by a most so very sure to prove, especially to them, attractive. Still, I do not think that this circumstance or some sense of obligation to rescue fragmentary reputation for surgeons rather than to believe that an opportunity existed for assisting

others to an appreciable extent induced induced me several months ago to write in the subject in hand the greater part of a somewhat comprehensive paper which poor health this just incline me to complete what the fuck is he talking about I love it so much coke and assist him when he wrote that shit and it went on for a long long time and it never made any more sense to what I just said. It probably made perfect sense only to him. He had no idea what he was fucking with.

Not long after Dr. Hall said, brought Coke to America from Europe as an anesthetic in 1884, later that same year, a Georgia drugist, John Scyth Pemberton, inventor of Coca-Cola, started advertising Pemberton's French wine coca in Atlanta. We mentioned this before in the Pablo Escobar Ssac, but it's been three years or so since we talked about that. So it's worth mentioning here again. After seeing the success of a similar product in Europe, Vin Mariani, that was first sold in 1863,

Pembertons sold his cocaine wine in the US and it was a big hit. Of course it was. Had a lot of coconut. And wine. It was a tasty hit. Of course it was. Had a lot of coconut. And wine. It was a tasty, mind-altering, highly addictive combination of Bordeaux wine and a shit ton of cocaine. Fuck yeah, bro.

A Lannis Fulton County then went dry in 1886 and the recipe was then reworked into Coca-Cola. No more alcohol, still so much coke. Drugs, drugs, drugs. Coca-Cola continued to be made with cocaine until 1903. And then the coke was taken out not because it was illegal, but because it was simply just more profitable to sell it to pharmaceutical companies and replace the coke in the drink with sugar. Next stop on America's drug train, Medovina.

Tchoo, Tchoo. Grab that bong and heal deeply. Hold that shit in your lungs for a minute. We showed up in the US long before opiates or cocaine. Marijuana was grown back in America's first days in 1619. Virginia actually passed a law requiring hemp to be grown on every farm in the colony. At the time, the crop was also considered a proper form of currency in Virginia, as well as Pennsylvania and Maryland. Hemp was used to make a broad variety of products from rope to cloth to paper, and then Americans found out that a sister strain

of the kind of hemp marijuana is derived from wasn't as good to make random products from, but it was real fun to smoke. In the early 19th century, smoking hashish, a stronger preparation of marijuana, derived from the dry resin of the plant, gains in popularity in France, and then some of those French hash smokers dry resin of the plant, gained some popularity in France. And then some of those French hash mokers showed up in the US.

Then between 1815, 1870, marijuana was widely used throughout the United States as a medicinal drug and could easily be purchased in pharmacies and general stores. How about that? We're heading to the dispensary to buy weed now and more and more states and it's a totally new experience here in America in our lifetimes. But back in 1870, you could do the same damn thing, essentially. I mean, we'd back then didn't knock on your back like many strains do now, but you could get it.

It just wasn't popular recreationally. In 1910s, Mexican refugees brought recreational marijuana with them as they fled the violence of the Mexican Revolution. And they brought good shit, stuff that made your eyes red and narrow, that burned your lungs a bit, made you realize none of your problems were that big of a deal. Then prohibition kicked off on January 17th, 1920

when the Volstead Act went into effect. This legislation made three big changes. It prohibited the sale of intoxicating beverages such as liquor, beer, and alcohol. It regulated the manufacturer production, use, and sale of high-proof spirits for other than beverage purposes, and it insured an ample supply of alcohol and promoted its use in scientific research

and in the development of fuel, dye, and other lawful industries. And that first change helped make weed really popular. With recreational alcohol consumption now illegal, weed started to become the escapist drug of choice for many. Little weed cafes known as tea pads, which were sometimes businesses, other times just somebody's living room, places where a person could buy some weed for 25 cents or less, they began appearing in cities all across the US, particularly as part of the black hipster jazz culture. By 1930, it was reported that there were at least

500 of these tea pads in New York City alone. Then during the Great Depression of the 1930s, as unemployment increased resentment and fear of Mexican immigrants became connected to marijuana use. And a lot of white folks got real nervous. What were those Mexican smokin'? How might it lead to white women getting fucked? Kidding slash not kidding at all.

White men worried about their mother's sisters, daughters, et cetera, getting fucked with non-white dicks has led to all kinds of fear, paranoia, and shitty laws over the years. We're not a real rational species a lot of the time. On December 5th, 1933, prohibition came to an end. Numerous poorly constructed and conducted research studies in the 1930s, then linked marijuana use

by lower class communities with crime and violence. Weird. It's almost like alcohol companies didn't want to have to compete with marijuana for drug money. It's almost like scared white people started to act irrational. Next stop on America's drug train, M-M-M-E-TH! This train's never gonna stop moving! Let's look at M-Fedemies. First synthesized in Berlin, To to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to stimulating the central nervous system. Meth amphetamine crystal meth. Was then invented in Japan in 1919. It was used to treat sinus congestion, asthma, depression, clean your entire fucking house, like you've never cleaned it before in about 10 minutes.

Feeling sad, how about you try some meth? Sinus congested, meth will knock that shit out. Trouble breathing, we'll kick start those fucking weak ass lungs with so much meth. A German pharmaceutical company, Timler, would market it in pill form, Purvitan, starting in 1934. Hitler and many other Nazis love these meth pills.

Hitler saw meth as a perfect for soldiers, a drug that turned them into super soldiers. In Japan, meth at that time became popular as a workplace drug. Right? Get that raise, make your boss happy with so much meth. It was sold under the name of Philippon, which literally means love of work. It became really popular amongst factory workers and soldiers come a cosy pilots in World War II

with meth the fuck up before dive bombing something. Right, feeling sad about your shitty job? Bum that you've been ordered to crash your plane into somebody's ship? Well, meth will make you not give a fuck. meth became popular in the US during the 1930s. First marketed under the name Benzadry, sold in an over the counter and hailer, cool cats, puffing that sweet meth.

During World War II, amphetamines were widely distributed to US soldiers to combat fatigue and improve both mood and endurance. Uncle Sam now slinging that meth. After the war, US physicians began to prescribe and fedamines to fight depression. Soon truck drivers on long commutes and athletes looking for a better performance were hitting that sweet meth. Professional baseball players in the 40s, 50s, 60s,

early 70s, a lot of them all about that meth. Which is why I get annoyed, by the way, at all the steroid talk concerning baseball and denying players into the hall of fame. Fuck off. Yes players use steroids in the 80s and 90s. And yes, that gave them an advantage. And so what?

I don't give a shit because so many other players use meth in the previous four decades. And before that, the league was segregated. The playing field has never been level. US students got way into math in the 60s. They refer to the drug as pet pills and use them to aid and study. I bet they did. Finals week, no sleep, no problem.

Just methods are way through those exams. Last stop in America's drug train today, shrooms, choo, choo. Why is the train trailing? Not gonna go through all the drugs, just one more. Psychoactive mushrooms gained popularity in the US in 1957. When a photo essay featuring an American banker in mushroom enthusiast,

our Gordon Wasson was published in Life magazine. Four years earlier, Wasson had stumbled across an indigenous tribe using psychoactive mushrooms in Mexico. While on vacation, brought back a sample that he then sent to the Swiss chemist known for discovering LSD, Albert Hoffman. Hoffman isolated psilocybin and developed a synthesis for the drug in his lab

at San Dose Pharmaceuticals, which then started producing two milligram pills to be distributed for research purposes. For the next two decades, thousands of doses of psilocybin were administered in clinical experiments. Psychiatrists, scientists, mental health professionals considered psychedelics like psilocybin to be promising treatments as an aid to therapy for a broad range of psychiatric diagnosis. Psychiatric illnesses, including alcoholisms, schizophrenia, autism spectrum disorders, obsessive compulsive disorder, and depression. Many more people were also introduced to psilocybin mushrooms and other psychedelics as part of various religious or spiritual practices, for mental and emotional exploration, or to enhance wellness and just overall creativity.

Love it, love it, love it! Unfortunately, Uncle Sam hates shrooms. Despite this long history and ongoing research into its therapeutic and medical benefits, psilocybin was added to the schedule one of the Control Substances Act in 1970. This is the most heavily criminalized category for drugs considered to have a high potential for abuse. And no currently accepted medical use,

though when it comes to psilocybin, there is significant evidence to the contrary on both counts. Fucking Nixon. All tricky dick. And his backwards drug policies are the reason we can't take legal spiritual trips in the yard with shrooms anymore. All right.

Now that we know a little bit about some of the more popular elicit substances out there, let's look into how these became illegal. All of these drugs were at one time totally legal in the US. Some for more than two centuries, most for decades and decades. So when did Uncle Sam decide to take a shit in the drug party punch bowl? Well, the first congressional act to tax morphine and opium was passed in 1890, but it didn't restrict its use. Uncle Sam just wanted his cartel cut. Okay, fine, Uncle Sam, make that drug money.

Regulated. Then the smoking opium exclusion act of 1909 banned the possession, importation, and use of opium for smoking. But it could still be used for medicinal purposes. So why was this act passed? Racism, plain and simple. Then that fuck all to do with public safety. A lot of Chinese immigrants had begun flowing into America in the 1850s, lured by the California gold rushes,

pushed out of China by economic problems. These immigrants would work for less money than other miners. They'd work for less money than other railroad workers and in other industries, they would take less money. They garnered a lot of working class enemies. Also for the most part, they didn't give a fuck about Christianity. This really made them some enemies. They didn't care about Judeo Christian values.

They were changing the culture of America, scaring folks with their talk of Confucius and Buddha and all sorts of other Eastern mumbo jumbo. Missionaries and Moralists, the Christian Rites, as always, as a whole, been very politically active, wanted them gone. They're different, so fuck them. Temperance advocates wanted them gone, and of course, good old-fashioned racist just wanted them gone. And what do these Chinese do that almost no white people were doing? They smoked opium. White settlers preferred opium tinctures. The Chinese almost exclusively smoked opium and opium dens.

And flame by anti-Chinese sentiment, San Francisco had already outlawed public opium dens in 1875 and many other communities with Chinese settlements followed suit. Congress would then finally move to act against the Chinese in 1909, not because of any drug abuse concerns, but by foreign policy concerns. They wanted to slow down Chinese immigration, make America less desirable, right?

Have a way to punish Chinese residents. The Opium Exclusion Act was the opening shot in the US war on drugs. Across the country, customs and pharmacy agents moved aggressively to arrest smugglers, confiscate contraband and raid and bust dealers and dens. All the people they busted almost exclusively Chinese people. California at the forefront of the war on Chinese smoking opium went beyond the federal ban on importation by outlines simple possession as well, thereby inventing a new class of criminals in America, a legal drug consumers.

Then in 1914, the Harrison Act regulated the production, importation, and distribution of opiates in cocaine. Why? More irrational fear. In 1912, a link was publicized by New York representative Franklin Burton Harrison between the use of opiates and cocaine and crime, and he wanted these drugs banned. So, what was this link he found? Well, he didn't find a link.

It was nonsense. It was a bunch of bullshit. Supporters of his proposal inaccurately linked drug use specifically by blacks, Mexican and Chinese immigrants to rapes, shootings, and other violent crime perpetrated largely against white people. It was further hyped and sensationalized by newspapers that the use of drugs and courage users to rebel against white people. Pretty weird for a drug to affect your behavior, that's specifically.

Sounds a little bit made up. Are you feeling high yet, Tim? Hell yeah. Oh, fuck some white women and kill some cops. It's nonsense. It was made up. In 1900, the Journal of the American Medical Association published an editorial stating, quote,

their words not mine. Remember, there was not mine. Negro's in the South are reported as being addicted to a new form of vice, that of cocaine sniffing, or quote, the Coke habit. And people didn't seem to realize or care that no study had been done. They're not quoting a study here.

This is an editorial, an opinion. Just some asshole like me making speculations. But since it was printed in the Journal of the American Medical Association, it felt legit. Some newspapers joined on and they started editorializing more baseless opinions, writing articles about how cocaine used cause blacks to rape white women and that it also improved randomly their pistol marksmanship. Another super weird claim there.

What does coq do? Well, it makes blacks quicker with their dicks and better with their trigger fingers. Like, what the fuck are you talking about? Clearly, this is the work of journalists just to sell newspapers, more newspapers to fear. And what did many whites fear in 1900? Well, they feared Black men, raping white women, or shooting them. And this combined with a fear of Chinese immigrants led to the passage of the Harrison Narcotic Act of 1914. The 1903 U.S. Committee on the Equirement of the Drug Habit had concluded, again, their words not mine, and if the Chinaman cannot get along without his dope, we can get along without him.

Physicians can still prescribe narcotics and opiates to patients, but it was now illegal to grow that shit yourself or buy it from a dealer. Prohibition then began with the 18th Amendment in 1919, as I laid out earlier, effectively banning alcohol leading to a massive rise in organized crime. Remember that? Right? All the organized gangsters in the early 1930s, where did they come from? Prohibition.

They gave gangsters the incentive to fucking organize, to really, you know, up the ante and then to fight over turf. It was stupid. We all know that now. Prohibition led directly to an explosion of organized crime in America, just like modern US drug laws have led directly to powerful narcotics cartels. Prohibition lasted until 1933. Then in 1937, the marijuana tax act was passed, placing a sales tax on weed. If the taxes weren't paid, the punishment was a $2,000 fine, and up to five

years in prison. But you can still use it freely. But the tax was high enough to make it virtually impossible for many of marijuana users to afford it. And who was using marijuana in 1937? Mostly black and Latino people. Interesting. The Marijuana Tax Act of 1937 essentially banded nationwide, despite heavy objections from the American Medical Association are related to medical usage. Doctors by and large were heavily in favor of marijuana. They saw therapeutic value there, but ignorant moralists were not. Why not? Well, a propaganda film called Refer Madness didn't help. It came out in 1936 and it was very popular

and it scared the shit out of a lot of white parents. The film warn parents that drug dealers would invite their teenagers over to jazz parties and get them hooked on Reefer. And then their life would be over. Listen to the trailer for this movie. This is the actual trailer. This is not a joke.

It is so fucking ridiculous, but this is real. These high school boys and girls are having a hop at the local soda fountain. Innocently they dance. Innocent of a new and deadly manners lurking behind closed doors. Oh boy. Madwanna, the burning weed when it's roots in hell. My God. Up.

In this film you will see the ease with which this vicious plan can be grown in your neighbor's yard, ruled into harmless-looking cigarettes, hidden in an innocent shoe, or watch case. If you want a good club, try one of these. You will meet Bill, who wants toto-pride in his strong will, as he takes the first step toward enslavement. Oh no, Bill, he smoked a joint! I'm not here. Oh, oh God!

Bill, he's changing! He was such a good kid! Now he's having unmarried sex. We're about to. Now he's freaking out. Oh god. Oh my God. Hopeless insanity. Hopeless insanity. That's what the burning weed with its roots and hell gets ya.

This film basically, like, these teenagers, well, they're actors in their early 20s, whatever, but they're supposed to be like these teenagers, and they're, you know, they're fine, they're good kids, and all of a sudden, they smoke a little bit of weed, like, it's in, like, a joint. And they immediately become super fucking crazy, they're good kids and all of a sudden they smoke a little bit of weed like it's in like a joint and they Immediately become super fucking crazy

Just start fucking each other and then one of the guys kills another guy one of the ladies throws herself out of a window Another guy just loses his mind completely all over a tiny bit sounds like the narrator narrator sorry of this should have smoked a lot more wheat. He seems real fucking uptight. As someone who has smoked a lot of wheat and eaten a lot of wheat over the course of his life, this is such horseshit. The bulk of this film was shot by a church group intended to be shown to parents as a morality tale. And then the footage was bought by exploitation filmmaker, Dwayne Esper, who hammed up the

drama, added some scenes, added that fucking nonsensical narration, marketed it. The film was shot to adhere to America's Puritanical Production Code of 1934, which heavily censored American films, all the way up until 1968. It was illegal to make a film during those years that, for example, presented marijuana use in a positive light. So in the media, all you saw was over the top

nonsensical negativity associated to marijuana, completely fabricated based in nothing, but some fucking old outdated moralists just talking shit. Good old Uncle Sam forcing his nonsensical, puritanical values on the American public once again. Ah, drug use was really a cultural issue or was not a cultural issue again until the nineteen sixties and the fucking hippie started doing drugs lot of hippies were you might want to sit down for this they were not white

and also they didn't always listen to uncle sam and didn't also uh... always support the military industrial complex so fuck them and fuck their drugs in nineteen seventy president nixon signed the controlled substances act this act had five schedules for classifying drugs. Schedule one drugs were considered highly addictive with no medical benefits.

Marijuana, LSD, heroin, ecstasy. Jesus Christ, LSD is not addictive. And marijuana can be addictive if you take large amounts regularly for long periods of time, especially in adolescents, but not as addictive as say, oh no, process sugar or cigarettes or alcohol or coffee or so many other very legal things. In June of 1971, Nixon declared a war on drugs, right? Now it's official. And that drug abuse was public enemy number one, but alcohol stays legal. Okay. Nixon increased federal funding for drug

control agencies and mandatory prison sentences for certain drug crimes. He created the special action office for drug abuse prevention in 1973. He founded the DEA. They were given 1,470 special agents and less than $75 million to work with. Now the DEA has over 5,000 agents

and a budget of over $2 billion. And what was tricky Dix real motivation for all this? Well in 1994 former Nixon employee John Erlichman gave inside information that revealed Nixon started the war on drugs to fight two enemies of his administration. Quote the anti-war left and black people. Erlichman said we knew we couldn't make it illegal to be either against the war or black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities.

We could arrest their leaders, raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night on the evening news. Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did. Of course they knew. Now, this is just one guy saying this, but I believe him. Politicians have made drugs illegal over the past century and changed not to keep it safe, but to appeal to their voting base.

A moralist base that has no fucking idea if drugs are dangerous or not or how dangerous they might be. They're just scared of them. They're scared of what they don't understand. They just don't want those drugs to get in the way of church. They don't, you know, get in the way their kids, futures. They worry about what the neighbors might say. If they're a precious baby boy, your girl does some drugs.

And all this doesn't mean that I think your kids should do all the drugs either. I'll explain my thoughts more on that in just a bit. When the 80s began, President Reagan expanded the war on drugs once more. In 1984, Nancy Reagan launched the Just Say No campaign. Is that simple? Just don't. That's all. Just don't do it.

Don't think about why you want to do the drugs. No, ignore that. Don't think about a pervasive feeling of hopelessness and the multi-generational poverty that surrounds your home. Just say no. Ha ha. Just be successful. You know, just do it. What a nice hollow slogan, Nancy. What a super helpful peach you are. Reagan up the severity of penalties for drug crimes

leading to the mass incarceration of nonviolent criminals. In 1986, Congress passed the Anti-Drug Abuse Act, which created mandatory sentences for certain drug offenses. This act was deemed racially motivated because it gave longer sentences for crack cocaine than the exact same amount of powder cocaine. Interesting.

Black Americans predominantly use crack cocaine, whites use powder cocaine, five grams of crack equated to five years in prison, but you needed 500 grams of powder cocaine to get yourself five years. Reminiscent of those first opium laws, punishing the Chinese but not the whites, fucking Nixon and Reagan.

In my opinion, couple of clowns when it came to their misguided at best, racially motivated at worst drug policies. And all these laws, every one of them led to more crime, not less. After the Harrison Act, the black market for opium opened up in Chinatown. Of course it did. Making drugs illegal has never kept people from using them.

It's just put more generally nonviolent people in prison where they can then mingle with violent offenders, maybe learn a few tricks. In the 1930s and 40s after marijuana became popularized, following the marijuana tax of 1937, reefer was now totally elicit and subversive and cool, man. The mafia then primarily started running the drug trade. They were the precursor to the car tells. They've been bootleggers years earlier. They still had solid underworld criminal infrastructures. They were the precursor to the car tells. They've been bootleggers years earlier. They still had solid, underworld criminal infrastructures, and now the US government had foolishly given them

a new vice to pedal. Smart. Somebody smart people and charge a drug policy in America. The Vietnam more than increased the smuggling of heroin into the US between 1965 and 1970, after many soldiers able to get heroin in Asia, much more easily than in the US got addicted. And then these battlefield veterans come home and instead of getting treatment and help

from their country, they get arrested and thrown in prison for shooting up some heroin to escape the pain of their PTSD. Somebody smart policy makers in America. Despite all these laws, the desire to do drugs in America does not diminish as our population increases, so does overall drug demand. In the late 70s, the cocaine market shifts to South America, where it grows so well in the mountains of Colombia and other countries. By the 80s, Pablo Escobar and the Colombian Medellín Cartel control the cocaine trade in the U.S. Coke is big in 80s. Bankers and stock traders love it. Big white-collar drug

and Pablo is making sure the party don't stop won't stop. After Escobar is killed, another Colombian cartel, the Cali cartel takes over. At the height of their power, they control 80% of the cocaine shipped into the US. Then by 1996, all the Cali kingpins are in jail and then cocaine just goes away, right? They won. They won the war on drugs. No, of course not. The demand is now just met by other suppliers. It doesn't diminish.

By the end of the 90s, control of the narcotics trade shifts to Mexico. The Cinaloa cartel was and still is the most powerful of all the Mexican cartels. And they don't just supply Coke. They supply a little bit everything. Coke, heroin, weed, meth. And more, little bit of this, a little bit of that. Over the years, El Chappos, Cinaloa cartel has went by various names, such as the Pacific cartel, the Guzmán, a Loera organization, the Federation, El Chapo's Cinaloa Cartel has went by various names, such as the Pacific Cartel, the Guzmán, a Loerah organization, the Federation, the Blood Alliance.

Between 1990 and 2008, Cinaloa distributed almost 200 tons of pure coke into the US. El Chapo rose to power in 1989 and in 2003, the US Department of Treasury considered him to be the most powerful drug trafficker in the world. He also made the Forbes list of richest people in the world. All thanks, I feel to US drug laws with no massive illicit market to take over. He would have had no means to make all the money he made. What he no need to kill the people he killed to make that money. Had drugs remain legal had other vice remain legal as well, like prostitution.

What vice would there be for gangs like the cartels to trade in? Okay, almost ready to dig into El Chappell's life, but first, to finish off what I brought up earlier regarding the war on drugs, did all these laws that have put so many people in prison? Did they reduce harmful drug addiction? Did they lower crime? Is there less theft and murder now?

How is life better because drugs are illegal? Let's talk about Portugal. Portugal decriminalized all drugs are illegal. Let's talk about Portugal. Portugal decriminalized all drugs in 2001. And since they have seen a dramatic drop in overdoses, HIV infection and drug-related crime, huh? Now to be clear, drug use not legal in Portugal, just not punish the same way as we punish drug users here in the States, not nearly as severely, starting in 2001 rather than being arrested. Those caught with the personal supply of what the fuck ever would

be given a warning, maybe a small fine, or maybe told to appear before a local commission, not to go to jail, but to see a doctor, a social worker, talk to them about treatment, harm reduction, support services, and here are the stats. From 2001 to 2007, reduction in new HIV diagnosis amongst drug users by 17%. Usage rates between 13 and 16 year old or 13 to 16 year olds also seem to have dropped as shown by a drop in sexually transmitted diseases and deaths due to drug usage. Reported lifetime use of all illicit drugs did increase.

From 7.8% to 12%, lifetime use of cannabis increased from 7.6% to 11.7%, cocaine used more than doubled from 0.9% to 1.9%, X to see used nearly doubled from 0.7% to 1.3% and hair when use increased from 0.7% to 1.1%. And I say of course course, drug usage increased. It was easier to get now that it was legal. And also, it didn't increase to some insane, like,

20% or 30% of the population. What about violence, though? Did violence increase? No. The homicide rate did increase from 1.13 per 100,000 and 2000 to 1.76 in 2007. But then it went down to 0.96 by 2015, even lower than it was back in 2001.

The rate of drug-related deaths decreased. The number of drug-related deaths dropped from 131 in 2001 to only 20 in 2008. As of 2012, Portugal's drug death toll stat at 3 per million in comparison to the EU average of 17.3 per million is incredibly low. Rates of past year and past month drug use among the general population, which are seen as the best indicators of evolving drug use trends also have decreased. Rates of continuation of drug use, that is the proportion of the population that have ever used an illicit drug and continue to do so, also decreased.

Looking at a bar graph from 2016, of nearly every country in Europe, measuring the past 12 months' prevalence of cannabis use amongst adults, age 15 to 64, young adults, age 15 to 34, and youth age 15 to 24, Portugal has one of the lowest current rates of cannabis use in all of Europe. Additionally, decriminalization, decriminalization does not appear to have caused an increase in crimes typically associated with drugs. In 2019, the United Nations Office on drugs and crime published a global study on homicide. And within it, you can find a ranking of nearly every country in the world regarding homicides per capita. The most murders per capita, El Salvador,

just over 52 homicide victims per 100,000 inhabitants in a year. The US 94th on the list, just under five homicide victims per 100,000 inhabitants. Portugal, 195th on the list, 0.79 murders per 100,000 people per year. So what about theft? The theft often associated with illicit drug use. Well, these stats come from 2016. Most recent I could find 74 countries were ranked. It's won a little trickier because some nations pursue a

rest for theft much more aggressively than other countries, some have larger police forces, et cetera. Number one on this list, Denmark, with 3,947 thefts reported per 100,000 people. The US 12th on the list, 1,750 thefts per 100,000 people, and Portugal 24th, 749 thefts per 100,000 people, less than half the rate of the US. Clearly a decrease in criminalizing drugs

has not led to a nation of junkies, killing, stealing everyone's shit and just throwing their lives away. So what the fuck are we doing? Is the war on drugs a huge waste of time and resources? Now Portugal is just one nation, but it hasn't provided a tiny sample size. A little over 10 million people live in Portugal, and drugs have been to criminalize there for two decades. And it has not become a dystopian nightmare.

Life there has gotten better. Now all of this is not add up to El Chapo, not being a monster. He was a ruthless killer. He did kill brutally. He's a vile human being. I just wonder if the drug market wasn't what it is. Would he have been able to gain the power

that led to his debatuous deeds? Probably not. Also, I know we have meat sacks to work for the DEA. Know that despite my disgust with US drug policy, I also know that many use save kids from dangerous home environments. You arrest people before the OD, people who then turn their lives around. I wouldn't want to take away the heart of what you do, helping people no longer hurt themselves and others. I would just want to change the focus of the DEA. What if instead of bustin drug dealers and addicts, the DEA worked on drug education and

prevention and community outrage, outreach, excuse me, and treatment, right? And there would be so much more treatment because people, if they weren't worried about getting in trouble, being punished, they would come forward to get help much more often. It's just fucking common sense. You know, what if agents work to drug experts who still bust a drug dealers,

if they refuse to sell to the proper channels, even if we do have legal dispensaries for all drugs, where the drugs can be the least harmful they can be, they're still gonna be illegal dealers, just like there's moon shiners with alcohol. There will still be plenty of drug-related crime, punish the crime, not the drug use. People are going to make terrible decisions in part due to their addictions, but they'll just be, it'll be easier to educate those people, easier to rehab those people if they're not afraid to go into, of going to fucking prison. I just think there would be no more enelchoppos in this situation and a lot less nonviolent offenders in our prisons,

which frees up prison cells for pitos, rapists, spoused beaters, murders, et cetera. If we legalize all the drugs, well, deaths maybe go up for a while. I don't know, maybe. Well, more people maybe throw away their lives with addiction for a little while. Maybe.

Well, once the newness wears off, could things be a lot better? I think so. There are stats from other cities in the world I could have also shown that seem to state that things would get better. Take away the criminal aspect and you open the door to more education, less stigma, more money for treatment, etc. We're not winning the war on drugs and we never fucking will. So why do we keep slamming our heads into the same wall?

Am I missing something here? Maybe? DEA suckers light me up. Send me some updates to tell me what I'm missing. I would truly love to hear a good counter argument. I just don't understand and I've thought a lot about it. The logic of current drug policy. Now, all those drug history facts and my drug thoughts out of the way, let's get to know El Chapo now. And today's time suck timeline. Right after a sponsor break. Thank you for listening, and now it is time for more drugs, drugs, drugs. Shrap on those boots soldier. We're marching down a time suck timeline. April 4th, 1957. Joaquin Guzman, Loera, is born to parents Maria Consuelo, Loera Perez, and Emilio Guzman Busteos. He's born in Badiraguato in the state of Cinaloa, Mexico,

one of Mexico's 32 states, based on Little Gugling. Bad yet a guatto is a small cute little town, about 3700 people. And hilarious to me that on the town's Wikipedia page, in the notable people section, there are seven people. And all seven of them are cartel founders, literally all seven. It's a town basically known for drug cartel leaders. Three different cartel leaders are from here.

Tiny little town l-chapo former leader and founder of the scene of lower cartel the four founders of the beltron uh... leva cartel and the two founders of the guadalajara cartel all from little badehaguato coke town uh... drugs drugs drugs some sources a l-chapo was born there on christmas day uh... this is a more twenty five nineteen 1954, most sources seem to think he was born in 1957. Most sources also say he has six siblings, Miguel Angel, actually. Ari, Ari Liano,

Arturo, Armida, Ovidio, and Bernarda. Either all or almost all his brothers would end up being in drug cartels. Miguel Angel should be getting released from prison any day now for laundering lots and lots of cartel money. He was arrested back in 2005. DEA agents believe his brother Ari, uh, Arleano, known as El Guano, aka Batchit. Great nickname. Is running an extensive drug trafficking operation in northern Mexico, Arizona, and Texas right now, according to documents filed in US District Court and Tucson.

Assuming that shit is in reference to Batchy Crazy and Batchy it's currently a free man, the EA looking for Batchy. It will chop up his brother, Arturo took over the Cinaloa cartels operations 1993 or rather ran things on behalf of Elchoppo when Elchoppo began his first long prison stint in 1993. Then he was murdered in prison in 2004 by a member of a rival cartel, the Juarez Quartel cartel, and retaliation for the Sinaloa cartel murdering some of their members. It's going to be a lot of cartel murders in the suck.

Sister Bernarda, not known to be a cartel operative. She's living free somewhere in Sinaloa as is sister Armida. His brother Ovidio died in 1991, can't seem to determine why, or how old he was when he died. If I had to guess, I'd say cartel violence. I'd say he did not die peacefully. Joaquin and his siblings grew up extremely poor. His father was an abusive alcoholic. All the kids were raised in the drug trade. Highly unlikely, Elchoppo was ever going to end up being a doctor or a lawyer. His father Emilio grew a little weed for local cartel smugglers and the kids helped him. While Joaquin was born and bar the uh uh, but Dira Guato, he was actually raised about 25 miles away on a ranch that he had to drive a lot more than 25 miles to reach.

A ranch in the tiny rural mountain community of Latuna. High up in the scene of low mountains. Way off the beaten path. Perfect place off the grid to grow marijuana, poppies, which is apparently what many, if not most in the area did Latuna just a collection of ranches way they'll fuck out in the woods with one school and one nearby Store nearby what I can tell El Chappo's mother made bread to earn a little bit of money

Joaquin sold oranges soft drinks and candy to earn money for families food He and his family grew corn and beans. He took care of his grandma's cattle chopped wood El Chappo's mother can sway us started calling him Chappo when he was a little kid always shorter than his peers He and his family grew corn and beans. He took care of his grandma's cattle, chopped wood. El Chappo's mother, Consuela, started calling him Chappo when he was a little kid, always shorter than his peers. The nickname stuck, I'm sure he loved that. Might have called me skinny for years. Better than my cousin Wimp, I talked about a few weeks ago.

Way better than Piggy Picton from last week, but still not ideal. Or I guess Piggy Picton was the week before last week. From a young age, Shorty was ambitious uh, uh, piggy picked in was, uh, the week before last week. Uh, from a young age, shorty was ambitious and his mother always believed to be great one day. Now 93, his mother has been in the news in the past year for petitioning Mexico's president, uh, Andres, um, Manuel Lopez, uh, Obra door to try and have her son returned to a Mexican president. Mama loves her baby boy, even if her baby boy is a murdering drug lord.

I get it. Parents and generals should probably never be listened to when it comes to their kids' prison senses. I definitely wouldn't be objective and fair. If he came to my own kids, being sentenced for something, you know, look, I get it. All right, okay. Yeah, Kyler killed a bunch of people.

But you don't know him like I know him. He's a general soul at heart. He's fun to play Fortnite with. Just give him parole. I'll keep an eye on him. He won't kill me more. Did Man Row help him? Of course he did. No one surprised, but she's really cute and she's loyal to the family. She'd help you bury your body, which I guess is why we're here today. Mama Chapel remembers young El Chapo being obsessed with money and how he made fake bills from colorful paper. He collected and counted this fake money, asked his mom to save it for him. He quit school in the third grade to continue earning money for his family.

Don't need a big formal education to be a drug czar. Just a lot of street smarts, good survival instincts, and the ability to be more ruthless in the next guy. And as you'll see in this time, later, he was fucking ruthless. At the age of 15, after being kicked out of his family home for budding heads with Papa Chappell, Joaquin entered the drug trade for himself. He started growing some weed near Latuna. He made okayell. Joaquin entered the drug trade for himself. He started growing some weed near Latuna. He made okay money.

He party with the locals for a few months. Went to a lot of dances apparently. Dance with a lot of girls. He's making a lot more money than he'd made selling oranges, but it wasn't enough. He was ambitious. He had big dreams. Dreams that could not happen if he stayed

in his tiny ass village slaying a little dope. Little Coke. And Latuna, there was no job opportunities. Outside of growing some poppy in marijuana. and selling it to the men who would sell it to cartels who made real money. According to Elchoppo, if there would have been another way to get ahead, he would have taken it. While Keen himself later said it's a reality, the drugs destroy. Unfortunately, as I said, where I grew up, there was no other way to survive. It was barely literate. He had a third grade education. He lived nowhere near

any real jobs outside of growing and or selling marijuana or poppy. That's what he was raised in. So that's what he did. Soon, he started working with people who worked with local cartels and would buy from locals and sell to his connections. Now he can make a whole lot more money. He could buy heroin, cocaine, marijuana from local growers, sell it to drug runners. He built up his business quickly.

He idolized famous narcos like Pablo Escobar dreamed of having his own drug empire one day. A year after leaving home at the age of just 16, El Chapo leaves Latuna and heads to Kulia Khan, 50 miles south of where he was born in, but they were got by Deeraguato, a city of around 250,000 when El Chapo swung through around 1973, a city of over 1.4 million now.

A lot of cartel members come from Kulia Khan. Chappell swung through around 1973, a city of over 1.4 million now. Lot of cartel members come from Kulia Khan. Hot city, like literally so fucking hot. The record high is over 100 degrees Fahrenheit for every month of the year, except December, which only has hit 98. Average daily high in the coldest month of the year, a crisp or 83 degrees. El Chappell didn't stay in this inferno for long. Soon moving to the big city of Guadalajara, almost 500 miles south of where he was born.

Metro area has well over 5 million people now. Over a million back in the 70s, he was working with the Guadalajara cartel trafficking cocaine. He'd been introduced to this cartel way back in Latuna. It seems he moved to both Kulia Khan and then to Guadalajara as he worked his way up inside this organization. Ernesto Fonseca Carrillo, one of those seven cartel bigwigs born in Badeira Guato founded this cartel. And now a man named Miguel, Angel Felix Guiardo was running it. Miguel had grown up in Kulia Khan and El Chapo was now working for Miguel. And he was quickly promoted to the inner circle of the Guadalajara cartel.

Felix liked that El Chapo was all business and ruthless. Somebody got in the way of business. Shorty had no problem putting a fucking bullet in their head or literally cutting their face off or doing whatever Felix wanted. Felix was ruthless too. He'd eventually be targeted by the DEA for authorizing the kidnapping and torture of a DEA special agent in 1985. This poor son of a bitch tortured for 30 hours straight. They drilled a hole into his brain at one point during the torture, not to kill him, but just to cause him debilitating pain.

They shot him up with massive amounts of adrenaline to keep him alive for more torture. Then they wrapped him in plastic, tossed him in a shallow grave. Felix now 75 years old has been in a Mexican prison since 1989. When he wasn't killing people, the cartel wanted dead and making sure cocaine shipments made it to America, El Chappell returned to the ranch in Latuna, often to visit Mama.

El Chappell was and still is close to his mom. Murder, drugs, and Mama, and lots of other women. Numerous sources talk about how El Chapo had a voracious sexual appetite. Always had a lot of ladies in his life. In 1974, while El Chapo was working as a courier and an enforcer for the Guadalajara Cartel, he began the first relationship with a lady

that would produce a child, at least that we know of. He started dating school teacher Maria, Louisa, or Teeze. So he'd be the first of his many girlfriends and wives. Their daughter, Rosa, was born in Zappapan, Haleesco in October of 1974. Now let's hop off the timeline and meet El Chapo's many children. He had at least 11, some sources, say 13.

Here's the kids we know about. There was his son, Jesus Alfredo Guzman Salazar, who'd be born on May 17th, 1986. Since his father's arrest, he's believed to have taken on a big role in the Cinaloa Cartel, probably possibly leading it. As of 2018, he was on the DEA's 10 most wanted list, considered by many to be one of the most powerful and dangerous Narcos in the world, if not the most powerful and dangerous. Current whereabouts unknown. Ivan Archivaldo Guzman, born on August 15, 1983, Ivan helps run

the Cinaloa Cartel with his brother, Jesus. In 2019, their younger brother, Ovidio, was captured by the Mexican National Guard in Kuliacan, and he led a heavily armed contingent of Cinaloa Cartel gunmen in armored vehicles with mounted weapons. They attacked the Mexican army won several battles to free his brother. Just went on, you know, went to full fucking war against the Mexican National Guard of one. That's how powerful this cartel is to list. Authorities then released Ovidio to avoid further attacks after losing numerous men and suffering

a ton of property damage. Current whereabouts unknown. Ovidio Guzmán Lopez, born March 29th, 1990, runs the Cineloa cartel's finances. He video Guzman Lopez, born March 29, 1990, runs the Cinaloa cartel's finances. He's the money guy. That's why they had to get him back. Since his brother saved him, he vanished. Current whereabouts also unknown. Edgar Guzman Lopez.

Born March 30, 1986, Edgar died on March 9, 2008 at the age of 22. He and two other cartel men, gunned down by Sic hit men hired by a rival cartel in a supermarket parking lot While they waited for one of their girlfriends to or one of his girlfriends to finish her shopping inside the store According to one source. He was shot roughly 500 times and then just for good measure. They blew him up with the fucking bazooka Jesus Christ Really wanted to make sure he was dead really wanted to send the Cinaloa Cartel a message with that murder. Rosa Isella Guzman or Tees born on October 30th 1974 claims to be the oldest daughter of El Chapo. She lives in California now. No one knows the exact location. She has two children with

Vicente, Zimbada, Niabla, also known as El Vincentio, the son of El Chapo's most powerful drug lord partners, the man who ran the Cinaloa cartel with him, uh, is male El Mayo Zimbada. L Vincent Teo made a plea bargain in 2013 with the US District Court for the District of Illinois, giving up info on the Cinaloa cartel and getting a 15 year prison sentence in exchange. Uh, in 2015, Rosa was interviewed by the Guardian in the UK. She told them she still friends with a lot of Narco juniors, second generation cartel members.

That's what she grew up with. She told them she opened up a hair salon, soda machines, car washes, and more businesses with her father's drug money. She was investigated for money laundering, put him prison for 15 days, and lost all of her drug money businesses. Caesar Guzman Salazar, now deceased,

murdered sometime in 2012, not sure about his date of birth, killed by members of the currently very powerful in Mexico, Yalisco, New Generation Cartel. Alejandra, Jazez Guzman Lopez, Alejandra born sometime in 1986, was arrested in 2012 while trying to cross the border into the US with a fake visa. A resident charge was fraud, misuse of visas, deported after pleading guilty.

She was pregnant at the time. Now 34 years old, she recently launched a fashion line called El Chapo 701. You can find it online, spoken around on it. You can buy an El Chapo face mask if you'd like, or maybe a Latuna de Chapo snap back hat or maybe the escape hat. Memorializing a famous prison escape involving a very long tunnel, we'll be talking about soon, only $100 US for that sick escape hat. She sells a pretty dope El Chappo whiskey flask.

She does not sell, unfortunately, and El Chappo coax Norte Mir, which I feel like is a real lost opportunity. Griselda Guadalupe Guzman Salazar, no one knows where Griselda is. I can't find any records about her on the internet. One journalist tweeted about her. El Chappos ex-wife is Alendrina Guzman, his only known daughter with her is Griselda Guadalupe Guzman Lopez. This woman is totally unknown.

Then there's Kim Guzman Dolce, no one knows where she is, what she's doing. Joaquin Guzman Lopez, no one knows where she is, what she's doing, Joaquin Guzman, Lopez, no one knows where Joaquin Jr. is, Laisha Guzman, no one knows where Laisha is, what she's doing, Imali and Maria, Joaquina, Imali and Maria, now nine or 10 years old, they're the twin daughters of El Chapo. It says that one of the source,

that the twin daughters, even though they list their names, their ages is different. So, are they twins? Those are daughters, they're El Chapo. And Emma Cornell, Aspeuro, a former teenage beauty queen born in 1989, only 32 years younger than El Chapo. I'm not sure where they're currently living.

And it was tricky, 80% certain about all of this, but not totally certain, because tough to track down information on a lot of these kids, which makes sense. They don't want to be found. El Chappo didn't want them, you know, didn't want their identities revealed, didn't want them to end up dead in some retaliation killing. Although El Chappo had several wives or his had several wives, many children, only his oldest sons became part of the cartel. Now back to the timeline. By the late 70s, El Chappo had proven himself working for the Guadalajara Cartel, gotten

some street cred and was working with a young Narco named Hector Louise Paul Masalazar. Hector was growing in his power. El Chappell moved drugs for him in Stinaloa. Stinaloa was a key state in the drug trade, a passageway to get products to various coastal towns and then into the US. In the late 80s, El Chappell becomes a logistics genius for the Guadalajara cartel. They find that he has a natural talent for figuring out the fastest, most effective ways to get drugs most reliably into America. He worked directly for Guiardo, founder of the Guadalajara cartel. Now, he's a hard worker and keeps his head down, never draws too

much attention to himself. He's a good soldier who wants to be the leader, but doesn't make that abundantly clear. Eventually, the DEA decides the Guadalajara cartel cartel has gotten too big. They send in an agent in Rique, Camarena, Salazar to infiltrate them. Now, to receiving tips from this agent, Mexican soldiers destroy the cartel's marijuana plantation. Their main one, it's estimated they lost about $2 billion worth of product. That's a lot. That's a tough day. But you know, when you get like $2 billion worth of product. That's a lot. That's a tough day. Well, you know, when you get like $2 billion worth of your product,

but burned, I'm guessing February 7th, 1985, the Guadalajara Cartel murders this secret agent and one other individual after I'm guessing was a lot of torture. The DEA now launches a homicide investigation and wiretaps cartel associates and government officials that on April 8th, 1989, the DEA captures cartel head, gay yard,, and Guadalajara. After his boss' arrest now, 32-year-old El Chapo, forms the scene of Loa Cartel. When one of these Cartelheads goes down, someone else always takes their place.

That seems to me to illustrate the futility of the war on drugs. The names of the sellers change, but the end result always remains the same. The drugs just keep coming. Well there's a lot of money to be made. There's always going to be somebody else willing to take any and all risk to make that fucking money. Why risk more DEA agents being tortured and killed when their deaths don't seem to even slow down the flow of drugs into America?

El Chappell would spend years studying what to do, what not to do, working with the Guadalajara cartel. He'd earned a reputation. He was a man to be feared and respected. And he saw Guiardo's capture as giving him the perfect opportunity to rise to power. When El Chappell forms the Sinaloa cartel, he does so with Ismail, Zambaric Garcia, better known as El Mio, as in the month of May, if you make the translation directly. There has to be another meeting.

Some local slang. I couldn't find it. Other sources seem equally confused. There was a lot of talking chat rooms of like the May, as in the month, weird nickname agreed. The May is a man whose son will later marry El Chapo's daughter. The son is now in prison, as I mentioned earlier, serving that 15-year sentence. El Mio has never been caught. Nine years older than El Chapo, El Mio was another powerful local narco on the rise. Together, the two became the leaders of the Sinaloa Cartel. El Maya had been a major supplier for the Guadalajara Cartel.

Big drug farmer. When the Guadalajara Cartel went down, those who didn't start running with El Maya and El Chapo formed the Tijuana Cartel. This cartel would become a major rival of the Sinaloa Cartel. El Chapo and his army of lethal bodyguards, then began enforcing control over Cinalella, killing an untold number of minor rivals. They quickly become the largest cartel in all of Mexico. El Chapón's cartel goes hard on recruiting soldiers.

And he launches a massive bribery campaign. They aggressively go after police, politicians, border agents, et cetera. Their recruitment strategy, pretty simple, pretty straightforward. First, they try to talk you into Their recruitment strategy, pretty simple, pretty straightforward. First, they try to talk to you into joining their organization via some bribery. These bribes can be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars,

depending on how important you are. They'd pay you way more than the government was gonna pay you, you know, for doing your job to look the other way, or to actively help them move drugs or break out a prison, whatever. And they soon had a lot of people in their pockets. If you weren't willing to take a bribe, their next step was to threaten your life or the lives of your family.

And if you still didn't do what they wanted, well, then they just fucking killed you. And maybe also killed you know, some family members. Pretty straightforward again. I feel truly feel bad for those Mexican officials and law enforcement officers, right? So easy to look down on them for corruption, but what would you do in their situation? A lot of local police and government officials had no intention of being corrupt when they sign up for their jobs. I'm sure many wanted to do the right thing, and they also wanted to stay alive and keep their family alive. You know, keep their kids alive, that kind of thing. And the cartels

also offer them a lot of money, life, changing money, real hard, not to cave in into that kind of pressure. Once you were in his pocket, Chappell had a second chance policy that was considered generous for a cartel leader. If you messed up or broke one of his rules, you get a warning. Cool, right? Sounds pretty nice. You know, he'd have it in force or be like, Hey, man, that wasn't cool. What you did. So maybe don't do that again. And he'd be like, Oh, I'm sorry, sorry for the mistake. And they're like, no, that's not, don't worry about it. Just don't do it again. And then if you fucked up again, well, then you're dead. Then they kill you. So now fair enough. Despite his brutality, a lot of people in Singapore loved Elchappal.

Just like a lot of people in Colombia used to love Pablo Escobar. Elchappal paid them more than they would have ever made had they never met him. From Poppy and marijuana growers to people in processing plans, turning raw materials into coke, heroin, soon meth, want to growers to people in processing plans, turning raw materials into co-caroons soon meth, the armed henchman drug runners, tunnel builders to get the drugs underneath the border, et cetera, et cetera. He had a lot of people on the payroll and he paid them very well. A lot of the people El Chappo employed were the people in his home village of Latuna, people who helped him grow drugs and prepped them for shipment.

He was a hometown hero. Mama Chappo, so proud of her baby boy. Once he was a lowly marijuana farmer, now he was a drug kingpin, Narco. He's brought his brothers along for the ride, racks to riches, drugs, drugs, drugs. El Choppo brings a lot of, or you know, bots, excuse me, a lot of adoration. He bought many of the people

of the tuna nice homes and automobiles. He loaned them as helicopters when they needed to get to the hospital. And in return, these people kept their fucking mouth shut. All right, they made sure to help hide him, hide his men from the DEA and any Mexican government officials that he couldn't briber kill.

Soon El Chappell earns another nickname, El Rapido, the fast or the quick, way better than the May. Because you could consistently deliver products from Cino Loa to the US within 48 hours, much faster, much more reliable than his competitors. How could he do that? Tunnels.

Elchoppa went big on tunnels rather than focus on flying drugs over the border or shipping them around the border via a boat or a submarine or having human mules walk them across the border. He put most of the Cinaloa cartels efforts into creating elaborate tunnels to go under the US Mexican border. Footage of Elchopo's tunnels, shall they have lighting, air ventilation systems, art sealants, incredibly well constructed. He actually would send cartel members to Germany to consult with some of the best engineers in the world to build these tunnels.

I've been deep down in this still remind before. And the tunnels I walked around and remind me of footage I watched of El Chapo's tunnels. These were legit. His men built real tunnels. They worked with engineers. He didn't just point it a spot in the ground, tell some henchmen with I watched at El Chapo's tunnels. These were legit. His men built real tunnels. They worked with engineers. He didn't just point it to spot in the ground, tell some henchmen with some shovels to get to dig it. El Chapo owned a house in Tijuana connected to some of his tunnels.

One of the walls, giant mirror, behind that mirror, secret tunnel entrance. That entrance led to another house. From that house, a tunnel led to yet another house, and then another, and eventually a longer tunnel led from a house in Tijuana to a house on the other side of the border popping up in a house in California, South of San Diego. Some of El Chappos tunnels were almost a mile long. Legend has it, some of El Chappos tunnels had fully staffed Starbucks in them, right?

You'd pop down with some drugs, get a fresh Grande Frappuccino, maybe a blueberry scone, maybe cake pop, maybe a pumpkin spice latte if it's in season. You head on down the tunnel with either a bunch of drugs, or if you're headed north a bunch of cash. I'm sorry, but it's saddles a bunch of cash. By legend, I mean according to my imagination. El Chapo didn't only use tunnels. His cartel also sent drugs across the border via cars

and vans. The cartel had people working for them at every border crossing gate to let them through.. El Mayone, his brother El Ray also infiltrated local airports, driving officials, uh, driving officials in, uh, on the US side as well in some airports, you know, to ship in the drugs by the 90s, thanks to consistently shipping so many fucking drugs into the US. El Chappell was earning millions and millions of dollars each and every week. He was by this time definitely on the DEA and the FBI's radar and considered

one of the most powerful narcos in all of Mexico. Colombia's Medellin and Cali cartels, their power was fading, the power of the Cinaloa and some other Mexican cartels were on the rise. El Chappo Cinaloa cartel controlled the majority of cocaine trade now all the way from South America to the US.

They also showed the majority of heroin, marijuana, meth, other drugs into the US. Are the early 90s, they were also, they were, they also, excuse me, were not only shipping drugs into the US, but also into Europe, Africa, Asia, and Australia. They became the biggest drug operation in the world. They brought the favors to O so many parties. And to maintain their power, they did a whole bunch of murdering By the early 90s El Chapo and his men estimated to have already been responsible for over a thousand homicides throughout Mexico rival gang members police officers local politicians whoever got in their way got fucking murdered

By 1992 El Chapo wanted total control of Tijuana such an important city in the drug trade The ariano Felix Brothers of the Tijuana cartel were still major players in Tijuana, his competition, and some guys used to work with back when they were all members of the Guadalajara cartel, and he wanted them gone. In November of 1992, Elchoppo tracks the Ariano brothers to a resort in Puerto Vallarta. He quickly plans an attack on them while they're inside a disco. His men shoot at the brothers, but they miss both the brothers survive and then a short time later.

They would botch a revenge attempt that will fail to kill Elchoppo, but it will lead to him getting arrested on May 24th, 1993 Elchoppo and his daughter Rosa are in the parking lot at the Guadalajara airport when some hit men from the Tijuana cartel try to take them out. Luckily for them, real unlucky for some other people, the cicareos fired at the wrong car and ended up killing one Jesus Posadas on Compo, a Roman Catholic cardinal, and six other people instead. The cardinal was in a white Lincoln Continental, the exact type of car El Chappo's wife drove. The cicareos thought El Chappo was disguised as a cardinal, which is why they shot at Cardinal Posadas, O Compo. That's one theory. Another is that the

cardinal allegedly knew info about the drug cartels in the government that he may have been on the cartel payroll, may have been in informant, and so they did want to kill him directly. The Cardinal's funeral causes a lot of outrage in Mexico. Mexico was and still is a very Catholic nation. All right, fuck with some government officials.

Okay, but don't fuck with the priests. A line have been crossed, and now the public is pressuring the government for arrests. The issue will warrant for the Ariano Felix Brothers of the Tijuana Cartel and Elchoppo. Each man has a five million dollar reward on their head for their capture. Elchoppo flees, traveling a thousand miles south to Guatemala to hide out, wait until things cool down, the DEA and Mexican soldiers form an alliance to try and find them and they do.

Eventually an informant leaks El Chappo's location. Wonder if that informant is still alive today. I doubt it. El Chappo was surrounded by the same type of loyalty down in Guatemala, like he was in Latuna, maybe he wouldn't have been caught. On June 9th, 1993, El Chappo is arrested in Guatemala, transported back to Mexico

where he's charged with drug trafficking, criminal association, and bribery, and sentenced to 20 years. For a time, the footage of El Chapo at the prison was the only video of him in existence, as powerful and infamous as he'd been for a while. Most people didn't even know what he looked like. Like most cartel heads, he preferred not to have his picture taken. Wasn't real keen on letting you take a video of him. Makes sense.

Probably not a lot of narcos today or folks down there are social media accounts trying to blow up TikTok or whatever. While Elchappo was in prison, his drug empire continued to expand. Of course it did. He was still running shit from prison. From prison, you know, he started having his men work with the government

to shut down rival cartels, doing their dirty work for him. Some of his employees with his blessing become informants for the DEA and for the Mexican police, like his lawyer. I find this part so interesting. The Sinaloa cartel's top lawyer, Humberto Loya Castro, was indicted in the mid-90s in the US by the Southern District of California. He proceeded to meet with US agents in Monterey and he makes a deal. If he gives him information, you know, he can resolve or, you know, he'll give them information if they remove charges against him and keep him

out of prison. At the time, he's charged with information if they remove charges against him and keep him out of prison. At the time he's charged with protecting the drugs and money of the cartel by bribing Mexican authorities, El Chapo approves this deal. The DEA just didn't know that El Chapo approved the deal. Loya Castro would then play the role of double agent for many years. He would tell the DEA what Chapo wanted the DEA to know and he would tell El Chapo what the DEA was up to. In exchange for insight info, the DEA was up to. An exchange for insight in for

the DEA would dismiss the case against Loyacostro that it had and would also not interfere with the Cinaloa Cartel's activities. They also agreed not to prosecute El Chapo, El Mayo, or any other Cinaloa cartel leaders. Loyacostro would meet with these agents at least 50 times over the years. El Chapo would totally plane them every time. In late 1995, El Chappo was transferred to a new prison, went to Grande in Yalisco. He sets up the transfer himself. He didn't like the prison he was in, and so he wanted to move. The prison he was in, he thought it was too strict, so he called in a favor, and he just fucking bounced.

It was that easy. And he would turn his new prison into his own personal playground, very reminiscent of what Pablo Escobar once did in Colombia. Check out how he ran this place. In 2000, El Chappo was set to be interrogated by a lawyer for the church that murdered that carnal. The lawyer thought it was odd that the interrogation wasn't held in the normal interrogation room, but instead in a private office.

He later said that El Chappo was given VIP service. Their meeting was scheduled for 10 a.m., and then El Chappo made this lawyer wait at the prison for 13 hours. He didn't meet with him until 11 p.m. that night. When he met with him, El Chappo explained his tardiness and this shit is ridiculous. He told the lawyer that he had a conjugal visit that morning.

And then afterwards, you know, he felt like taking a long bath. So he did. And after his long bath, he felt tired. So he just took a long nap. And then we woke up, he didn't want to move to lawyer. So he just kind of hung out for a while, getting his mind right.

And then he met with him. Oh, Elchoppo just fucking this guy. Just flexed on him from prison. The lawyer left this meeting, understanding that Elchoppo was running the prison, not the guards. That Elchoppo was a man to fear, he just did what he wanted. Can you imagine someone doing that in a US prison today?

Right, you show up, you're a lawyer to interview someone incarcerated in my boss and the guards like, you're gonna have to wait. Mr. Gambino is currently busy. What do you mean he's busy? My schedule interview was supposed to start five minutes ago. Look, Mr. Gambino is currently getting his dick sucked. And when he's done, he's probably gonna want to bubble bath

and then he's gonna want a massage. Then he's gonna need to take a nap if I know him and I do. And then we're gonna take him to Basque and Robbins. He loves milkshake. Then he can have some family over to play a little bit of picture-inary. And then if he's not too sleepy, doesn't want to just go to bed. Well, then you can interview our heavily punished prisoner. A chopper did whatever he wanted, other than leave the prison. Once, while in prison, I went to Grande Chapo invited his family to stay with him in prison

for a week. Christmas time. And they did. He turned the president into his personal luxury resort. Guards would bring him different women, Viagra, his favorite food, let him make his many calls as he needed to, hold meetings as often as he liked. They let him just do it as he please, you know, except leave the prison, you know, because I just wouldn't look good

for local politicians if he's just out and about again. On January 19, 2001 El Chapo escapes this prison though. Why? Well, there was talk of him possibly being extradited to the U.S. So he bounces and he goes into hiding for over a decade. He was smuggled outside in the laundry cart. No one searched the carts because almost everyone at the prison had been bribed. His escape would lead to the arrest of 71 prison employees, including the warden who was

still in prison for helping him escape. They were all on the Cinaloa payroll. After this escape, he goes to Kuikon. His empire only expands even more once he gets out of prison. On June 1, 2001, US President Bush identifies Elchapo and the Cinaloa cartel as drug kingpins pursuant to the kingpin act. This act past the year before now allows the Treasury Department to freeze assets of the cartels in the U.S. And to prosecute Americans who helped the cartels handle their money.

They can seize cartel kingpins bank accounts. They can shut down their money laundering operations and legitimate businesses bought with drug money during El Chappell's time and hiding, he never really hides. He just real careful about what he does. He'll still go out to restaurants, but before he goes into a restaurant, he'll have his bodyguards go in first, make sure there's no law enforcement

and also take everyone's cell phones. Then he'll eat his meal, then when he's done pay for everyone's meals inside the restaurant and give everybody their phones back. What a memorable night for those diners. He buys cars, gold plated, diamond and crusted guns. Are you really a cartelhead if you don't have a diamond and crusted gun? He buys helicopters, private planes, military grade weapons and technology, any luxury item

he wants. One of America's top criminal priorities being searched for by hundreds of agents, and this dude doesn't give a fuck. Just living it up. He goes out to eat, parties at nightclubs, keeps bribing the police, the government, random citizens to help him stay free. All the while, his lawyer, Loyocostro, is still talking to the DEA, still giving them fake info that Elchoppo has feed him. Still using the DEA to kill the competition by feeding them information on their rivals. In 2005, Loyal Castro gives the DEA info

that helps significantly cripple the Tijuana cartel. In 2006, El Chappo unites some various drug lords. He hasn't helped get arrested or killed to create the federation, a type of super cartel that he's now the boss of. In response, Filippa Calderon, the president of Mexico in 2006, launches a Mexican war on drugs.

He finally thinks the Cinaloa cartel has gotten too powerful. He sends 6,500 troops to R.S., a border city, a smuggling center to fight this cartel and others. And this war does not go well at all. It makes things so much fucking worse. Numerous public shootouts between the police and the narcos follow so many innocent bystanders are killed. So many. 8,000 people are killed by the narcos over the next three years and not just in shootouts gruesome torture becomes commonplace beheadings at one point l chopper has his men cut the face off of a rival drug dealer then so his face onto a soccer ball and then send that back to his bosses holy shit in two thousand six l chopper gains control of carez, a major gateway for marijuana

cocaine and mess mugging into the U.S. He also controls toijuana. The war on drugs has not done fuck off to slow him down. In 2007, El Chapo marries Emma Cornell Aspiro, his latest wife. Her family was friends with El Chapo and her father, Inez Cornell, Barrieras, was a member of the cartel. Despite the government actively searching for El Chapo, he has a huge wedding, attended by many police officers, politicians are present at the wedding. On May 10th, 2008, El Chapo son Edgar is murdered in a grocery store parking lot. That's the guy who was shot roughly 500 times and bazooked. And this really pisses El Chapo off, right?

It's a no be in. This is no good. He turns the city into a war zone and things give fucking crazy. Rival cartels after El Chappo is attacking them, they start doing shit like intentionally murdering random innocent citizens, leaving notes claiming that El Chappo and the government are working together that it was their fault. It's absolute pandemonium. Cartels are not just shooting innocent people. They'll be heading them. They're also doing shit like cutting off people's hands, throwing those hands in the streets.

Again, war on drugs, not working out too well. On October 22, 2008, the Mexican police raid a house. They believe Ray Zimbada is in. If you forgot, Ray is El Mio's brother, high ranking member of the scene of lower cartel, huge shootout ensues. Then after the shootout, they managed to arrest Ray. Then the head of the Mexican federal police calls one of the commanders on site, asked to speak to Ray. And then they hear Ray, or I'm sorry, they hear this guy say to Ray, boss, what can I do for you? I'm here to help you. The head of the federal police is working for the Cinaloa cartel and the head of the federal police. They let him go. Raise a free man right now.

Victor Gerardo Garei, Cadena, who witnessed this and is now in charge of the federal police anti-drug unit, estimates that at that time, 50% of the Mexican federal police were working for the cartel. So much fucking power. In 2008, the U.S. Attorney's Office throws out all their indictments against cartel lawyer Loya Castro, completing the secret deal between the US and Sinaloa. Loya Castro continues to give additional info and exchange for Sinaloa's continued protection. On February 24, 2009, the DEA launches Operation Accelerator against the Sinaloa cartel.

755 people are arrested, but not a Mexico in the US. California, Minnesota, and Maryland, some laboratories are dismantled. So arrests might not be going well, Mexico, but at least they're making a dent in the cartels American operations. In March of 2009, the DEA finally makes a major arrest in Mexico. Mayo sends his son, El Vincentio,

to speak to the DEA as a Sheraton Hotel in Mexico City. The deal was to give them info on other cartels, become another informant, like the lawyer. Instead, he gets arrested. And when he's put in an American prison, he isn't running it. He's kept an isolation for two years, isn't allowed to make phone calls even. Psychologically, this breaks him down. In his own words later, he said, I was going crazy. The DEA then set up a call between Vincente and Elmayo. Vince tells his dad that he is going to spill cartel secrets and his father allegedly tells him,

do what you have to do, help yourself, and help your family. Vincente then goes on to become the key to helping the DEA learn about this in a Loa cartel's operations. He's part of the group that eventually betrays Elchapo. He gets 15 years in prison, I mentioned earlier. Once he's out, he'll be part of the US witness

protection program and have to hide for the rest of his life if he doesn't want to get murdered. Vincente tells the DEA that El Chapo was an informant for the US government. He claims that a secret operation called Operation Fast and Furious is part of an agreement to give money and weapons to the Sino-Lowacartel

and exchange for information used to take down rival cartels. Others will repeat this claim. How fucked is that? A Mexican foreign service officer as well as a former cartel member verifies Vincent de Estab ranked number 701 on the Forbes list of richest people in the world. The US government puts out a $5 million reward for info leading to his capture. On December 16, 2009, rival cartel leader, Arturo Beltran Leva, is killed by the Mexican Navy. This guy was head of the Beltran Leva cartel. He was like Elchapel, born in Badeiroguato, right? Coke City.

The tip to lead to his murder was given by Loya Castro. All right, the Sinaloa Cartel worked with the Mexican Navy to take this guy out. Finally, DEA agents start to question Sinaloa Loya, Loya Castro. He never seems to give any info on El Chapo, only on Sinaloa's enemies. By 2010, the Sinaloa Cartel now owns almost the entire US Mexican border. And actually, before I go further, some of this information seems slightly contradictory in moments. It's because there's the narrative of what, like, the DEA is saying, there's the narrative, what the cartels are saying. Sometimes you kind of have to, like,

rebuking the lines, like, like, the DEA, like, statements will come out in articles, like, they're, oh my God, we're shocked, that this guy was never giving information on Elchappal, was only giving information on El Chapo and was only giving information on these other cartels. But then, and we'll get into this a little bit more later, there's all these people like, well, nothing weren't shocked. They knew because they were intentionally working with the scene of lower cartel. The DEA was giving them weapons, looking the other way, very aware of this in exchange

for information to take other cartels down. So at least that would decrease the violence. At least it would, things would be kind of regulated. It's also fucking complicated. But not really. But not really. It's just, it's so messy because again,

like we have, we've created this huge marketplace for drugs in America because they're so illegal. Ah, it drives me fucking crazy. Like the more I think about all this. Okay. By 2010, the Cinaloa Cartel now owns almost the entire US Mexico border. El Chapo is also now sick of some people in the DEA. He puts a $100,000 bounty on Jack Riley, a DEA agent who apparently has been hunting him. He wants to Riley to capitate it. In December of 2011, the US Treasury Department

labels El Chapo the world's most powerful drug trafficker. On January 30, 2012, Newsweek publishes an interview with the former cartel member who became a government informant. He reveals that his boss encouraged him to approach US federal agents. At the time El Chapo gave him this orders, the cartel was in a war with the VCF cartel. They wanted to give info to the government to shut down VCF. He went to ICE's office, ICE's office for an appointment where one of the agents said that they were there to help Sena Loa and to quote, fuck the Vincente-Carrillo cartel.

He revealed at least five major cartel members were planted in ice to give information after the publication of this article the DEA declines to comment. In June 2012, DEA agent Jack Riley amps up the man hunt for Elchopple. He doesn't want to get his head fucking cut off, understandable. He puts another team together called the Chicago Strike Force to go after him. They planned a launching attack campaign on his image in Mexico, naming him public enemy number one, providing detailed accounts of all his violence. In 2012, the US freezes the American assets of Elchopple's family members pursuant to

the Kingpin Act. They also learn El Chapo's cartel almost completely is running the drug trade in Chicago. By 2013, Sena Loa is supplying 80% of all the drugs coming into Chicago. Back in 2006, El Chapo decides he wanted Chicago to be his home port in the US and by 2013 he accomplished his goal. They employed local gang members to move drugs for them. They used Chicago's central location and freeway convergences for easy distribution across the entire Midwest.

On October 1, 2012, private U.S. security firm Stratford leaks emails from a Mexican diplomat claiming the U.S. government works with the Cineloa cartel to traffic drugs into the U.S. and to decrease violence in Mexico. This information comes from MX-1, a Mexican foreign service officer who is a confidential source for Stratford. MX-1's claims match Loya Castro in others claims over the years.

Allegedly, the Cinaloa Cartel was given carte blanche to continue to smuggle tons of illicit drugs into Chicago. MX-1 also claimed Operation Fast and Furious was part of an agreement to arm and finance the scene of low cartel in exchange for info used to take down other cartels. Around Christmas time, 2012, WikiLeaks publishes 2,878 emails from a cash of 5 million and some of these emails they publish are the MX-1 emails. Claims are again backed up. On February

14, 2013, the Chicago Crime Commission declares El Chapo public enemy number one. First time they've done that since they did it to Al Capone many years before. Art Billek, executive vice president of the Chicago Crime Commission states, we had freelance distributors in Chicago before. Guzman has taken them over one by one. He centralized everything, the shipping, warehousing and distribution of drugs and the collection and transport of money back to Mexico. What Al Capone was to beer and whiskey during prohibition, Guzmán is to narcotics.

Of the two, Guzmán is by far the greater threat and he has more power and financial capability than Capone ever dreamed of. And just like without prohibition, again, there would have been no Capone, right? Without an illegal narcotics industry, there would be no Guzmont. That's just maddening. Al Capone earned his spot after the St. Valentine's Day

massacre 84 years earlier. J.R. David, CCC president and chairman said, compared to Guzmont, Al Capone looks like an amateur. On January 6, 2014, L. Universal publishes an expose. After an investigation, they find that between 2000 and 2012, the US government had an arrangement with the Cinaloa cartel allowing them to smuggle drugs into the US if they gave info on rival cartels. This keeps coming up for more sources.

Judicial documents indicate that David Gattis, regional director of the DEA, authorized agents to meet with cartel members without informing the Mexican government and permitted the cartels to keep operating. Gattis resigns following this story breaking. On February 22, 2014, at 5.43 a.m., Alchapo is captured again. On the 20th law enforcement had traced a signal from a cell phone of one of his bodyguards to Mazatlan, a resort-like city in Sinaloa. Some Mexican Marines, DEA agents, Department of Homeland Security agents, and some US Marshall, Marshalls, all gathered in Mazatlan and go to Hotel Miramar. Now the morning of the 22nd, the Marines find one of his bodyguards protecting the entrance to his condo. The guard is quickly overpowered and surrenders and the Marines enter the apartment.

Elchoppo is inside with his wife, Emma, his daughters, his personal chef and their nanny. Elchoppo first runs to the bathroom, then realizes he has nowhere to go and surrenders a few seconds later. Remarkably, no one's injured during the rest. No shots are fired. After his arrest, they perform tests to confirm his identity. And then Mexican president Enrique Pena Nieto makes a public announcement that it was a triumph to arrest El Chapo. Going against US wishes, Pena Nieto then refuses to

extradite him, promising he will not escape. He says it would be unforgivable for the government not to take the precautions to ensure that what happened last time would not be repeated. But then less than 18 months later, El Chapo escapes again. On February 23rd, 2014, the federal public minister interviews El Chapo inside a Teplano, the prison he's held at. He tells him he is not a cartel leader. El Chapo says he just a simple farmer. He only makes 20,000 pesos a year. Before his arrest in 2014, El Chapo was planning to retire apparently according to what his

daughter Roso would say later and passed down the business to his son Ivan. His partner El Mayo was disappointed in this decision. Allegedly, he was supposed to meet El Mayo in a hotel in Mazalán near the time he was captured in according to Rosa. He was already retired. It was just a question of smoothing it over with El Mayo, but it seems the old man didn't much like the idea. We're completely sure El Mayo betrayed him.

They used to always meet in private places, and my dad found it strange that he had suggested that place. Rose visited him in prison and he said he felt confident he would be getting out soon. He promised her he'd be at the family reunion in November 2015. And then he would, he would make it to that reunion. It's fucking crazy. On July 11th 2015 Elchoppo escapes prison again. Despite being under 24-7 surveillance, time stamps from the video showed he left his cell around 8 p.m. after the guards made their evening rounds, Elchapo put on his shoes, walked into the small shower area inside his small cell, then he ducks down and then just disappears. He had lifted the shower drain, underneath it

is a one and a half foot by one and a half foot gap in the floor. Dude had to lose weight, squeezed through this gap, he crawled down the waiting ladder below that police later discovered in a elaborate escape tunnel. It was ventilated, had electricity, had a track for the small motorcycle he would ride out on. It didn't have a full Starbucks, but it did have one of those Starbucks like you'd see in the airport.

Not all the same pastries, but you know, pretty much the same drinks. Or or not, maybe I forget. This dude escaped in style. El Chapo had paid people to construct a tunnel system in the showers, the lead to his shower to make his escape. He went down a 32 foot long ladder, then through the tunnel on that motorcycle.

And then the tunnel ended at a house under construction about a mile away from the prison, just under a mile, holy shit. El Chapo had hired German engineers from Germany to build this tunnel. His escape took about 25 minutes. The government was humiliated by this escape, or at least they acted like they were humiliated publicly.

According to his daughter, Rossa, my dad's escape was an agreement between El Chappell and prison officials. Few months later, in early October, El Chappell meets with Sean Penn. Yes, you heard right, the actor, the guy who won an Academy Award for milk, another Academy Award for Mr. Griver. Dude, he used to be married to Madonna and then Robin Wright. This is so random. Chopped meets with Sean Penn and Kate Dicascio, a popular Mexican actress, because he wanted a movie made about his life. Sean Penn did not know that the DEA was tracking him and they used the meeting to try and find Elchoppo. And

Sean Penn almost got El Chapo caught. They located him in Durango, the neighboring state to Cinaloa. They launched an assault on a compound in a mountain, almost killing. Allegedly, he used a little girl as a human shield to escape. More about what went down between him and Sean Penn in just a bit. On January 8th, 2016, El Chapo is captured once again. He left the mountains, went to Los Moches, a coastal city of nearly 400,000 people in San Loa. He didn't like being isolated, didn't want to be on the mountains, he wanted to be in the city, he wanted to hide out. Mexican Marines surveilled him for about 60 days, and then one night after his men picked up a huge order

of tacos, the surveillance team follows them into a gated community of luxury homes. The Marines and Raida House, they believed he was in and a gunfighting suit. Four of El Chapo's bodyguards died, but only one Marine is injured shot in the arm. They find a tunnel inside the house and El Chapo is gun. Fuckin' tunnels! He almost always stayed in the house out of tunnel.

I saw a picture of one of his houses in Kulia Khan, where you could lift up the bathtub. I mean, it is so cool how they made it. You lift up this bathtub, you would never think anything was under it. I would never think in a million years to look under this bathtub. Under the bathtub is a secret staircase

that leads to a tunnel, that then leads to the city sewer system. The tunnel in Los Moches also leads to a sewer system. It was flooded from a recent rain storm. El Chapo had to wade through water to get out. El Chapo, some of his men, they pop out of the sewer a few miles away. They then steal a car, but the car breaks down shortly after they started driving.

And then Elchoppo is captured and arrested. Had that car not have broken down, he could still be free right now. After his capture, he sent back to that, uh, to, uh, to Plano Prison. They move his cells, uh, you know, move where he stays in a cell off and to prevent him from escaping. President Pena Nieto tweets that he is captured after a wild shootout in Los Mochis on January 10th, 2016, Sean Pan publishes his article about the time he spent with Elchoppo. On October 2nd, 2015, Sean Pan had meant Elchoppo at an undisclosed location.

And Pan wrote, I took some comfort in a unique aspect of Elchoppo's reputation amongst the heads of drug cartels in Mexico that unlike many of his counterparts who engage in gratuitous kidnapping and murder, Elchoppo's reputation amongst the heads of drug cartels in Mexico. That unlike many of his counterparts who engage in gratuitous kidnapping and murder, Elchoppo is a businessman first, and only resorts to violence when he deems that advantageous to himself or his business interests. Well, that's good. You know, he only has dudes faces cut off

and so on on the soccer balls when it suits his business interests. Sounds like a very reasonable man to meet with. During an informal dinner with the narco, El Chapo told Penn, I supply more heroin, methamphetamine, cocaine, and marijuana than anybody else in the world. I have a fleet of submarines. They really did have these drug submarines, airplanes, trucks, and boats. And then of course all those fucking tunnels.

Sean Penn was scheduled to meet El Chapo again on October 11th for another longer interview, but that didn't happen. He tried to make contact, but El Chapo was too busy fleeing continuous raids and arrest attempts. In October 2016, the judge for El Chapo's case is weirdly murdered, huh? Strange, probably coincidence. Probably not sending a message to the Mexican criminal

justice system to just let him go. If you don't want more of your judges to die, although, on confirm, the Cinaloa cartel is, of course, most likely responsible for this. message to the Mexican criminal justice system to just let him go if you don't want more of your judges to die. Although on confirm the Cinaloa cartel is of course most likely responsible for this. On January 19th, 2017, El Chapo is extradited to the US. Sad day for El Chapo. He been known to recite Escobar's motto often, better a grave in Colombia to a prison cell in the United States.

The following day he appears in a Brooklyn federal court, he pleads not guilty to over a dozen charges. On November 13th, 2018, Elchoppo's criminal trial begins. His defense proposes that Elmio was the real leader of the Cinaloa Cartel and that Mio paid the government to turn a blind eye to their operations. The main argument against Elchoppo is that he was the principal leader of the Cinaloa Cartel, not Elmio. The Department of Justice defines the cartel as a Mexico-based international drug trafficking The title of the title is that he was the principal leader of the Sina Loa Cartel, not El Mio. The Department of Justice defines the cartel as a Mexico-based international drug trafficking organization responsible for importing and distributing more than a million kilograms

of cocaine marijuana, methamphetamine, and heroin into the U.S. They present various ledgers, text, videos, photos, and intercepted recordings that detailed specific cartel activity from January 1989 all the way to December 2014. They present formal theories for how he ran his drug operation over the years. They used ship drugs and multi-tunned shipments, used fishing boats, submarines, carbon fiber airplanes, trains with secret compartments, and transnational underground tunnels. Once the drugs entered the US, they were sold to wholesale distributors in New York, Miami, Atlanta, Chicago, LA, and a few other cities across the country. He moved money by smuggling cash across the border using US insurance companies, reloadable

debit cards, and various shell companies. He was once tied to a juice company and a fish flower company, El Chapos cartel also once packed cocaine into chili pepper cans under the brand lock, come on, come on, adre and ship them north on trains. El Chapo maintained his power by kidnapping people and interrogation, torture, slaughtering rivals. The majority of the time his bodyguards did this work for him, but he also committed many acts of violence

and murder himself. The cartel owned and frequently used weapons like hand grenades, rocket propelled grenade launchers. El Chapo personally owned a gold-plated AK-47, three diamond and crusted 38 caliber handguns with his initials engraved on them. It hits it over the top. The cartel paid off the government, law enforcement, prison employees, and army officials. Carlos Manuel, Julio Ramirez, former army commando, and El Chapo's high tech guy testifies the trial against his former boss. His testimony is huge as far as getting El Chapo convicted. He confirms that he in El Chapo used sewers and tunnels to move between safe houses. He also said El Chapo

always had two planes on standby. They switched phones each week. They was heavily involved in running everything with the cartel. El Chapo, when it came time to defend himself, tells the court just like he had tried to, you know, tell him people before the heat. He's not a cartel leader. He's a simple farmer, right? Live it on 20,000 pesos a year in Latuna. Absolutely nobody buys this story.

In January 2019, a witness for the defense testifies that former Mexican president, Penin Nieto, had accepted bribes from Elchoppo. He'd finished his last term as president back in 2018. So maybe that was why he did not want to extradite Elchappal all those years earlier. February 12, 2019 after 200 hours of testimony, 56 witnesses, the jury finds Elchappal guilty on 10 counts.

His charges are engaging in a continuing criminal enterprise, conspiracy to laundering narcotics proceeds, conspiracy to commit murder, the use of firearms and furtherance of drug crimes and more On July 17th 2019 Elchopo is sentenced to life in prison plus 30 years with an order to pay $12.6 billion in restitution. I love that Why why even fucking add that? Who whoever tries to pay restitution when they've been sent to prison for life And now that and now Elchopo sits in America is you know

Strongest prison 80 x Florence and Colorado the Alcatraz of the Rockies, possibly the world's most secure prison, isolated in his cell for 23 hours a day. Has the war on drugs been one? Of course not. Three months after his sentencing in America on October 17th, 2019, the Mexican army in National Guard received a tip on Ovidio Guzman, uh, one of El Chapo's sons.'s sons they raid his house they arrest him and then in retaliation for the arrest the Cinaloa cartel goes fucking off They waged war on the city of Kulicon They're pistol arrows attack innocent citizens gun down random people in the streets create an atmosphere of terror across the city

Footage from the cartel shows them saying let's kidnap families until they free him. We will not release them. And for numerous gun battles, the army and cartel have a standoff, which ends with members of the two sides literally shaking hands. So fucking random, weird. Sorry about all the killings boys. Now we get it. They took your bro. I'd be pissed you out of the same thing. Agree to kind of disagree, go our separate ways. Yeah, cool. The Mexican government then hands over a video to his cartel just to get seen a loa to stop with their terror. President overdoor says the arrest of a criminal is not worth human lives. Mexican offers claim their priority is not to arrest a video, but to keep citizen safe. The cartel, they might not be strong enough to bust anyone out of ADX Florence in the US

yet, but they still do whatever the fuck they want Mexico. On January 30th, 2019, President Overdor announces there is no more war between the government and the cartels. The war is over. We want peace. No more Mexican war on drugs. It just wasn't working. They didn't win it.

The cartels haven't gone away. They just realized this is fucking pointless to try and keep fighting them. Let's hop out of this Time Stock timeline. Good job, soldier. You've made it back. Barely. After all that, a Cinaloa Cartel alive and well did not end with the arrest of Elchappal. Still being run by Elchappal's original partner and co-founder Elmayo, a few of Chappal's sons. Unlike Elchappal, Elmayo never been arrested. The US has issued a $5 million reward for his capture. They're probably not going to find him. Elmayo, much more subdued, less flashy than his former partner. He doesn't care about city life on luxury items. Much more willing to hide than Elchappal was.

Hey, Sus Esqueville, a journalist who writes about Narcos, says there's no information about El Mayo, no voice recordings of him, and that he refuses to use technology. Apparently, El Mayo won't even speak in meetings, does the one his voice recorded. He has one of his men come outside with them to tell them information,

then the bodyguard relays that order, the other people in the meeting. He's now in his 70s, and again, probably we'll never get caught. So let's recap. What a wild tail. I set out only to explore El Chapo, then ended up sucking myself into a look at US drug history, drug policies, and getting pretty fired up.

To me, that was the most interesting info of the episode. Not that El Chapo is not interesting. El Chapo Guzman grew up on a tiny ranch in the Sino-Low Mountains where any jobs outside the drug trade were very scarce. He began growing marijuana and poppy at the age of 15, leaves the ranch a year later to travel to the city of Kulacán, Sino-Loea. From there, he joins the Guadalajara Cartel. If he hadn't joined them already back in Latuna, then works his way into becoming one of

their main lieutenants. When his boss is arrested in 1989, El Chappel establishes a Sino-Loea Cartel with Omaio. He and his partner Omaio then quickly become some of the most successful narcos in Mexican history dominating the border, controlling the overall drug trade with the US. Elchoppo would go on to escape prison, not just once, but twice. His second escape, a dramatic exit via a tunnel, dude, drove out of prison on a fucking motorcycle. He was able to avoid capture and escape from prison through so much bribery. He paid off the police and government officials in both the US and Mexico.

Those he couldn't bribe, he would terrify. He had an army they could take on the Mexican National Guard and win. He was loved also by many in St. Aloa, kind of a Robin Hood figure. He gave a lot of people jobs. They'd never have an equivalent of without him. He made a lot of people, a lot of money, a lot of poor people. The US government spent billions trying to catch him and his men.

The US government spends roughly $50 billion a year on drug prohibition enforcement efforts. And for many years, a huge chunk of that money was spent trying to shut down El Chapo of Stinaloa Cartel, which never happened. The Stinaloa Cartel, right, they're fine. His partner, El Mayo, his sons are running things, continuing operations, almost as if nothing happened. Now, my glad a mass murderer is behind bars? Yeah, I am. El Chapo's a piece of shit. He butchered a lot of people. But is putting El Chapo the world's most powerful drug trafficker in a cell helping win the war on drugs at all?

Of course not. Study after study shows that overall elicit drug use has risen in America in recent years. I mean, we're in the middle of an opioid crisis. Maybe it is finally time we really rethink the current plan of spending billions and billions and billions of dollars to battle an endless sea of cartels. Time now for today's top five takeaways. Time, suck, top five takeaway. Number one, El Chapo grew up on a ranch called Latuna, and that ranch has nothing to do with tuna fish.

And everything to do with growing marijuana, and possibly poppy, source of its kind of very. His parents were poor farmers, lowest rung, on the drug smuggling ladder, and he sold anything from oranges to candies to make a little extra money to help his family eat. His childhood was characterized by a hard labor, a drunk abusive father, and a mother who maybe supported his dreams a bit too much. Since his dream was

to run a drug empire as big as Pablo Escobar's, which he would end up doing. Number two, Elchoppo pioneered the use of tunnels for drug trade. After he took power in 89, he earned the nickname Elrapido for his guarantees of getting drugs across the border in 48 hours or less. Like he was a dominoes pizza of drug traffickers. No one knew how he did it until his vast tunnel system was discovered. These tunnels had lighting, ventilation systems, sometimes a motorcycle, maybe not a Starbucks,

without it would have been pretty cool. They were extremely well constructed. He used a system of tunnels underneath interconnected safe houses and CU.warez and Tijuana that allowed him to ship drugs as quickly as possible, literally under the noses of border agents. Number three, Elchoppo escaped maximum security prison twice. Once in 2001, again in 2015, his first escape, he crawled into a laundry cart, was pushed

out of prison by one of the many people he bribed. Second time, his employees were together to construct a tunnel from a safe house that was 4,300 feet away, and it led right to below his prison shower. On evening, he disappeared and the tunnel climbed down a 32 foot ladder and rode away to freedom. Had to be the most stylish prison escape ever. Number four, America's history with drugs not steeped in the best interest of the American public.

It steeped in, you know, some pretty racist policies that were designed to target first minorities, then Vietnam protesters, also minorities, while some drugs like MF are obviously terrible for you. Others like Cybersilumushrooms can get, you know, you end up just as much legal trouble as meth in most of the country, even though numerous studies have found them to be when used correctly, very good for you. High time we rethink America's drug policies. Pun intended. And number five, new info, El Chapo's elusiveness has been celebrated in a narco-curritos written about him. Curritos are a genre of music in Mexico.

And a few other Latin countries, traditionally folk balance that lyrically focus on oppression, history, criminal violence, folk heroes love, women, drinking, narco-curritos, you know, focus on the drug trade. El Chapo's humble beginnings in prison escapes inspired many such songs about him. The one I found that I liked the most is El Enquentro, by Larry Hernandez, the encounter, also called the meeting of Chopper Guzman. Here's the lyrics. On the highway, I've been militaries. On the other side, well armed people did not know where, but who was between Sinaloa,

Durango and Chihuahua. I love the horns. Whoever they are looking for, they finally found several camouflage vans. When they saw each other, they thought they were their own. But when they reacted, they were gunned down. Tons of songs like this, out there, of just songs about his exploits. This particular video, 581 likes, just 20 dislikes, despite all the murders, a lot of people in Mexico still love El Chappell.

Time, suck, tough, five takeaways. It'll chop all, and the war on drugs has been sucked. All my favorite episodes in a while in terms of learning new information did not know much about the history of the criminalization of drugs until this week. And again, if I miss some really important things to think about, please DEA meets X other, you know, maybe like, you know, ice meets X, let me let me know what I miss you.

Let me know how you think the drug policy should be changed or not changed. I would truly love to hear some counter arguments. Thank you to the Bad Magic Productions team for all the help making time suck. Queen of Bad Magic, Lindsey Cummins, Reverend Dr. Jill Paisley, the Scripps Keepers Zach Flannery, new researcher, Olivia Lee, great job kicking out the research on this one, Olivia.

Bit of Lixer, Logan Keith, the art warlock, running BadMagicMurts.com and the socials. Thanks to all those who found the Colt the Curious, the new private Facebook group, Colt the Curious 2. Keep getting emails from the facebook police saying they are still reviewing the original group still scrubbing old post so hopefully uh... will get it back here soon

thanks to list Hernandez and her all seen eyes running whatever called the curious facebook page we have going and thanks to beef stake and the mod squad for keeping the party going on this court uh... don't know who won round nine of time, sog trivia as I record this, but I do know who won a $25 bad magic merch gift certificate in round nine. Lord of the ants, Craig Garan, every round now. If you just play, you have a chance to win $25 as far as a gift certificate. Whoever plays just gets put into a random drawing every round, and if your

name gets pulled, well, then you win that gift card. So congrats to Craig. Next week on TimeSuck, we delve back into cyberspace, been a long time since the Dark Web Suck, with anonymous. Even if you're not familiar with anonymous and they're hacks, you've probably seen the now iconic Guy Fox mask,

the white face with the giant grin, the black OT. Once merely a design for a comic book character, then made iconic in the 2005 movie V for Vendetta, or V is for Vendetta, I can love that movie. The Guy Fox Mass now synonymous with a group of hackers that have taken on everything from the Church of Scientology, hilarious, governments across the world, even the NSA. Anonymous originated in 2003 on the image board 4chan as a group of teens who came together to revel and politically incorrect humor and express their irritation with the world at large.

First acting out primarily for their own entertainment, the group then started using their hacking skills to go after bigger and more serious targets, using their large numbers to coordinate massive cyber attacks on websites across the world. All of this, of course, very illegal. These hacktivists operate outside the law with only their anonymity and whatever tech nerd tools They have to protect themselves dozens of people have been arrested over the years for involvement in anonymous cyber attacks Making them mostly dormant from 2015 to 2020 But many more still out there still hacking

We may be in the middle of an anonymous renaissance more hacks may be common So just who are these super powerful, super hero, super villain computer nerds? Who have they gone to war against? Both successfully and unsuccessfully, is anonymous a force for good, or just some angry young people using computers to just fuck up people's lives for the owner of amusement?

Going over all that, looking into some of the world's biggest hacks next week on TimeSuck. The future of crime is online. That's what the next cartels are gonna be, the Dark Web. And now, some Time Sucker updates. Updates, get your time sucker updates. First up, two quick pronunciation updates.

The first one from irritated, but still loving Sucker. John Evinov. John writes, dude, what the fuck? I usually don't like the pronunciation updates, especially if it's a rare name or historical word that's never used, like who really gives a fuck. But having said that, every time you do a suck with some hispanic sentence, we all have to hear you. Butcher the name Miguel is started with the night sucker suck and keeps keeps popping back up This is not a rare name at all man. It's not Miguel Like how you've been pronouncing it. It's more like Miguel. I just have to say something fucking love you though And other than that wouldn't change a thing keep up the great work John have enough. Thank you John

I hope you noticed that in this suck. I killed it on Miguel. I Fuck that name up my entire life This suck, I killed it on the go. I fucked that name up my entire life. I'll get corrected and then I'll just fuck it up again. Your email, maybe think about it more, help me stay on the right track this week. So I appreciate it seriously. And one more from knowledgeable sucker,

Tarell Swanson, Tarell writes, Good evening, Yeehoo Succath. I just listened to the episode on Uncle Willie. Bob Willie. Couldn't stop laughing through most of it at how absolutely ridiculous that entire story was. However, I have one issue with your pronunciation of psychopathy. While your pronunciation of psychopathy is correct, psychopathy is a bit different.

Instead of just adding the to the end of psychopathy, I know that's how I say it. I was saying psychopathy. The whole word changes. It's more like sigh, think the Asian musician, I don't know, like that fucking song, Gangnam Style. This is so big. A cop like police officer, a V, psychopathy. Exactly. Beyond that, it was a great addition to the time-side catalog. I think you should release your new single, solo artist. I definitely have room for it in my playlist. Have a wonderful week and keep on sucking. Well, thank you, Taro. Yes, that word did not sound right in my head when I said it to Kauaii skill.

I was like, mm, I'll just keep going though, because I don't know how to correct it. Now I've got it. Hopefully I just remember it. That's the trick, right? Getting it to stick. I do love that you all have helped elevate my pronunciation skills over the past Kauaiers.

Now for a Boba Wille update from an anonymous sack who knows a guy who may have known that guy, right? Greetings Greetings suck master three out of five stars. Don't change a thing. Starve it a long message. Good boy, Bojangles. Plank a plank a plank a plank a now that the pleasantries are put out or out of the way onto my message. Listening to the most recent suck on Robert Pinkton, there was a ridiculous conspiracy about the hell's angels and cannibalism. I cannot, I cannot comment on the cannibalism, but I do have a close friend who used to be a 1% or with the hell's angels back in the 80s and early 90s. He has since changed his ways,

left the angels to become a youth pastor in Southern California. I will be exceptionally vague for his privacy and call him John. Now, how does this pertain to that suck? Several years ago, I was talking to John about his former life because I'm obviously a fan of the show, which means I am a fan of the dark and twisted and morbid and macabre I asked him one time about what he would do after he had to take care of somebody and he replied with Did you know that a few pigs can devour an entire human in under 12 minutes? This isn't this wasn't some ongoing or this isn't some ongoing where was my dad on this date joke His timeline and his whereabouts actually do match up with Robert Pinkton. Long time spaceless or Yamotimesuck. Spockhand.

A non-us. One of your buddy ever partied at Piggy's Palace Good Time Society. I'm a whee-ee, my whee-ee. Spring out, my mom was from Bound to God knows it. That's crazy. That's crazy that that person you might have been on, Picked and's Pig Farm. Or might have, or if he wasn't, might've just fed someone to a fucking pig. That's crazy that that person you might have been on picked in his pig farm or might have or if he wasn't, might have just fed someone to a fucking pig.

That's terrifying. Now a special tribute to a sister who is crossed over to the other side from a super sucker who misses her. Mark Hostert, allergy alert on this one. Some pollen, maybe some onions or something. Seems to have gotten spilled onto this email. Mark wrote, Hi, Dan, hearing all the messages about pop ward,

listing to the Pop Ward suck, made me realize it was time to write a message to you, little bit of background about myself. I began listening to time suck shortly after you visited the Rizudo show at a St. Louis, the very first time. I can remember Riz, the host, yeah, those guys are great. Mentioning show specifically,

and you seem to be surprised, but also delighted that he knew the podcast personally. I remember him mentioning the R-Bud Dwyer Sucks specifically. That evening I looked up your show I was hooked. I quickly began tuning in every Monday for the latest release. In fact, I recently decided to become a space lizard and purchased a hat.

I think about all the dumb shit I spent money on and thought hell. As much as I liked this content, I should give this $5 a month thing a try. So lately I've been in on the secret suck. My favorite all-time episode is Albert Fish. He took something so dark, so disgusting, made me laugh, also realize the seriousness.

Never let that character die. Man, when you bring him up again, I always, and I mean always get a kick. Also, never lose touch with those personal commercials. I don't know what it is, but I always get a kick out of him no matter how dumb they are. Now let me get into the point.

I'm running you today as a way to say thank you for what you do and what this particular podcast means to me. I'm a teacher. I commit, I commute close to today as a way to say thank you for what you do and what this particular podcast means to me. I'm a teacher. I commit, I commute close to two hours a day making family work and finding a pay scale that works with life goals. A man and his thoughts are dangerous. And sometimes alone in the car, I can't help but think. My sister passed away in November of 2019 at just 31 years old, literally in just the

summer of that year, she wrapped up her jurist doctorate, finishing that degree at the very top of her class. That is so impressive. She moved up to Northern Illinois, and it seemed like she was going to do big things. Instead, what happened was a car accident. I'll spare most of the details,

but as we pressed for answers, it does truly seem it was one of those freak type of accidents. I'm struggling just to type this. She was the best of us, the absolute best of us. Growing up, she did not have a plethora of friends. I truly believed she was coming into her own in law school after her death. Her classmates contacted me.

The things they told me about how she went the extra mile to help, how she was always remembering little things like snacks on a road trip, or to go take the bar exam with, or just an ear to listen to. I'm positive she would have helped the number two person in the class because this is the type of person she was. I cannot help but smile as I read those things her classmate send, but I cannot help but be torn when I know my sister Jessica was ripped from so much promise in life. Let me tell you a story. S.I.U.C., University of Carbondale, Illinois provided me a hoodie after her passing.

Yeah, this is a look at I've wore that hoodie around religiously, despite not being a member of law school. Sometimes I feel guilty, but what happened next will forever validate me. I was walking around the grocery store one evening in an older gentleman in his 70s approached me because I was wearing that hoodie. He talked to me about his time at S.I.U. and began to ask me about my time. I explained to him that I wore this hoodie in honor of my sister because to wear it was to keep her memory alive. We talked about how she passed. We also talked about her impact on the people around her. Her incredible work ethic. It is

zired to do good. I will never forget these simple words. The stranger said to me, he said, Sun, you keep wearing that hoodie. And I will. So to make a long story longer, I was writing to say thank you for taking my mind off the dark thoughts that go through my brain and my long commutes. It is okay to think about her. It is okay to be sad about her death and things she could have done. I can let that tear trickle down my cheek and not feel less of a man because of it. At the same time, it's okay to be distracted by those thoughts sometimes.

And your podcast provides that to me when I'm alone in the car and long drives. The pop awards suck and the stories of grandparents inspired me to write about my sister. I love her and I miss her dearly. Jessica, you are the best of humans on Earth. I miss you, my dad misses you, my brother misses you, and you know how much our mother misses you. Keep an eye on us. Then thanks for reading this message.

And if for some reason you put it on the podcast, I appreciate it more as her name then lives on. I appreciate what you do. Show us perfect three and a half stars, or three and a five stars. Star for the long email. Hail Luciferina, Glory be to triple them, which I've put on the jukebox a few times at bars and sing along with and be good Nimra. Yours Mark Hauster from Seller in Illinois. Man, what a wonderful message Mark. Fuck yes, it's okay to be sad sometimes. It's okay to hurt, to miss people, to be angry, to cry. Doesn't

make you less. So man makes you a meat sack with emotions that you haven't killed off yet or just let die. Keep feeling while you keep breathing. And hail Jessica Haustard. One more message from a top shelf meat sack. Another one, Nick Barber, a message of hope and help to end on today. Nick writes, Dearest Daddy that suck it on high. A few months ago, I emailed you and told you

that I was in a dark place and was considering doing something terrible. You and your team promptly replied, gave me the number for the suicide prevention hotline. Since then, I have gotten therapy and been put on meds. I've cut off the toxic people in my life and I feel the best I've felt in years. That being said, I realized how hard it was to be a male with mental health problems. I'm not taking away from anyone else's mental health issues, but as a man where constantly told to suck it up or call things such as pussies, babies, bitches, etc.

I have to realize this, I decided to do something about it. I created a men's mental health support group on Facebook. We're still very new. I created March 29th, 2021. But it is already a huge help not only to myself, but to the other members of the group. If it's not too much trouble, is there a way you could help us get our name out there? Let others know they're not alone. We have people from all backgrounds, races,

former athletes, veterans, pretty much anything you can think of. It's a judgment-free space where men can come not only to get advice, but also defend about their problems. Your one email helped me so much. I wanted to try and help others like you help me. I'm sorry, I know this email is going on for a while, but I'm very passionate about this. And so, be on grateful for the role you played in my life,

I'll include the link at the end of this email. Again, thank you so much, loyal sucker. Hopefully it's going to be space as a Nick. First, thanks for this message, Nick. Good for you. Link is in the show notes. If anyone wants to find it, what you do is you just go to the episode, this episode,

in the time-suck app, there's three little dots in the top right hand corner of your screen, click those dots, then you click the, you know, download show notes, and it's yeah, just click that link. It's right there. Second, I gotta say Nick, you do sound like a huge pussy. JK, come on, got sting. Ah, come on, come on, now I'm good.

I'm fucking ridiculous. No, you sound awesome. And you're right, we don't always just need to suck it up. Right, there's a time for sucking it up to be sure. Also a time to get some help. And say, you know, if you, so you don't just keep sucking your way up to a heart attack or to a suicide.

Thanks for not only helping yourself, but now that you've helped yourself, you're also helping others. The butterfly effect, who knows what it's gonna be from what you're doing? How many lives you might save. So many awesome sacks in the cult of the curious were very, very lucky. Keep on sucking Nick, keep on sucking all of you.

Thanks, time suckers. I need a net. We all did. Thanks for listening to another Bad Magic Productions podcast, Meet Sacks. Please don't cut anyone's face off, and sew it to a soccer ball this week. If you're ever thinking about that, maybe back off the M-M-M-F!

Maybe just keep on sucking. Whoa! Man, why is this stuff legal? It's fucking great!