00:00Jono, what was the reaction from obviously one, the government and the locals who are caught in this crossfire, not
00:06even just local tourists, we saw images in the airport, so what has the reaction been?
00:10As you saw even there, Catalina, from what you said is the locals had been living in fear and continue
00:16to be, by the way, because 25 members of the National Guard have also been killed since these retaliations have
00:22now started.
00:22So the government has said, right, we need extra security measures, a code red in Jalisco has been announced as
00:28well, which is suspension of schools, public transport has been cancelled, and I believe that that is gradually returning now,
00:33and military deployment, which is to try and restore order, which as the President of Mexico has now said, that
00:38is in place, but the blockades have been removed, 250 roadblocks that were there, burning vehicles as well, and we
00:45can make the assumption that this is from members of the cartel who number in the thousands, by the way.
00:50There's up to 10,000 members of this cartel who operate through several different states and cities who are armed,
00:57and that's 10,000 armed members of the cartel alone, and it's not a small operation by any stretch of
01:01the imagination.
01:02Around 20 different bank branches have been also targeted. The number of arrests seem to be quite small in comparison
01:09to the level of the madness that's going on right now, 25 arrests is all that's been listed.
01:15But we're talking about a guy who is a big, big player. We flashed up on the screen, FBI's Most
01:20Wanted, where he's sat for many years, 15 million US dollars as a price tag on his head.
01:25So the military and National Guard there have been trying to crack down on cartels, but this is one of
01:31the biggest ones.
01:32It's looking at things like fentanyl labs, chemical imports, which is what they are responsible for as well.
01:38And as a result of that, we're now seeing this crackdown. No one has claimed responsibility for his killing just
01:43yet, and as Rawia said, it seems like it's the Mexican forces who may be responsible.
01:46But you're dealing with a cartel who have an arsenal of assault rifles, who have machine guns, who have sniper
01:51rifles, who have armoured vehicles that are on the street called narco tanks.
01:56That's theirs. And they even have rocket launchers and grenade launchers. This cartel is akin to an army. It's a
02:03huge operation to try and take it down.
02:04Because on the surface, you think it's one member of the cartel. It's the head of the cartel. Why has
02:09it caused such consternation? Why is there such a backlash?
02:11This is the reason. This cartel has got deep roots and is a big, big player in terms of exports,
02:17certainly to the US market, when it comes to illegal narcotics.
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