Dive into the wild world of Mexican cartels—from El Mencho’s downfall to El Chapo’s jaw-dropping escapes! We break down how cartels rule the streets, the crazy smuggling methods, and how all this chaos affects daily life and politics. If you love crime stories and real-world drama, this one’s for you! Don’t forget to subscribe and tell us in the comments what shocked you the most! #Mexico #Cartels #Crime #ElChapo #News
👉 This channel was created in collaboration with https://www.youtube.com/@kramola_online
0:00 - Elimination of El Mencho and Retaliation
0:39 - Rise of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel
1:13 - Government Strategies and Cartel Violence
2:50 - Influence of Organized Crime and Narco-State Threat
4:01 - El Chapo’s Life, Escapes, and Capture
10:48 - Current State of Violence and Insecurity in Mexico
15:14 - Cocaine Trafficking, Cartel Economics, and Corruption
22:07 - US-Mexico Relations and Future Outlook
👉 This channel was created in collaboration with https://www.youtube.com/@kramola_online
0:00 - Elimination of El Mencho and Retaliation
0:39 - Rise of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel
1:13 - Government Strategies and Cartel Violence
2:50 - Influence of Organized Crime and Narco-State Threat
4:01 - El Chapo’s Life, Escapes, and Capture
10:48 - Current State of Violence and Insecurity in Mexico
15:14 - Cocaine Trafficking, Cartel Economics, and Corruption
22:07 - US-Mexico Relations and Future Outlook
Category
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NewsTranscript
00:00The leader of the Jalisco New Generation cartel, Nemesio Cervantes, better known as El Mencho,
00:06was eliminated during a military raid. As soon as information about his death appeared in the media,
00:12retaliatory attacks by the cartel began in different regions. Gas stations and commercial
00:17establishments were set on fire. On strategic highways, fiery barricades made from seized
00:24trucks appeared. This tactic, known in Mexico as narco-bloquios, has been used by cartels for a
00:30long time. It's a kind of demonstrative gesture, as if to say that the cartels still rule the country
00:36and that eliminating a leader won't give the government anything. In recent years, the Jalisco
00:41New Generation cartel has turned into a multi-level criminal corporation. The organization controls
00:47important supply channels for cocaine, heroin, and synthetic drugs, including fentanyl, which is sent
00:53to the U.S. market. The gang's activities extend beyond drug trafficking. Their interests also
00:59include extortion, human smuggling, illegal fuel trade, and involvement in illegal mining. In fact,
01:07we are talking about a financially stable system with a wide network of international connections.
01:13Experience from previous years shows that eliminating a single leader rarely means the
01:17destruction of the entire cartel structure. In the 2000s, when Felipe Calderon was in power,
01:23the government was already betting on using force to decapitate the cartels. The result was the
01:29fragmentation of large groups into smaller, often more aggressive organizations, which only increased
01:35chaos and violence in the streets. Later, President Andrés Obrador tried to shift the focus by promoting
01:42the policy of abrazos, no balazos, hugs, not bullets. The focus was on social programs and an attempt to
01:51address the root causes of crime. Nevertheless, pressure from the United States, which was
01:57interested in reducing drug trafficking, pushed Mexico to return to tougher methods. In early 1995,
02:04Donald Trump gave the green light to deploy American armed forces against Latin American drug cartels
02:10outside the United States. Mexico became the priority, where six of the largest criminal organizations
02:17operate, which Washington officially classified as terrorist groups. The Mexican authorities took
02:23a tough stance, categorically rejecting the very idea of the presence of American military forces on
02:29their territory. Despite this, the country has been in a state of large-scale and extremely bloody
02:34confrontation with the cartels for many years. Criminal groups have infiltrated all levels of society.
02:41The murder rate among politicians and government officials remains at a record high, and corruption
02:47has reached the highest echelons of power. At the same time, the United States ignore the problem
02:53of illegal export of their own weapons to Mexico. Cartels get these weapons through the same routes
02:58drugs travel from Mexico to the U.S. Trump regularly accuses the Mexican authorities that organized crime
03:07has excessive influence over the country's political elite, and that Mexico risks ultimately transforming
03:13into a narco-state. This phrase may sound familiar because it was already said back in 1982. At that time
03:21in
03:22Colombia, the richest drug lord in history, Pablo Escobar, was seriously aiming for the presidency. But the
03:28Minister of Justice, Rodrigo Lara Bonilla, proved that dirty money from drug sales had been invested in Escobar's
03:35election campaign and excluded him from Congress. Bonilla appealed to the conscience of Colombians,
03:42saying that we must not allow Colombia to become a narco-state. Two months after his speech, Escobar's
03:48men shot the politician while riding motorcycles. Despite the tragic end, the minister was able to
03:54influence people's minds. Escobar was eventually caught, and Colombia did not become a narco-state.
04:00But what about Mexico? El Chapo.
04:05To hear the story of the legendary Mexican drug dealer whose story rivals that of Pablo Escobar.
04:13His name was Joaquin Guzman Loera, but his people called him El Chapo, the shorty. After the death of
04:20Osama Bin Laden, the U.S. authorities called him the most dangerous criminal in the world and public enemy
04:25number one. Since 2009, he was included in Forbes' list of the most powerful people on the planet,
04:32and his fortune was estimated at a billion dollars. The Sinaloa cartel became the largest organization
04:39in the world for smuggling cocaine, heroin, and marijuana. El Chapo became especially famous for
04:45his prison escapes. The most recent one looked like a scene from the Shawshank Redemption, only without
04:51years of digging. His accomplices dug a tunnel from an abandoned house one and a half kilometers away
04:57from Altiplano prison, straight into his cell. The underground tunnel had lighting, ventilation,
05:03and even a motorcycle. In the cell, they found a hole 50 by 50 centimeters and a ladder leading down
05:1010
05:11meters. According to experts, this required removing more than 3,000 tons of soil and making about 380 truck
05:20trips. The work must have been carried out around the clock for several months. This was not his first
05:26escape. In January 2001, El Chapo disappeared from Mexico's most secure prison, Puente Grande. The
05:34investigation showed that he was taken out in a cart with dirty laundry, and the plan involved 71 staff
05:40members, including the warden. He could have just left through the main entrance. He owned the whole prison.
05:47Since 1993, Guzman lived there as if he were in a hotel. He ran the cartel by mobile phone,
05:54invited prostitutes, and held dinner parties with lobsters and steaks. He escaped only because the
05:59United States insisted on his extradition. In American courts, he was facing every conceivable charge.
06:06After his first escape, El Chapo started a war with his rivals for control over drug trafficking
06:11along the U.S. border. He acted ruthlessly and quickly increased his influence. To avoid getting
06:18caught again, the shorty had plastic surgery, grew a mustache, and changed his appearance. Police didn't
06:24know what he looked like for a long time and often arrested people who looked like him. Since 2001,
06:31Guzman had been hiding in the mountains of the western Sierra Madre. He changed his location every day,
06:36lived in one of 12 fortified houses, and moved around accompanied by hundreds of armed guards.
06:43Each house had a hidden camera system, and there were surveillance screens around the perimeter.
06:48But the main reason for his elusiveness was a network of underground tunnels. In the early 90s,
06:55architect Felipe de Jesus Corona-Verber built secret vaults under the houses at his request,
07:00and later tunnels for escape in case of danger. Some of them stretched for more than a kilometer and
07:06had ventilation, electricity, drainage, and even rails for carts. Even the closest bodyguards were
07:13unaware of the tunnels. During police raids, Guzman would press a switch or plug something into an outlet.
07:19The bathtub would lift up, and an opening would appear underneath it. Later, he realized the tunnels
07:25could also be used for drug trafficking. The same architect designed an underground passage between
07:30the Mexican city of Agua Prieta and the American city of Douglas. This was a breakthrough. Most of
07:37the drugs in the US started coming in underground. American drug enforcement officers uncovered no
07:44fewer than 90 tunnels belonging to the Sinaloa cartel. Then El Chapo's behavior changed. He married
07:5118-year-old Emma Coronel, who demanded entertainment. Shorty lowered his security, spent more time in cities,
07:58and lived more openly. Before his visits to restaurants, his gunmen politely asked guests
08:04to hand over their phones. And after dinner, Guzman paid all the bills and returned the devices. He was
08:11guided by the saying, it's better to live one bright year than 10 dull ones. That was exactly what became
08:17his fatal mistake. In 2012, the US Drug Enforcement Administration tracked his smartphone. In February,
08:24he was nearly caught with a prostitute. Realizing he was being watched, Guzman gave his phone to a
08:31subordinate and disappeared. Later, he switched to a complex relay communication scheme through
08:36intermediaries – iPad, iMessage, and open Wi-Fi networks. It worked, but they still couldn't fully
08:45track him. Nevertheless, in February 2014, Guzman was caught in the resort city of Mazatlan. He became so
08:53convinced of his own elusiveness that he let his guard down. He was arrested without any shots fired.
08:59Mexican marines, the American Drug Enforcement Administration, and the US Marshals Service took
09:05part in the operation. The drug lord's location was revealed by two of his trusted subordinates
09:10who were arrested by the police. According to one version, they were subjected to torture. Before that,
09:17investigators gradually eliminated his inner circle, intercepted conversations, and tracked down
09:22couriers. The authorities offered a reward of $5 million for information about him. As mentioned
09:29earlier in this chapter, Shorty escaped from prison again. But after two years, El Chapo got caught again,
09:36and this time apparently for good. He was caught thanks to a romantic correspondence with 43-year-old
09:43Mexican actress Kate Ilio. Moreover, the Shorty wanted a movie to be made about him, held meetings
09:50with actors and producers, and by doing this, helped the investigation track him down. Actor Sean Penn
09:57interviewed El Chapo for Rolling Stone magazine, which helped the authorities track down the drug lord.
10:02Guzman gave an interview to Penn because he wanted Hollywood to make a movie about his life.
10:08And then what every South American drug lord feared happened. The process of his extradition to the
10:13United States was started. After his arrest in Mexico, a war for control over the Sinaloa cartel began.
10:21And in February 2019, a jury in an American court returned a guilty verdict against Guzman. He was
10:28sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole, where he remains to this day. A
10:35specially trained service dog checks Shorty's prison food for poison. However, maybe you'll hear this
10:42name in the news again. Perhaps it's too soon to write off a master of prison escapes.
10:48The scale of crime. Now, let's return to the present day. After seeing the news from the States,
10:54President of Mexico Claudia Scheinbaum stated that there will be no U.S. military presence in the
11:00country, and there is no talk of an invasion. She also said that such proposals have been raised
11:06repeatedly during phone calls with Washington. But each time the Mexican side responded with an
11:12unconditional refusal. Scheinbaum became the first woman to hold the office of President of Mexico
11:18Mexico in the country's more than 200-year history. According to independent polls, the level of
11:24support for the government is quite high, about 80 percent. People like various social programs,
11:31such as expanding assistance to pensioners and low-income individuals, as well as increased funding
11:36for education. But this does not change the overwhelming opinion that the country is simply unsafe.
11:43According to the National Institute, about 60 percent of the country's residents do not feel safe in their
11:51daily lives. The state's war on drug trafficking has been going on for 20 years. It began in 2006,
11:58when President Felipe Calderón sent federal troops to Michoacán to suppress clashes between rival groups.
12:07But as time went on, the blood kept flowing. And it still does today. Since 2015, more than 300,000
12:15people have died as a result of clashes among cartels and with law enforcement. At the same time,
12:22the number of military personnel involved in anti-crime operations keeps growing. It increased two and a
12:27half times from 2007 to 2014, and today, an impressive 100,000 people are under arms. Despite this,
12:36the murder rate in the country remains extremely high. In 2024, there were more than 33,000 violent
12:43deaths recorded, averaging about 85 per day. The death rate is about five times higher than in the
12:50United States. Missing persons remain a separate tragic statistic. The National Search Commission
12:57reports that since 2010, more than 103,000 people are listed as missing in the country. More than five and
13:04a
13:05half thousand mass graves have been discovered in Mexico. In many cases, the bodies were burned or
13:11destroyed with chemicals, making identification impossible. As for the cartels, the number of
13:18fighters reaches 185,000 people, which is comparable to half the regular army's personnel. At the same time,
13:26at least 200,000 firearms are smuggled illegally from the state into Mexico every year. Despite years of
13:33complaints from Mexico City, Washington doesn't seem very concerned about stopping this flow.
13:38In everyday life, politicians and officials are especially vulnerable, primarily at the regional
13:43level. The 2024 election campaign has become the most violent in the country. More than 200 people have
13:51fallen victim to contract killers, including registered candidates and those who were only planning to
13:56participate in the elections. Government officials are also under constant threat. For example, in the
14:03border city of Reynosa, Ernesto Vazquez, the special representative of the general prosecutor's office in
14:09the region, was killed. The attackers threw a grenade into the window of his SUV, then finished off the
14:15wounded man with point-blank shots. The murder was recorded on cell phones by eyewitnesses. He avoided publicity
14:22and played a key role in investigating large-scale diesel and gasoline theft schemes. The cartels were behind
14:30this. The stolen fuel was resold both within the country and illegally supplied to the United States. The scale is
14:37truly staggering. In the first six months of 2025-86, current and former officials were killed in Mexico. The total
14:47number of victims reached 112 people, most of whom represented the Morena Party. In downtown Mexico City,
14:55in view of surveillance cameras, the personal secretary of the capital's mayor, Jimena Guzman, and her
15:00colleague, José Muñoz, were shot dead. The president was informed about the double murder right during the
15:06morning press conference. The media described what happened as a blow to the very core of the ruling elite.
15:14Delivery. Mexican style. The reason for all this brutality and violence is money, or more precisely,
15:21cocaine, which is what brings in the money. The industrial production of cocaine is almost entirely
15:27concentrated in three countries, Colombia, Peru, and Bolivia. It is in these regions that the combination
15:34of climate, altitude, and soil composition is most favorable for growing coca leaves. And most importantly,
15:40the largest consumer market, the United States, is located nearby. It is estimated that there are
15:47about 22 million people in the United States who regularly purchase cocaine. The European market is
15:53also significant, but there are two factors. The high cost of the substance due to intercontinental
16:00shipping expenses and competition from cheaper synthetic drugs. Today, up to 90 percent of all cocaine
16:08consumed in the United States passes through Mexico. The annual volume of the substance reaches 900
16:14tons. Drugs are delivered to Central America by sea and air, either directly from Colombia and Peru,
16:22or using transit points in Venezuela and Ecuador. The land route is all but ruled out due to the impassable
16:29swamps of the Darien region in Panama. Maritime transport is carried out using high-speed boats that are able
16:36to evade pursuit by the coast guard of the region's countries, which are often equipped with outdated vessels.
16:43On average, up to 600 kilit of drugs are loaded onto one such boat.
16:47Small fishing vessels are also widely used. In this case, cocaine is placed in special airtight containers
16:54that are towed underwater. If there is a risk of inspection, the cargo is simply detached and sinks.
17:01There is also the classic method of smuggling on ocean container ships. It's physically impossible to
17:07inspect the entire container flow. Only a small part of it is checked. The high level of corruption among
17:13port and customs officials also works in their favor. Drug traffickers' technical arsenal is always
17:19expanding. One of the most notable examples has been homemade submarines. Although they can't dive very
17:27deep and are relatively easy to spot from the air, their advantage is obvious. They allow up to 15
17:34tons of drugs to be transported in a single trip and have significant autonomy. It only takes one
17:40refueling to travel from South America to Mexico. Air delivery is carried out using small, low-powered
17:48planes. Because of their small size, such aircraft cannot carry large shipments, but they are still used
17:55because aviation oversight is weak. For example, in Guatemala, there is only one radar station
18:02operating at the capital's airport. It controls only a third of the country's airspace. Also, the aircraft
18:09don't need much. The runways are simply compacted dirt strips located on land owned by drug traffickers.
18:16There are up to 800 such air strips in Guatemala. Such planes are used especially often for transporting cocaine.
18:25Flights are carried out from as many as seven Venezuelan provinces. The widespread scale of the drug
18:31business in a country whose presidency was stolen is easy to explain. Control over the key flows there is
18:37exercised by the Lost Souls Cartel. It includes active and former officers of the Venezuelan Armed Forces.
18:44The leading role in this organization is attributed to Diosdado Cabello. This person is directly linked to the
18:51regime, which remains in power despite being decapitated. They secured the loyalty of the top military
18:58leadership to President Nicolas Maduro. A change of power would almost inevitably mean criminal prosecution
19:05and prison terms for them. However, there have been no large-scale purges so far. Apparently,
19:11the regime hasn't really changed. After crossing Central America, drug shipments are sent to Mexico.
19:18The main route at this stage remains the Pacific route, which today plays a key role in supplying the
19:25American market with cocaine.
19:27Cartel. Mexican cartels are still commonly referred to with the prefix narco, although their activities have
19:34long gone beyond the trade of illegal substances. They have infiltrated food logistics, the fuel market,
19:41public transportation, and even resource extraction. According to the Institute for Economics and Peace,
19:47in 2024, the economic losses from crime amounted to the equivalent of 18% of GDP, and in some states,
19:55up to 35%. Converted per capita, the damage amounted to almost 34,000 pesos, or 148,000 rubles.
20:04Roughly speaking, that's the amount by which every Mexican can feel the economic impact of the drug
20:09cartels. Researchers point out that without the influence of organized crime, inflation could have
20:15been twice as low. Extortion is also thriving. Small and medium-sized businesses are forced to pay
20:22so-called protection fees to criminal groups every week, which are then included in the prices. Any
20:28attempts to eliminate them often end in violence. A telling case occurred in Veracruz,
20:33where a 62-year-old pensioner who worked part-time as a taxi driver was kidnapped for refusing to pay
20:39protection money. The criminals recorded a video with her, forcing her to publicly urge her colleagues
20:45to obey the mafia. A few days later, the woman was found murdered. Corruption is just as bad.
20:52In the Transparency International Index, Mexico ranks 140th. Recently, for example, former Minister of
21:00Public Security, Genaro Garcia Luna, was sentenced to prison for collaborating with the Sinaloa cartel,
21:06the same cartel where El Chapo operated. Even agriculture is involved in criminal schemes.
21:13In Michoacan, a key avocado-producing region, a significant portion of new plantations was created
21:19through the illegal seizure of protected lands. Local residents were often forced off their land,
21:25sometimes violently. Buyers also point out the criminal aspect of this industry. Similar processes
21:33are observed in other sectors as well, from the chicken market to tortilla production,
21:37where prices are increasingly determined not by supply and demand, but by the pressure of criminal
21:42groups. Smuggling of mercury, which is used in illegal gold mining in South America, has become
21:48a separate source of income, causing severe damage to the environment and people's health. Despite efforts
21:55by Mexican authorities, organized crime remains strong, with no significant drop in violence or cartel
22:01influence. In this sense, Trump's harsh assessment is justified. This is the tense situation in Mexico
22:09at the moment. Trump won his first term largely thanks to his anti-immigration agenda and the
22:15construction of the wall specifically on the Mexican border. And besides, Mexico is right next door to the
22:21States, on the same continent, not some distant Greenland. So it's exactly here that the next
22:27international scandal could break out. That's all for today. Support our work on this video,
22:32and see you in future videos on Cremola.