absolutely, at every level. but u.s. and mexican agents never gave up on capturing el chapo. a 30-year veteran of the d.e.a., derek maltz, ran the special operations division and oversaw his agents efforts to bring the drug lord to justice. even though they were unsuccessful, in the sense, of capturing chapo guzman, they were very successful in the developing intelligence, the knowledge of how these cartels were operating. drew hogan and diego first joined the hunt with a daring move by infiltrating el chapo s sinaloa cartel. when did he get on your radar in a way that i think i might be able to get him, or i want to hunt him? that would have been 2010 into 2011, where diego and i started moving sinaloa cartel money. he and diego worked as part of a task force. diego was a local detective not a federal agent like drew. these are photos taken during their operations. diego passed himself off as a big-time operator as drew coordinated behind the scenes.
enforcement. every single time you got close, chapo guzman would escape. so basically it was amazing success for everyone. drew flew back to mexico city. mission accomplished. but then, the unthinkable. coming up i just felt a wave wash over me. one more houdini move! he was always one step ahead. you see elchapo walking back and forth inside the cell and then you suddenly stop seeing him. he just disappears. and one wild last stand when inside the hunt for el chapo continues. r el chapo continues.
pilots, who would swoop el chapo in and out of his hideouts under cover of darkness. it was a big discovery. drew learned an agent from homeland security investigations, back in the states, who he calls brady, had also uncovered the pilot s numbers. he came back and said that oh, my god, you know, this could be a gold mine. i said, look, this is what i have historically. this is what i know about chapo guzman. this is how vulnerable he is at this present moment, and we just began volleying intelligence back and forth. him, in the states, and me down in mexico. drew and the team knew el chapo usually didn t carry a phone himself, but was always with an underling who did. so they thought if they could track the phones of el chapo s closest associates, they would find el chapo himself. but making things more difficult
in let alone be standing in the living room. what about his vehicles? some were left behind, as well. he had an armored vehicle at every location which we took. the marines took and put them into our fleet. i m glad we did. they were the only armored vehicles that we had at the time. so i felt safe once we had done that. but el chapo was cunning and elusive. meantly, had you almost caught him at that point? yes. we re so close. i could taste it. coming up we locked eyes there just for a split second. at last, the hunter and the hunted come face to face. every single time you got close, chapo guzman would escape. he s like harry houdini. who had the ace up his sleeve this time? surprise you? i couldn t believe it.