the cell, and then you suddenly stop seeing him. he just disappears off the frame, and that s when he left. as the world learned, el chapo escaped through a tunnel dug right under the prison and up in into his cell. the job to retake him was now in the hands of the mexican marines and virtually the same group of u. s. agents minus drew. but this time they weren t starting from scratch. they understood his organization. they understood the network. they understood the movements. he wasn t as clever as he thought. learning from and building on the 2014 playbook, the mexican and u. s. team cornered el chapo on january 8th, 2016, just six months after he escaped. but this time he didn t go down without a fight. and it was wild. this helmet cam footage shot by a mexican
immediately hit the streets. we would go out that night, hitting the different bars and hotels and clubs to try not to look like agents? exactly. they were playing a very dangerous game. and drew was becoming obsessed, obsessed with tracking down el chapo. drew felt he went as far as he could in the u.s.. he needed to immerse himself south of the border. he made a decision to move to mexico city with his young family. i talked with my wife extensively. she knew everything we were getting ourselves into. and she told me, what s your gut telling you? and i said, to go. to go. let s do it. leaving diego back in the states, drew and his family arrived in mexico city in may, 2012.
colleague from homeland security investigations back in the states. together, they tracked phones of el chapo s closest associates, knowing that el chapo would likely be with them, and putting their locations on google maps. we have seen him come down out of culiacán, to a remote location. we were trying to pinpoint it. after hours of searching on google maps, we found it. it was a location where they saw tiny shelters known as palapas in the middle of nowhere. el chapo was camped out at a place known for duck hunting. where he would come down, meet with his most trusted lieutenants, sons, just for a few hours. then, he would head back to the city. once we had that location, it was our x and i nicknamed it, duck dynasty . drew now knew that el chapo
welcome back to dateline. i m natalie morales. dea agents, drew hogan had spent years on the hunt for el chapo, known as the world s most dangerous drug lord. he and his colleagues colleagues headed to the search to one block radius in culiacán, mexico. a town deep inside enemy territory. now, a team of mexican marines and the u.s. agents was on the ground to. determined to strike before he could escape again. here again is lester holt inside the hunt for el chapo. february 16th, 2014. as drew was waiting at a military base, 150 miles away
about to go down. the team had no choice. we had to make a move. and that move was to go into enemy territory and root him out. the task force leaders approved a bold action, to do what they did not want to do, and strike at el chapo in his fortress city, culiacán. you went in with the mexican marines into culiacán. they had to trust him? right. truth was recording on his cell phone as the operation began. this particular operation in february, 2014 was the first time that the mexican marines had ever done an operation, on the ground in this area. because of the danger, the compromises, the risks involved. laser focused on their mission, drew, brady and the team had narrowed down the location of el chapo to a one block radius. but, they needed to find the