was that el chapo s people kept changing what are called burner phones, disposable phones used a short time and then tossed away. don t you have to go back to square one every time they toss them? if they drop their phones all at the same time, yes. but there s there s hundreds of people in this organization. and they re not all dropping their phones at the same time. i toss my phone now. she tosses her phone tomorrow. you re three days later. that was their weakness? right. it s not registered in anyone s name, how were you able to identify where these communications were coming from? through the names that they were using. they were very open in their communications. it was a big mistake by el chapo s operation. drew and the team could now track them, and the cartel operatives had no idea. they didn t think that those communications could be intercepted by u.s. law enforcement. were you actually reading their texts? every single one of em. could you tell wher
and just doubled the capacity here. how do things look on your end? -perfect! because we re building a better network every single day. by 2011, dea agent drew hogan was part of the hunt for drug kingpin, el chapo. drew and his task force partner, diego, infiltrated el chapo s sinaloa cartel. these are photos of their undercover operations. they acted as money launderers. and each step of the way, as they moved cash, they found a new target to exploit, leading them closer to the top. as diego and i landed in a new location we would immediately hit the streets. we would go out that night into the different bars and hotels and clubs to try not to look like agents? exactly.
no sign of him. it was time to regroup. while agents in the u.s worked to locate el chapo, drew and the team waited in culiacan. exhausted and on edge, they spent four days continuing to dismantle el chapo s criminal network from within his stronghold. you slept in one of his beds. i did. several of them. when we hit these safe houses we needed somewhere to stay. and the marines turned them into their bases, we slept in his beds. we went to the kitchen and ate the food out of his refrigerator. i popped open a pacifico, a beer out of his fridge. it must have been surreal sitting there in his living room, drinking his beer, sleeping on his bed. yeah, it was almost like, you know, i had become him in a way. so enveloped in his life at that point. just days prior you thought it was impossible to ever even go
communications directly from el chapo? yes. it took us a while to infiltrate this mirror structure that they had set up. a mirror structure, a ladder of phones belonging to el chapo s underlings, climbing to the top, from third tier, maybe a runner, to second tier, perhaps a driver, and so on. you essentially cracked the code? cracked the code. it was a high point in the search, after years of hunting, el chapo was in their sights. at last. coming up chapo knew instantly somebody was corrupt. drew hogan smells a rat and makes a move. we had to go into enemy territory and root him out. a bold strike with deadly stakes. the city is lighting up. it s on fire. the lookouts throughout the estate were alerting everyone that something is not right.
danger that engulfed culiacan. i think it is very dangerous. culiacan, sinaloa and those areas are completely controlled by drug cartels. but drew was relentless. for instance, just before he arrived in mexico, he came upon a treasure trove of evidence. el chapo had left his safe haven in culiacan for this mansion in cabo san lucas. it was raided by mexican law enforcement. el chapo got away. but there were key scraps of paper, notebooks, and phones left behind, with phone numbers that drew could target. you can t just target the man himself. you have to target his entire inner infrastructure. that means his his pilots, his facilitators, his couriers, his wives, his girlfriends, his sons, down to his maid and his cook. but it began with his two most trusted pilots.