Hollywood Reporter Interview With 'Narcos: Mexico' Showrunner Eric Newman

Having recently watched and enjoyed the fourth season of Narcos, Narcos: Mexico, on Netflix, I was interested in reading The Hollywood Reporter’s Q&A with Narcos’ showrunner Eric Newman.

(Spoiler alert if you’ve not yet watched Narcos: Mexico) 

Similar to the previous seasons of Narcos, the story of Narcos: Mexico unfolded under the guidance of an English-speaking narrator. This time, however, the narrator was kept secret until the final scene, and the reveal of his identity beckons more of the Narcos: Mexico story to be told.

The reset Narcos: Mexico — the fourth season overall in the Narcos saga — featured a primarily new cast when it traveled back to 1980s Mexico to show the birth of the Guadalajara cartel over the course of 10 episodes (which launched on Netflix on Nov. 16). 

In order to trace the origins of the Mexican drug war, the newest chapter in the cartel drama once again pitted a narco, Guadalajara's Felix Gallardo (Diego Luna), against a DEA agent, Kiki Camarena (Michael Pena). After building his empire — one that included both Pablo Escobar (played by Wagner Moura) and their Colombian rivals in Cali in a surprise crossover episode — Narcos: Mexico arrived to the unhappy ending the narrator had warned about in the season's opening minutes: Camarena was abducted, tortured and killed by Gallardo and his men.

"Kiki Camarena is the first martyr in the drug war," showrunner Eric Newman tells The Hollywood Reporter of the much-documented true story of Camarena, the undercover Mexican-American DEA agent who was abducted in Guadalajara and killed in 1985. "The collision between [Kiki and Felix] became so immediately clear as the best path to get to jumpstarting the Mexican chapter of this story."

You can read the rest of the interview via the below link:

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/narcos-mexico-finale-narrator-season-2-explained-1160925 

The Hunt For El Chapo, The World's Most Powerful Drug Trafficker

Patrick Radden Keefe at The New Yorker offers a long piece on the capture of Joaquin Guzman Loera, known as El Chapo.

One afternoon last December, an assassin on board a K.L.M. flight from Mexico City arrived at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport. This was not a business trip: the killer, who was thirty-three, liked to travel, and often documented his journeys around Europe on Instagram. He wore designer clothes and a heavy silver ring in the shape of a grimacing skull. His passport was an expensive fake, and he had used it successfully many times. But, moments after he presented his documents to Dutch customs, he was arrested. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration had filed a Red Notice with Interpol—an international arrest warrant—and knew that he was coming. Only after the Dutch authorities had the man in custody did they learn his real identity: José Rodrigo Arechiga, the chief enforcer for the biggest drug-trafficking organization in history, Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel.

To work in the Mexican drug trade is to have a nickname, and Arechiga went by the whimsically malevolent handle El Chino Ántrax. He supervised the armed wing of the Sinaloa—a cadre of executioners known as Los Ántrax—and coördinated drug shipments for the cartel’s leader, Joaquín Guzmán Loera, who was known as El Chapo, or Shorty. Arechiga was a narcotraficante of the digital age, bantering with other criminals on Twitter and posting snapshots of himself guzzling Cristal, posing with exotic pets, and fondling a gold-plated AK-47.

Guzmán, who is fifty-seven, typified an older generation. Obsessively secretive, he ran his multibillion-dollar drug enterprise from hiding in Sinaloa, the remote western state where he was born, and from which the cartel takes its name. The Sinaloa cartel exports industrial volumes of cocaine, marijuana, heroin, and methamphetamine to America; it is thought to be responsible for as much as half the illegal narcotics that cross the border every year.

Guzmán has been characterized by the U.S. Treasury Department as “the world’s most powerful drug trafficker,” and after the killing of Osama bin Laden, three years ago, he became perhaps the most wanted fugitive on the planet. Mexican politicians promised to bring him to justice, and the U.S. offered a five-million-dollar reward for information leading to his capture. But part of Guzmán’s fame stemmed from the perception that he was uncatchable, and he continued to thrive, consolidating control of key smuggling routes and extending his operation into new markets in Europe, Asia, and Australia. According to one study, the Sinaloa cartel is now active in more than fifty countries.  

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2014/05/05/140505fa_fact_keefe?utm_source=tny&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dailyemail&mbid=nl_daily166_stn&mbid=nl_Daily%20Test%20Template%20(9)

U.S. Treasury Sanctions Mexican Drug Traffickers Tied To Murder Of DEA Special Agent Enrique 'Kiki' Camarena

The DEA released the below information today:

WASHINGTON – The DEA today announced that the U.S. Department of the Treasury designated 18 individuals and 15 entities linked to Rafael Caro Quintero, a Mexican drug trafficker.  Rafael Caro Quintero is a significant Mexican narcotics trafficker who began his criminal career in the late 1970s when he and others, including Juan Jose Esparragoza Moreno (a.k.a. “El Azul”), formed the Guadalajara drug cartel and amassed an illicit fortune.  Caro Quintero was the mastermind behind the kidnapping and murder of Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Special Agent (SA) Enrique Camarena in 1985.  Following his capture in the same year, Caro Quintero was convicted in Mexico for his involvement in SA Camarena’s murder and drug trafficking and is currently serving a 40 year prison sentence there. 

Caro Quintero is also wanted in the Central District of California on criminal charges related to the kidnapping and murder of SA Camarena as well as drug trafficking.  Caro Quintero continues his alliance with Esparragoza Moreno’s organization and its key players, such as the previously-designated individual Juvencio Ignacio Gonzalez Parada.  The President identified Caro Quintero and Esparragoza Moreno as significant foreign narcotics traffickers pursuant to the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act (Kingpin Act) in 2000 and 2003, respectively.

Today’s action, pursuant to the Kingpin Act, generally prohibits U.S. persons from conducting financial or commercial transactions with these designees, and also freezes any assets they may have under U.S. jurisdiction.

“Today's designation is another critical tool that helps us pursue hardened career criminals and keep them on the run, making it even more difficult to use the drug assets they have amassed,” said Gary Haff, Acting Chief of DEA's Financial Operations section. “No amount of effort can clean their dirty money, paid for with their violence and by their victims, including DEA Special Agent Kiki Camarena.  DEA is committed to seeing that justice is done, and we will not rest until they and their global criminal networks have been put out of business, their assets have been sized, and their freedom has been taken from them.”

“Rafael Caro Quintero has used a network of family members and front persons to invest his fortune into ostensibly legitimate companies and real estate projects in the city of Guadalajara” said Adam Szubin, Director of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC).  “With the assistance of the Government of Mexico, OFAC continues to target drug traffickers, the laundering of their ill-gotten gains, and those who assist them in their illicit activities.”

Today’s action targets six of Rafael Caro Quintero’s family members, including his children -- Hector Rafael Caro Elenes, Roxana Elizabeth Caro Elenes, Henoch Emilio Caro Elenes, and Mario Yibran Caro Elenes-- his wife, Maria Elizabeth Elenes Lerma, and his daughter-in-law, Denisse Buenrostro Villa.  Humberto Vargas Correa, a longtime personal secretary of Caro Quintero, was also designated.  These individuals own and/or manage a variety of companies in Guadalajara, which were also designated today.  These companies include:  ECA Energeticos, S.A. de C.V., a gas station company; El Baño de Maria, S. de R.L. de C.V., a bath and beauty products store; Pronto Shoes, S.A. de C.V. (a.k.a. CX-Shoes), a shoe company; and Hacienda Las Limas, S.A. de C.V., a resort spa.

In addition, OFAC targeted members of the Sanchez Garza family, which is based in Guadalajara and involved in money laundering operations on behalf of Caro Quintero and also linked to Esparragoza Moreno.  Targets include the family patriarch, Jose de Jesus Sanchez Barba, along with his three sons, Mauricio Sanchez Garza, Jose de Jesus Sanchez Garza, and Diego Sanchez Garza.  Mauricio Sanchez Garza is currently a fugitive from money laundering charges in the Western District of Texas (San Antonio).  OFAC also designated the following additional Sanchez Garza family members today:  Beatriz Garza Rodriguez, wife of Jose de Jesus Sanchez Barba; Hilda Riebeling Cordero, wife of Mauricio Sanchez Garza; and Ernesto Sanchez Gonzalez and Ruben Sanchez Gonzalez, both cousins of the Sanchez Garza family.  In addition to Sanchez Garza family members, OFAC also designated the following individuals for acting on behalf of the Sanchez Garza family:  Michael Adib Madero; Diego Contreras Sanchez; and Luis Cortes Villasenor.  These designated individuals own and/or manage the following Guadalajara based companies, which were also designated today:  Grupo Fracsa, S.A. de C.V. and Dbardi, S.A. de C.V., real estate development companies; Grupo Constructor Segundo Milenio, S.A. de C.V., a construction company; Restaurant Bar Los Andariegos (a.k.a. Barbaresco Restaurant), a restaurant; and Piscilanea S.A. de C.V. (a.k.a. Albercas y Tinas Barcelona), a swimming pool company. 

Today’s action would not have been possible without the support of the Drug Enforcement Administration.

Internationally, OFAC has designated more than 1,200 businesses and individuals linked to 103 drug kingpins since June 2000.  Penalties for violations of the Kingpin Act range from civil penalties of up to $1.075 million per violation to more severe criminal penalties.  Criminal penalties for corporate officers may include up to 30 years in prison and fines up to $5 million.  Criminal fines for corporations may reach $10 million.  Other individuals could face up to 10 years in prison and fines pursuant to Title 18 of the United States Code for criminal violations of the Kingpin Act.

Note: The above DOJ photo is of Kiki Camarena. The DOJ also offers the below profile of Kiki Camarena:

Kiki, a 37 year old United States DEA agent and father of three sons had been investigating a multi-billion-dollar drug operation which implicated officers of the Mexican army, police, and government. As he left his office on Thursday February 7, 1985, to meet his wife for lunch, five men grabbed him a he was walking down the street and forced him into a car. Kiki’s body was found one month later in a shallow grave, 70 miles from Michoacan, Mexico. He had been tortured, beaten and brutally murdered. Kiki gave his life in the fight against drugs and always held the belief that one person could make a difference.

Enrique Camarena never asked to be a hero. All he ever wanted was a chance to make a difference, a chance to somehow help others. But growing up in a poor barrio in Mexico, Kiki must have wondered if he would get those chances.

When Kiki was nine years old, his family moved to the United States. Kiki worked with the rest of his family in the fields. As he picked peaches and plums, Kiki watched other kids head for school and he often wondered what it would be like to have a seat on the bus or a seat in a real classroom.

Kiki finally got the chance to go to school and he became a good student. I high school, he played on the football and basketball teams. He worked on the yearbook. He was even voted Best All-Around Senior.

When Kiki graduated from high school he made a big decision. He saw that some of his friends were headed for trouble, and Kiki could have followed them. Instead, he worked his way through college and earned a degree in criminal justice.

Kiki served in the Marine Corps. Then he became a fireman and finally a policeman. And when he saw that many of his friends got into trouble because of drugs, he joined the DEA. The DEA’s mission to keep drugs from coming into this country weighed into his decision to join.

Kiki knew something had to be done to stop drugs and to help the people he cared about. His mother knew that his work could be very dangerous and she even tried to talk him out of it. “No,” he told her, “even if I’m only one person, I can make a difference.” His mother was right. Kiki’s work was often dangerous and it was lonely, too. Old friends turned against him. But Kiki kept on with his fight against drugs.

He was such a good agent that he was sent to work undercover in Mexico. For weeks, Kiki lived among the drug lords. He gathered information and evidence. Just when his work was almost finished, the drug dealers found out who he really was. They kidnapped him. They tortured him. And they killed him. After a month, his body was discovered and returned home to his family.

Kiki gave his life in the fight against drugs. He gave his life trying to help others. To honor Kiki, his family and friends wore red ribbons. As his story spread across the country, others began to wear ribbons too. Now every year millions of Americans celebrate Red Ribbon Week (October 23-31) to remember Kiki and to take a stand – just as he did – against illegal drugs. Kiki set an example for all of us. He showed us how one person can change things. And he became a hero. All Kiki wanted to do was make a difference. We hope somewhere, somehow, he can see what a difference he’s still making today. 

Leader Of Notorious Tijuana Cartel/Arellano-Felix Drug Trafficking Organization Sentenced To 25 Years In Prison

The below information was released by the DEA today:

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DEA Administrator Michele M. Leonhart today announced that Benjamin Arellano-Felix (seen in the above photo), nearly 60, the former leader of the Tijuana Cartel/Arellano-Felix Organization (AFO) was sentenced today in U.S. District Court in San Diego by the Honorable Larry A. Burns to serve 25 years in federal prison. Judge Burns also ordered Arellano- Felix to forfeit $100 million in criminal proceeds. The sentence followed Arellano-Felix’s conviction for racketeering and money laundering.

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“The Tijuana Cartel was one of the world’s most brutal drug trafficking networks, but has now met its demise with leader Benjamin Arellano-Felix’s sentencing today,” said DEA Administrator Michele M. Leonhart. “It is a major victory for DEA and Mexico’s Calderon Administration. Together, we will continue our pressure on the Mexican cartels whose leaders, members, and facilitators will be prosecuted and face the justice they fear.”

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“Today’s prison sentence virtually ensures that Arellano-Felix will spend the remainder of his life in custody. Following this sentence, he will be deported to Mexico to finish a 22-year sentence. This is a fitting end for a person who has caused so much suffering and destruction,” commented United States Attorney Duffy. Duffy heralded the sentence as a landmark achievement in the United States and Mexico’s joint effort to dismantle drug cartels operating on both sides of the border and stated that “Attorney General Eric Holder and Mexican Attorney General Marisela Morales are pleased with today’s result and that this defendant has finally been held accountable for his crimes. Today’s sentence, together with what remains of his sentence in Mexico, will go a long way in ensuring that Arellano Felix spends his remaining years in prison.”

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Long-reputed to be one of the most notorious multi-national drug trafficking organizations to ever exist, the AFO controlled the flow of cocaine, marijuana and other drugs through the Mexican border cities of Tijuana and Mexicali into the United States. Its operations also extended into southern Mexico and Colombia. Arellano-Felix was taken into custody by Mexican authorities on March 9, 2002. A final order of extradition to the United States was granted in 2007 and after years of unsuccessful appeals, Arellano-Felix arrived in the U.S. on April 29, 2011, to face charges in the Southern District of California for narcotics trafficking, money laundering and organized crime-related offenses. On January 4, 2012, he entered his guilty pleas before Judge Burns.

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San Diego FBI Acting Special Agent in Charge Eric Birnbaum commented, “Today's sentencing marks the end of Mr. Arellano-Felix's reign as the leader of one of the most dangerous drug and organized crime organizations our agencies have ever investigated. While there is still much work to do, it is particularly noteworthy that this culmination would not have been possible without the cumulative efforts of law enforcement on both sides of the border. We are pleased to stand united against the violence brought forth by the AFO and see this individual brought to justice.”

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“The money laundering investigation conducted by IRS Special Agents contributed to the dismantling of one of the most notorious and violent drug cartels in Mexico,” commented Leslie P. DeMarco, Special Agent in Charge of IRS Criminal Investigation Los Angeles Field Office. "Today’s sentencing is further evidence of the successful partnership that IRS Criminal Investigation has with other law enforcement agencies by using our financial expertise to unravel the money laundering component of this multi-national drug-trafficking organization.”

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According to court records and the defendant’s admissions, Arellano-Felix was the leader of the AFO from approximately 1986 to until his arrest on March 9, 2002. During that time, Arellano-Felix served as the ultimate decision-maker for the AFO. Arellano-Felix issued directives to other members of the AFO, including his brothers, Ramon, Eduardo, and Francisco Javier Arellano-Felix, as well as his top lieutenants and drug-trafficking partners.

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Arellano-Felix and other AFO members conspired to import and distribute within the United States hundreds of tons of cocaine and marijuana, for which the AFO obtained hundreds of millions in U.S. dollars in profits. At Arellano-Felix’s direction, members of the AFO kidnaped, physically restrained and murdered numerous persons in furtherance of the AFO's illegal activities. Also at Arellano-Felix’s direction, members of the AFO bribed law enforcement and military personnel, and murdered informants and potential witnesses in order to obstruct or impede the official investigation of their activities. Arellano-Felix conspired with other members of the AFO to launder proceeds of the above drug trafficking activities by directing other members to transport, transmit, and transfer hundreds of millions in U.S. dollars from the United States to Mexico.

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This case was investigated by agents from the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation and prosecuted in the Southern District of California by Assistant United States Attorneys Joseph Green, James Melendres, and Daniel Zipp. The Criminal Division’s Office of International Affairs provided significant assistance in the extradition. The investigation was coordinated by an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF). The OCDETF program was created to consolidate and coordinate all law enforcement resources in this country's battle against major drug trafficking rings, drug kingpins, and money launderers.