Inside Mexico's Most Powerful Drug Cartel | Foreign Correspondent

REPORTER: For decades, Mexico has been devastated by the violence of deadly

drug

cartel

s. (GUN SHOT) 90,000 people missing and hundreds of thousands murdered. (MACHINE GUN FIRE) The multibillion-dollar

drug

trafficking industry is one of Mexico's largest exports. The

cartel

s are entrenched, many in the government and military on the payroll. Why do you think they let you do what you do? (Siren Howls) In the Mexican state of Sinaloa, the city of Culiacán lies at the foot of the Sierra Madre mountains. It is the home of the Sinaloa drug cartel and the site of some of the fiercest battles in Mexico's drug war.

Violence has become a way of life here. (SIREN CRYING) There has just been a shooting in the middle of Culiacán. We believe it is related to cartels. In fact, behind us there is a police car and the national guard. Yes, they are definitely going where we are going. Police said it was a job gone wrong between cartels. This guy had been shot in the leg, arm and head. He's lucky to survive. The policeman told me this happens every day. The police here are stretched thin and they are also the target. (SIREN SOUNDING) In May, the state's police chief was killed in an ambush by suspected cartel hitmen, known as sicarios, and a veteran Culiacán police officer was just reported missing, presumably kidnapped by the cartels.

Are you worried about not being able to get home? People here have very little trust in the police. Many believe they have been infiltrated by cartels. How big is the problem of corruption? MAN: Corruption in Mexico has been an extreme problem for many decades. Writer Ioan Grillo says the cartels are gaining strength and influence every year. It used to be that the security forces, the police and the military, had the upper hand and could extort the cartels for bribes. What we've seen over the last 20 years is that some of the cartels have become much more

powerful

, so that the cartels actually intimidate and control elements of the security forces. (Siren howls) Throughout Mexico there are many people who are very fed up with the cartels.

We are seeing record numbers of murders. We are seeing people disappearing, mass graves being dug for people, the country being corrupted, the country being held back. On the other hand, especially in the poor neighborhoods of Mexico, the cartels have a massive reach. They provide a lot of work for people, and people refer to the figures on the poster as "The Brave Ones." Very much a sanctuary for the Sinaloa cartel. You have "Narcos with Attitude." You have the "cocaine traffickers" of Sinaloa. These are all El Chapo. There is. Joaquín 'El Chapo' Guzmán led the Sinaloa cartel from a small trafficking organization to one of the

most

profitable criminal syndicates in the world.

He was extradited to the United States in 2017 and sentenced to life in prison plus 30 years. But the Sinaloa cartel still dominates the North American drug market. El Chapo was born in a small town northeast of Culiacán, deep in the western Sierra Madre. It is the perfect hiding place for drug traffickers. The mountains protect from prying eyes, the poppy and marijuana crops fuel drug trafficking. (DRONE WITH AIRCRAFT ENGINES) Light aircraft take off from improvised landing strips and transport contraband across the border. This is the country of cartels. And I'm going straight to it. We are about two and a half hours from Culiacán and this place is outside of government control.

I haven't seen any police cars in about an hour. All you see are guys like this on quad bikes with guns. These guys are one of the

most

powerful

cartels in the country and are partially responsible for the violence Mexico is seeing right now. I'm going to spend the night with them. I want to know what exactly is happening. This is serious territory. (ENGINE WORKS) (ENGINE REVS) Friendly and helpful guys, the sign. They're great. (SIGH) Oh! This is the end of nowhere, right? (THE VEHICLE STOPS) What is this place? Do the police ever come here? So the police come here and you bribe them with women? (SPEAKING OVER RADIO) Guys like these are small but important players in the larger cartel network.

They grow and transport marijuana and opioids to the United States. Oh, that's a lot of weed, right? Wonderful. How old is the little one there? WOMAN: Thirteen. Thirteen. 13? He's young, isn't he, to be involved in this game. Have you killed people with these weapons? It's still quite difficult, isn't it? He is like another human being, does that ever weigh on your conscience? Do you know, do you think about it? Why is he so violent? How do you stop that? (MACHINE GUN FIRE) What do you think of the police? This 13-year-old boy's entire family works for the cartel.

Is it your dad who is like the boss? Why do you think your dad sells drugs? Do you think you could kill someone? No. No. You know, they kill a lot of people every year. If they ask you to continue the family business of selling drugs, will you say no? I like horses. Also dogs. (COCKS OF THE ROOSTER) ALL: Good morning. It's amazing how quickly they go from pretty normal guys to terrifying killers. Do they consider themselves some kind of terrorists? A couple of days ago in Culiacán they kidnapped a police officer. I assumed they looked like acts of terrorism to me.

You know, if you're kidnapping cops... (GUN GALLOS) (GUNSHOT) We just received a phone call from a local crime reporter who told me that the officer reported him missing a couple of days ago in Culiacán, his body has just to appear. Hello. Reporter Ernesto Martínez has covered crime in Sinaloa for more than two decades. He shows me where the body of officer Jesús Manuel Soto, 45, was found. Is that his brain? Yeah. Oh man, really? A police officer has been shot 65 times and his brain is lying on the ground. Do you think anyone will be punished for this? (Bell rings) A few days later, the family celebrates the funeral.

I tried to talk to people in the family, they are all very scared. The police don't want to talk to me because they don't even trust each other. There have been no official statements from police chiefs or politicians about the murder of Jesús Manuel Soto. Another murder. Mexico is the most dangerous place in the world to be a journalist. It's not Syria, it's not Afghanistan... ...it's Mexico. I have left my country, ironically, to be able to continue doing my job. Journalist Anabel Hernández is in hiding. Her work exposing corruption has led to death threats.

I published a series of investigations with the connections between the Sinaloa Cartel and the top leadership of the Mexican government. Cartels are terrible, of course, but they became so powerful because the Mexican government was involved. EVERYONE SINGS: President! President! In 2018, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador was elected on a promise to eradicate corruption and violence. Mexicans had high hopes for this new president. In 2020, former Secretary of Defense, General Salvador Cienfugeos, was arrested at the Los Angeles airport by US authorities. He was accused of money laundering and drug trafficking. The army in Mexico was not happy about that.

The current Secretary of Defense asks the President for help to free Cienfuegos. The Mexican government intervened and the US charges were dropped. General Cienfuegos returned home a free man. Mexican authorities then quickly exonerated him. The fact that López Obrador's Mexican government managed to bring a US major general to Mexico, and then not press charges against him, earned President López Obrador huge points with the military. It is very obvious in Mexico that he is giving more power to this army. Long live Mexico! Live! Long live Mexico. Live! Since he's been in power, we have this new police force called the National Guard, which is a militarized police force.

So we are actually seeing a more militarized country but fewer direct attempts to stop drug trafficking. He promised to do something different but when you see the reality, nothing changed. Is the same. In some parts it is worse. I wanted to ask the Mexican government what it is doing to combat corruption. I met with Olga Sánchez Cordero, Minister of the Interior of Mexico. How is it possible that so many murders remain unsolved? A big problem is the levels of impunity. The latest figures suggest that 10% of murders lead to a sentence. You recently put the National Guard in charge of responding to the cartels.

They are a militarized force. Aren't you doing exactly the same thing? So why not just go to the police? I recognize that you inherited a very difficult situation. I do not deny it. It seems to be getting worse. More and more people are dying at record homicide rates. The question is: when will their policies see results? In the mountains, government policies are not working. He wants to be a veterinarian. What do you think is more likely? Will he be a veterinarian or will he end up on the cartel killing people? It's a little depressing that he probably has to kill other human beings, though.

Because that... you know, it's a bit of a messy life. Who really controls Mexico? Is it the authorities or is it the cartels? Why do you think they let you do what you do? For the people of Mexico, it means that the country is simply a disaster. In northwest Sinaloa, Mirna Quiñonez knows firsthand the pain caused by drug cartels. When Mirna's son Roberto disappeared seven years ago, she was determined to find him, but the police refused to help. Mirna heard rumors of corpses buried in mass graves on the outskirts of the city, so she grabbed her shovel and a pickaxe.

Word soon spread about the search for her. More mothers joined in to look for her children. Mirna's organization, Los Rastreadores de El Fuerte, now has hundreds of members. In the last six years of searching, searchers have found 207 bodies. But do they want justice? Are they asking... Are they looking for the bodies, but are they also asking the government or the police: "I want justice. I want to know why this happened"? So you are saying that right now in Mexico justice is simply not possible? There are almost 90,000 missing people in Mexico. But almost three years after Mirna started looking for her own son Roberto, she found him.

ANABEL HERNÁNDEZ: I think it is a moment to reflect on how many people in different parts of the world are also part of this problem that is killing people in Mexico. I think it's time. It's time to stop for a bit. Think about how many banks help launder that dirty money. How many decent people use these drugs? But they are not thinking that every gram of cocaine, every gram of heroin trafficked by these cartels that they consume, is giving more money to buy more bullets, to kill more people in Mexico. Red Bee Media Subtitles Copyright Australian Broadcasting Corporation