Most Dangerous State of Mexico / Narcos War Zones / How people live

here are the instructions that everyone needs to follow when entering the city firstly you must lower your car's windows to let the cartel see you and let them know that you have good intentions stranger or not you still have to do it otherwise if your windows are up god forbid tinted the aggression towards you is guaranteed therefore we will now go to a nearby city wait for them to see us and they might even stop and question us [Music] [Music] my people today i will show you a country where even the police drive around with gunmen for security police has no control in the city and they don't even come here if they do though expect a massive conflict we'll visit the guerrero state mountains home of the largest heroin plantations in the country this is where mexicans grow their stuff we'll talk to local gang members who weigh their cash because it's quicker to count it that way these people don't just control a shop or a street nope not even districts instead they control entire villages and towns because the ways each of these guys has a gun some look like modern rifles some look like hunting guns and even shotguns i'll try and meet up with one of the largest narco cartels in mexico to figure out just how much of the illegal stuff do they actually sell they should bring it with me okay they've taken me to some dodgy courtyard kind of get in here through this secret door believe it or not and i hope we come out of here afterwards [Music] this beautiful bridge is basically the entrance to mexico's most dangerous region it's the guerrero state where half of mexico's heroin production takes place honestly when i was on my way to mexico i had no idea that this trip would turn out to be one of the most insane trips of my life all due to the fact that mexico is now experiencing a new evolution of drug wars and today i'll visit cities with no army no police since it's narcos who control them welcome to how do people live by leodov from mexico [Music] the real map of mexico has nothing to do with what you see on google maps the whole country is split between gangs locally called the cartels and as for the rich and powerful ones there are 10 of them the 1000 member strong tijuana cartel is situated on the coast then comes the juarez cartel located at the border with the us it is the most ruthless cartel in mexico known for burning people alive in their cars and hanging some people from lampposts just because they can it's hard not to mention the los zettas renowned for their professionalism this cartel comprises special forces fugitives and paratroopers from the local army at first these guys were like an army for rent mercenaries but then they became stronger and formed a fully fledged cartel still as for the two most historically powerful cartels in the country it's of course the sinaloa cartel responsible for 60 of drug trafficking into the us actually these guys are more of a government they have their own fleet of 600 planes which is five times more than mexico's largest airline aero mexico and an army equipped with professional machine guns sniper rifles and armored trucks then there is the jalisco cartel it's the fastest growing one since it took them only six months to expand from one coast to another according to the stats mexico's most recent death toll has outpaced all the historic figures collected over the past 30 years over 30 000 people were reported dead or missing in 2019 alone whilst unofficial figures must be much greater all the russians who live in mexico warned me that it is a borderline crazy to go to the guerrero state because it is currently the most dangerous state there is and it's where the main drug war is taking place it's where they stop cars and shoot people like what happened recently when some travelling musicians were shot for no reason mexico also takes the fourth place in the world by the number of killed journalists coming right after afghanistan iraq and india as an example one of the cartels recently shot a local journalist who was investigating the ties they have with the government they also left a message in her car that read for speaking too loud this of course is not just a random trip for me and i have people expecting me on the other side still even this doesn't really guarantee that everything will go to plan and although these guys know that i am a foreigner and they are supposedly meant to be my friends who knows what will happen and how things will turn out to start with i hope they show up and they will navigate us to the roads where people don't get shot carlos my guide is the first armenian i've ever met who doesn't speak russian he was born and lived in mexico nearly all his life we made a turn for the main road and now this is very much resembles a neighborhood from gta random dudes on every corner and right away they start checking us out and it's better to leave the things at the room at the hotel and then we're able to walk with little cash you don't want but hold your money if you don't have money they might get upset so it's like a tip you know guys before i reach that place in mexico i want to ask you a question do you love mobile gaming if so check out raid shadow legends and the link below it's available on pc and mobile devices and it's absolutely free [Music] you can join a clan and team up to take on the dungeon bosses or collect artifacts and level up your champions here are some cool champions that i like the most edel's one of the starter champions and she has an awesome multi-hit attack that does three guaranteed hits and the third hit has a high chance of placing a weakened debuff that makes the enemy take more damage ettel can mow down hordes of enemies fast this makes her very decent farmer and a great overall damage dealer o'hooden does absolutely insane damage he can buff himself before attacking and deliver an extra hard hit that decreases the attack if the enemy somehow manages to survive hoden works really well against waves of enemies and you can make for a strong mid-game farmer or very solid attacker choice for your team just in time before holidays this game got its biggest update ever with the doom tower and its 120 floors of secret challenge rooms and 12 new bosses to battle to go with the update ray shadow legends released bulwark to have everyone get started in the tower click the link in the description below to get a leg up on the competition with a free boy champion xp booster 50 games energy refills and an ancient shard available as soon as you start playing and don't forget bulwark the champion you get for free you will find your extras in your inbox for the 30th following days only so go to the description download the great shadow agents and support my channel and now let's get back to mexico if you think that getting to mexico was as easy as jumping on a plane well you're wrong thanks to lockdown direct flights from moscow were bound and hence first i had to take a train to the border with bella russia interesting what an awesome start to the trip my train departs from platform 13 and my carriage is also yup number 13. i'm departing from moscow and here we go my first checkpoint is a town called novozipkov near the belarussian border the only way you can leave the country is if you have some documents that prove the purpose of your trip and i obviously had them not to break any international laws unlike some who cross the border illegally through the forest and this is what it looks like forest there is bella russia this area is heavily patrolled right now in a bid to stop illegal border crossing patrol cars are everywhere i saw the first one as early as 5am the only way you get an update on the patrol intel is to ask local mushroom pickers is there anyone up ahead there is a myriad of roads that link the two countries and since it's impossible to control all of them custom police try to be smart about it do you need help there is no way to pass this it's too heavy well maybe it's an ambush and they're watching us as i speak are planning on where to best get us let's hope not eventually i decided not to risk it and cross the border through an official customs point we've just reached the main checkpoint in belarussia yep every time i end up in some city in belarussia that's not the capital it feels as if it's an upgraded city out of the soviet union you've got burger king here but then you walk into the train station and you get soaked in soviet union with the statue of lenin and the rest tripwise it took me five hours to reach the capital then a short flight to amsterdam followed by a direct flight to mexico no idea why but all european airports have condom dispensers in the loose i mean why are you all super spontaneous here i've never seen amsterdam airport this empty this is such a weird feeling to finally be aboard after the lockdown we had what's crazy is that this is meant to be one of the busiest airports in europe and look at it now not a single soul with rare occasions [Music] the flight takes 12 hours and despite the lockdown those planes that travel to tourist locations in mexico are usually quite full and the tourism in the country continues to grow [Music] as for the towns that are caught in the cartel wars well they are very different to the rest of the country no one ever goes there apart from the locals hey we're on our way to the city that serves as a symbol of the narco wars in mexico it's where 40 students who protested against the local city mayor suddenly disappeared as if they never existed at all their bus was stopped on the way to a strike and whatever mayhem happened next is still a mystery 43 students disappeared with no trace making it a global scale event that was covered by practically every news channel in the world the students were stopped by police fired on and they were handed over parents of the vanished students march a year after to commemorate the tragedy several people were killed and 43 students disappeared the problem is that in order to get to their college they had to pass a city called trickster that is controlled by three separate gangs i found a little hideout to fire up my drone and check out the surroundings it's a bit scary to fly a drone in such places to be honest with you because you never know what can happen i can get shot for example this town is split between the gang los ardios it's them who killed the students and then we have los sarojos who are part of their largest drug cartel in the mexican gulf and the cartel del sur that controls the surrounding heroin fields those are not strategic we are meant to meet up with someone who'll take us across the state but it's not picking up [Music] we haven't even entered the city yet but already i feel as if we're entering someone's flat without asking you sit in your car and everyone is staring at you especially the tattooed guy then there are randomly parked cars with watchers who stop cars at will a loaded weapon police checkpoint broken glass everywhere and expensive cars which is surprising given how poor the city is [Music] this here is the real mexico it's hot poor and dangerous even police are armed like there's no tomorrow turns out it's how police roam the streets even in mexico city these days finally we've met up with our kinect who will now give us survival instructions they will first come collect some intel on you before you can be let in make sure you don't film anything when we enter the city don't let them see you with a camera the region is controlled by a so-called humanitarian police which in reality is linked to a cartel will have to lower the windows so they see us right yeah and if they ask us to stop we'd stop we'll talk to them and let's not get the cameras out before they identify us our job is to enter the city and talk to a student who could have been 44th dead on that day he saw the slaughter with his own eyes but managed to escape it's very hard to watch people like him because he is being watched and he may not be willing to talk to us there has been a lot of attention around this case recently because a bone of one of the students was found the problem is that since cartel is linked to what happened they're not too happy when someone comes and starts asking questions [Music] in case you wonder if i'm scared well i'm not but i'm wary wary because it's a very different culture i speak too little spanish to analyze what's happening around me the atmosphere and last but not least there is nowhere to hide because it's a fully enclosed town yep what else i mean you can run but there is just nowhere to hide really as the gang members are on every street therefore we must obey the rules they set do not flex our wills and wants and do everything they say it's a toll road that takes you to the city and of course it's also accompanied by a gunman then there is a police station with no one [Music] as i inside the city is not controlled by police and they don't even come here as otherwise there will be a conflict most streets have their own drug dealers with a bag over their waist these guys sell drugs and watch everything that happens in the city the so-called eyes and ears of the cartels most drive with windows lowered not sure if it's because they've all broken air cons or for the same reason as we do and everyone stares at me because my mug attracts a lot of attention they call people like me gringo which is how they typically call americans actually but i doubt they'll worry much to differentiate [Music] check these local stores two sticks stuck into the pavement some sheets over it and the shop is ready taxis resemble a grown-up version of a scooter yet they're all rickshaws well how come some grandma's cueing to wash the clothes since there is no water at home the town is full of unfinished buildings and weird garages all covered with sheets instead of proper roofing i see that some streets are blocked by the gangs they just put a truck in the middle of the road with three people in it [Music] this is what the entrance to the school look like it is a school where those students were from and apparently it's safer here compared to the city because the school keeps a constant fight for its rights as you see these here are the pictures of those who went missing they are regarded as heroes and even though a bone of one of the students was recently discovered locals still believe that the students are alive because there is no proof of anything else as for the bone they just accept that one of the guys must have lost a leg but it doesn't quite stipulate death of the whole group of them [Music] my friend i call him when everyone disappeared on the night of the 26th of september 2014 the students took off to a demonstration in a nearby city they never made it there though armed gang members surrounded the bus screaming that everyone is going to die they threw tear gas grenades inside and then held the bus driver at gunpoint exclaiming that he'll die too police started to shoot at us they were shooting to kill we got out of the bus and started throwing stones at them but it was useless some of us very scared somewhere and we tried to protect ourselves with stones but the police just kept on shooting one of the policemen shoot up my friend who was extremely aggressive but we carry they wanted us to turn around and live together with the boss eventually the students managed to get away from the police but then at some point the police was joined by gang members on a pickup truck armed with weapons that were much more serious than smoke grenades just we are now entering the most dangerous neighborhood in mexico city no camera bloody everybody stops me and tells me to stop filming i guess i've got a bit too far from my guides no no no no face no some dude saw me filming and now he's kind of following me around he was asking why i was filming the neighborhood the place is like a separate world and i take it the only reason why i'm not getting beaten up right now is because my guide is sorting the issue [Music] this neighborhood is called tepito and it's only 10 minutes from the city centre you just pass the norte zone sign and the city suddenly transforms from calm streets and mask-wearing people to one massive outdoor market with its own laws or street rules to be precise [Music] people sell some random stuff clothes shampoos god knows what but then the interesting part begins this here is a state within a state it's a humongous area where people don't only trade but live and work at some makeshift secretive manufacturing facilities all right everyone meet alfonso born and raised in tapito every evening and night this place turns into drug trafficking central it's packed with drug dealers who sell as they want or as they say things that make your nose happy and cheerful it's what turns tepito into a state of impunity regardless of the fact that topeto is part of downtown the heart of the city no one cares about our neighborhood streets are full of crime and police turn this place into a legal district for drugs [Music] don't get me wrong there is still police in some districts here but in general they are non-existent especially when it comes to tapito which is under control of la union cartel it's the most influential cartel in the capital and their watches are on every corner of every street here see that guy in black wearing a nice looking uniform that's one of the watches he sees me turns away starts talking into his radio then a local whistles at me and advises me not to film these watches the patrons as many call them spotted me right away and maybe sign not to film anything and if you don't put your camera away i guess it's when the problems start there will be no more smiles if that happens a truck came out of nowhere and people that were in it started shooting at us this is when they got my friend he ended up in combat these of course were not your usual police rubber bullets but the real stuff we asked police for help but they didn't move a finger to save my friend's life he was unconscious and we were still being surrounded as it turned out later the guys with machine guns were part of the guerreros unidos cartel they took the students for members of some other cartel and decided to shoot them all as per usual whilst police controlled by the mayor who hated the protesters in turn supported the cartel and their actions we met one of our teachers nearby she shows a place where we can hide and it was one very long and rainy night for us is when we found out that two of our older friends were also shoot despite of all that one of the students decided not to stay at the hideout he was not keen on taking part in the demonstration in the first place i'm told that he has a kid and he wants to see him grow so he left the hideout to go home but was captured by the police later we found out they were tortured him and burned his face with cigarette butts another version that circles around is that those students actually stole the bus that belonged to the cartel and it just so happened that it was packed with cocaine the whole case is still a mystery according to some they were taken to the local dump and burned alive but people don't believe in that it's impossible to burn 43 bodies at the dumpster because fire does not evaporate bodies more so domes are usually very humid and hence we don't fall for this world's government insists for this specific version has always been a place where you can find anything you want including pistols machine guns shotguns you name it and if you need it in volume then they've got your back too we'll now try to go further in to see what happens in these markets as a random passerby you will only see flamboyant looking locals selling food deflated footballs empty aftershave bottles stolen car stereo dinosaur age hoovers and broken rubik's cubes elderly ladies clean cactus leaves others make flapjacks for tacos still if you take a look around you'll notice a symbol of local gangs hanging at every junction shoes strapped to cables when someone dies their shoes get hanged up there aren't many of them they fall down when it rains but there are lots of them in order to grasp just how many people get killed here a local artist made a large graffiti to commemorate everyone who dies on these streets at first he painted their faces but then switched to silhouettes only the walk towards the horizon it's very hard to film anything here because the cartel wants to control every documentary and news report you have to ask for their permission first ask the cartel yes and it's quite an impossible thing to do the more we stayed in torpedo the more people knew us everyone kept telling me to stop filming and things were starting to heat up another thing that didn't play in our favor is that two weeks prior to my arrival some gangs attacked the minister of security as a result of which two police officers and passers-by were killed as of then police started to press on topito whilst torpedo gangs became very suspicious of newcomers we're trying to reach out to one of the main cartel guys who controls the area of torpedo it's a very aggressive cartel they hate newcomers and me being here without preliminary notice has already pissed them off everyone is becoming tense but we try to be open we told them that we're not looking for any conflict we just want to talk and ask for their point of view let's see what they come back did he with scared when you called him onion called his friend right when they were brought to the dump i didn't sound scared in fact the phone was in his pocket but i've heard them running somewhere the mayor who used the situation to put an end to protests is now under arrest along with many cartel members but since then nothing in this region has changed this is what the current students say here's rodrigo his parents are farmers guerrero is the most violent state with drug trafficking of an enormous scale there are lots of fields here and therefore that this is where opium and weed are made this is what these fields look like and when you approach them you get asked to switch your phone off so your location is not recorded via gps it's impossible to reach these places by car instead you have to walk for 45 minutes from the nearest road it's roughly 50 000 people who farm opium we sell one kilogram for around 300 to 400 but it's during the rain season and opposingly you get a higher quality of product in the dry season that can then be sold for over a thousand dollars these days when narcos planted fields that were visible from space are long gone gang members come here to the fields and start to threaten the farmers they practically make them plant opium and if farmers don't agree they just kill their families or kidnap relatives there's no question whether they are capable of doing it and hence farmers always agree if they don't then kidnapping starts and it happens all the time local farmers usually don't try to play rambos and plant whatever they get told to plant especially when it's only how they can earn more than a dollar per day we used to be scared of helicopters that spray toxins in our fields but helicopters are gone now these days is the killers who we are scared of the sicarios we sell radish for 30 cents cabbage for 80 cents and pumpkin seeds for 1.10 always leave the notion that gangs can come at any given moment it seems as if you travel back to the 19th century when you visit these regions people pray to the rain treatments don't go beyond swallowing hot water and give birth by hanging themselves with a rope from the ceiling in order to reach such place i need to get in touch with someone who controls these towns and unsurprisingly these people live a different life okay then a week of negotiations and we're finally having a response we are now going to meet a guy who is locally known as korea although he is actually mexican apparently he sells everything from guns to whatever else although he is a tattoo artist by trade nice you get a tattoo and a gun as a compliment most likely he obviously doesn't post online ads but everyone who needs a gun knows him even if you don't know such people you just ask around and someone will direct you to him one way or another you will end up in his shop beard in one person you ask or things start to turn strange very quickly first my guide talks to some random woman then a guy pops out of nowhere gives my guide a phone i have no idea how they found us he'll be here in 30 minutes we then wait for two hours and that's brilliant finally they tell us that this is where the interview will take place i start setting up and then someone else comes with a tattoo on his neck that reads only god can judge me and a tattoo of a grenade right next to him he is followed by two younger guys who constantly whisper something to each other call someone and then take us to a different location we are now entering the zone where no cameras are allowed they told me i can't even film on my small camera and it's critical that no one sees any of my equipment because it's an area where no strangers are allowed especially with cameras see you in a bit it's somewhere here where we make things you don't talk about and therefore the level of attention to us is colossal we come across two policemen on the scooter and i see how tense everyone becomes [Music] everybody [Music] then we have the green light to go on we passed a guy smoking weed and unfortunately i can't show you what's happening inside due to youtube rules we are now in some courtyard we went through a door no one would typically pay attention to and this is where we find a tattoo spot i'm going in my first question to the korean is whether those policemen have any clue what's going on in here and what happens if someone snitches on them you show police that it is the place where the drugs are sold then cartel will find and kill you thing is police knows all the drug spots anyways but they do nothing because they get paid of course if someone comes to them and points out a specific location they would have to investigate but at the same time they will let the gangs know that there is a snitch inside this neighborhood is split into streets which is controlled by separate gangs all streets are under someone's control korean was born in tipito and more specifically right here because his tattoo spot is part of his parents house his father was gang-affiliated and crime was always around the koreans since childhood i used to rob houses and people on the streets i remember constant gang wars for territory once some people came to our house and attacked my dad it was a proper battlefield one of those guys stuck his knife into my father's heart and my dad nearly died back then oh and 10 minutes away from the korean there is a totally different mexico [Music] this is the city business district and would you just look at these stunning buildings you've got the so-called skyscrapers here and the reason why i said so called is because there is simply no way how you can build them higher than this due to all the earthquakes that shape this region therefore these tall buildings are quite an achievement because local earthquakes usually wipe half the city out those who live near the coast don't even bother settling in their houses for long or build something substantial because it's either an earthquake or a hurricane that will get it at some point there are even seasons when hurricanes begin and come one after another despite all this and the cartel wars mexico is the richest country in latin america after brazil and its 15th place in the world by gdp which means that countries like saudi arabia switzerland norway and netherlands are all below it mexico city center is like a little version of manhattan there are double deckers roaming the city just like in london and thanks to a myriad of cctv cameras many districts are absolutely secure even in the evenings helena is originally from moscow but she now lives in mexico city full-time and guess how much she's renting this flat out for [Music] she makes a living by building musical instruments singing performing and teaching and this flat cost her 950 whilst in moscow you'll struggle to find anything for this price what do you like about this place i love how easy people are here you can be waiting for your coffee outside a takeaway and then start chatting to people in the queue i think it's common for southerners ten minutes later your best friends are ready everything that has to do with communication is just super easy if a club gets shot at 2am everyone starts looking for the next place to move to in europe people would have just gone home because order is primary there but here it's just a never-ending flamboyancy they have to finish all their drinks and dance until the sun starts to rise does this ring any bells constant festivals and colorful sombreros rope fights in masks mexico has the most fun-filled parties ever during the holidays and people travel for over 15 hours for this tacos as you know are the main dish here but i decided to try this instead scorpions caterpillars swamp mosquitoes ants and grasshoppers where grills going i remember the bear grylls once said that these have lots of protein caterpillars are filled with it okay let's try this [Music] it's tasty i don't think so i like it this is bad why they actually it's better now since i swallowed it it's crispy grasshoppers taste like i'd assumed a dry fly would taste the same i think a fly would be a little bit more fat i agree but this one is dry like a light version of a fly for those who are losing weight yeah think of it as crisps some really shitty crisps they're very popular in oaxaca which is a city in the south and it's usually elderly people that sell them next we have the swamp mosquitoes [Music] marine of what mosquitoes are they're quite sandy don't you think yeah as if a fly was mixed with the sand you get in the maldives or goa it's not the typical sand they call it like micro sand actually you enjoy every step when you walk on it and finally comes the mite i mean you wouldn't eat a mite right it doesn't smell like a mic oh yeah they usually smell horrid yeah guys are freaking bug jesus never in my life did i imagine that it'd come to this it's bitter i hate it don't eat bugs people was it similar to the way they usually smell there is no smell but it has something bitter inside i hate this part of my bits it's only the poor districts where people eat this stuff and as for traditional food of course it's tacos the flapjack is made from corn flour and it tastes although i couldn't figure the right description for it back then i can now it tastes like wet cardboard all the food you can think of becomes a taco in mexico this is my three-course meal i've got meat some mash but in the end you make a taco out of it see you just combine your rice with beans some meat then mash and regardless of how hard you try you still end up with attacker i've done a russian style taco here soaked in meat sauce mezcal is the main drink of any local party it's like tequila but better because it's not mass-produced think of it as vodka but stronger it's a 55 alcohol so it's stronger than vodka and apparently you drink it as if you're kissing it sit by sip let me try that was a kiss too deep i think honestly although it's uh 50 i can say it's more harsh it tastes as if you mix aloe with vodka and end up with vodka that has been infused with herbs mexico city is where you come across random dudes sleeping on the pavements covered by pieces of plywood but in general the local vibrancy takes your breath away [Music] look at these happy couples for example dancing the lockdown away for the rest of the world the streets here are shared by drug dealers [Music] like this one who decided to go undercover as soon as he saw me filming [Music] and families who change diapers some 10 meters away [Music] graffiti is everywhere as well as drying clothes pants on hangers and specialized drying cages another thing that you see practically everywhere you go and little markets here is something very local for you fancy some music on a usb you come with your usb and they upload some tunes on it or you can buy a usb with pre-loaded music if you don't have one what a thing [Music] [Music] when was the last time you heard gunshots in tepita a year yesterday really it's an everyday thing isn't it it's like the torpedoes atom daily thing maybe someone had a birthday and decided to shoot in the air what about gunshots related to cartel wars must have been three days ago some guy got killed near the block where i live nothing serious just a gun fight then police came to take the body the guy was from a different gang main rule here is not to get other stuck with your own problems you do you think and it does not relate to everyone else but you otherwise you just don't respect the pitot but even these rules started to disappear with time back in the day there was robberies and kidnapping but everyone respected the neighborhood nowadays though youngsters don't show their same respect they can come and try dealing with drugs outside of the area but it is also when people own bikes and trucks appear and restore justice because rules shouldn't be broken tipito is like a city within a city with its own yards and districts see this place it's a typical local house where people have lived for generations inside there is a restaurant you walk in right into the kitchen then wash your hands yup you just scoop some water and get the dirt off your hands kitchen is right opposite and as you can see they've got shitloads prepared already and then you enter the living room which is turned into a restaurant hall with a big table that most of us would have in our living rooms too so you just sit here enjoying your homemade meal and stare at pics of someone's relatives next come the weird balconies that i've never seen before they don't have any railings and locals seem to use them as a storage for things they don't need this is what a typical courtyard looks like inside these buildings it's an enclosed space and only people who live here can access it this here is where they wash their clothes yep it's just crate looking things made out of bricks you put your stuff in and then rub it water comes from that barrel and then you just hang everything to dry like we saw earlier oh and most lampposts are wrapped in barbed wire so that no one steals the bulbs mexicans seem to have a different take on death and turn it into a cult sometimes women say they pray to the devil seriously people come to makeshift death churches and leave cigarettes and beer here apparently it's what death refers to flowers the logic behind it all is that everyone is equal when it comes to death regardless of whether you've been selling drugs or served in a church many people are scared of that but we aren't i love that for example it symbolizes recovery and intellect to me welcome to the typical family house in tipito there isn't much space the sofa is wrapped in plastic bags and as for chairs they are all folding this is what the interior is like entrance is followed by a kitchen there is a table but a folding one two since space is of the essence then we have a bedroom that you cover with a curtain and a lounge where i guess people can hang around although second floor is where everyone spends most of their time it's just one room probably seven square meters at most there is some space where you can iron your clothes a washing machine behind a bed it may seem that everything is piled on top of each other but in reality all the necessities are present this house accommodates a family of five the wonderful senora her husband children and grandchildren we own a spot at the market we sell bags bills accessories in general is it true that there are people you pay money to every month i can't talk about that because you're scared yes very scared people are scared because it's the cartel members that control the market to be specific i'm talking about la union cartel that i mentioned earlier at the end of the day it doesn't matter if you're selling bags belts or even lemonade you still have to pay and share with the cartel the union cartel took the market under its control and everyone who works here must pay them monthly those who don't disappear from here quickly i was jealous in 1999 for kidnapping and also for being part of the gang i had this friend who worked for one very rich korean and we decided to kidnap the guy we weren't kidnapping people on daily basis no but it seemed as a good opportunity to use at the time plus the garyang wasn't paying for protection if you ask the korean what he does for a living he'll tell you tattoo artist and actor and a few other little things i heard that the escort i've heard you can buy pretty much anything here is that true not nearly everything everything you can buy cars bikes guns everything you want can you get hold of a kalashnikov yep including italian guns like beretta machine guns an m16 sure we call it corn because of the look of its spiral and how much would it cost roughly well twelve hundred dollars will get you a good clashing cup small caliber guns start at 300. no one would sell one to me right no but they sell it to me and i can then pass it to you on a serious note though if you happen to stroll into one of these places they'll just take everything you have on you and kick you out what if you want someone to get killed is that something that can be arranged if you pay well how much do you reckon it would be a couple of grand i'm now boarding my flight to guadalajara which is where one of the most influential cartels is located they are known for being super cocky audacious and cultivation of seedless weed which is apparently much easier to transport because it can be packed tighter you basically fit a third more into a truck which is obviously handy when it comes to logistics [Music] i met by ray who was born and raised in guadalajara he too has spent some time in jail for drug trafficking nice bar they shut it down because they kill people inside they just walk in and they kill the son of one of the rich guy here in guadalajara two years ago local graveyards ran out of space as a result of continuous cartel wars so the government decided to stock dead bodies in refrigerated semis causing a wave of indignation as locals started to complain about the smell and flies as refrigerators attracted opposingly the godfathers are buried in fully fledged castles and villas that go up to 500 000 in price yep no one lives in these houses they serve as graves to the cartel leaders [Music] we are now entering the most gang-filled neighborhood in guadalajara and i see how the scenery quickly starts to change cartels use these neighborhoods as kidnapping central they take their victims to these houses and what's convenient is that police is not allowed to enter property plus they mostly don't even bother coming here like this look at this house that we're gonna see right here how in the hell you explain now a nice house in an area like this as mentioned earlier ray was also jailed for drug trafficking it happened after he moved to the u.s at the age of 15 and his friend offered him a job we took 100 kilos from los angeles to phoenix arizona it's weird because it's a long this is a long way it's a long way and i was making like a say 25 pair per pound so 50 per kilo and we hit it in the ceiling and that was my fear you know like if i could pull over i had no license to start with so i was driving home no driving license no i was looking i didn't even have papers so i was driving all over the country he was paying me 200 dollars now actually with him i was making more much more four times more not much more because i think the first trip i make like seven thousand and it was seven thousand dollars on one trip per 10 pounds because it was speed it was a different drug it was more expensive but i i didn't drop i didn't do anything i just put them on a backpack and i got on the truck [Music] we another super mexican thing is they all love to clean their shoes you stroll around in the city center and these shoe cleaners come one after another never seen so many of them in any other country in the world i mean look it's seven of them just in this corner you cross the street and there are even more this is because mexicans consider their shoes to be a show of who they are you put yourself on the map at a meeting if you have tidy shoes that's how it works you practically roll your balls out and the result of the meeting is fully dependent on it another utterly normal thing to see in the city is a funeral procession and it's not the president's funeral no it's just the way things are done here a very surprising problem in mexico is the lack of tap water which is strange given the city was built by aztecs on a massive lake and initially looked as if it was venice aztecs saw an eagle holding a snake and decided that it is a sign of a perfect place for a city they started to build dams bridges and eventually drive the lake to such an extent that nowadays some neighborhoods get their water supply from trucks [Music] mexico we don't have a permanent bomb of water in the cities it could be one hour it could be three hours so that's the reason that we have all these cisterns on the roof that when you have the the power to pump water then you fill your tank and then you use it from there oh because it could be the half of the day that you don't have water or could be weeks there are more people here than in some cities in india a place where sometimes you want to lock yourself in the bathroom to spend some time on your own mexico city is the most densely populated city in the world accommodating 22 million people which in pandemic free times meant atrocious traffic jams thankfully though their underground is one of the most developed in north america coming right after new york this is what the mexico city underground looks like i've just passed a guy who was enjoying a joint but as for the underground a single trip costs around 30 cents what's different is that these carriages run on proper tyres which is very similar to the underground in paris tires make for a very comfy ride and last but not least there are more stations here than in chicago washington and toronto there is something new to me you see this metal railing here it is written here that this area is for women and children only and there is even a policeman who controls that no men enter this was done to protect the women from getting sexually assaulted killed and so on which happens quite often i would assume see it reads exclusively for women and children don't you just love the spanish language i don't know it unfortunately but i love the way it sounds imagine walking into a loo at a restaurant for example and seeing the male toilet being called [Music] caballeros based on the neighborhoods i've been to here it may seem as if mexico is all about narcos although i assume this is a wrong understanding look and i try not to put myself in places in situations that are an obvious no-go i mean i've traveled across the whole of south america and seen many things but you just know that for example this place is all right and the other one isn't there's a neighborhood called lomas for example it's where super rich people live in their huge mansions and 24 7 security and all but it's also where the chief of police were shot a couple of weeks ago at 6am [Music] word on the street is that tapito's own union cartel was behind all this but overall it's a norm when a cartel tries to kidnap or kill politicians and their families in a bid to push their way through cartels simply cannot operate without political protection and therefore they constantly try and find common grounds with them these days cartels don't just do drugs judging by tepito their main business is fake clothing we have a chance to see how these clothes are made the clothes that are sold on the markets locally okay sorry oops she asked not to film but yeah she is finalizing a gucci bag right now some of course import these clothes from china but most people set their local manufacturing production is quite the same in the whole neighborhood where nearly every house has a room where they make these accessories there is a sewing machine here and bags of freshly made clothes like this nike jacket that was finished a second ago of course like any legit product this stuff comes with branded labels we make the labels here too but just so you know we operate under nike license unlike the rest it's a profitable business we love it how much do you make around 1500 per month for comparison an average wage in mexico city is 350 and if you want to earn more you must have the balls to partner with a cartel in some cities though you don't even have a choice and you have to pay the cartel for protection this for example is the city of chilepansigo which is the capital of the gang-filled guerrero state which is where we started our journey it's where the cartels are so deeply integrated into the economy that even the grocery store prices already include the cartel's margin imagine that meat tomatoes alcohol everything jose luis makes and sells mezcal and just like the rest of the population he too pays the cartel on a weekly basis the cartel costs begin with 20 dollars and reach 2500 every 15 days they would threaten torture you will kill you kill your relatives to get their money it's common for them to kill someone as a showcase of what would happen if we don't obey they have their own meat distribution network and at the same time we make all meat shops pay them extra for protection at times they can send their people to monitor your sales and if something goes wrong they'll just confiscate your shop from you these additional fees include the price of the products and it becomes unprofitable to continue the business they asked the guy that they wanted one trailer full of food for uh cows and you know animals and the guy's like you know what you give me fifty percent ahead and once i delivered you give me the other fifty percent he's like no you're just gonna deliver it he's like no i'm not gonna deliver it next day they found the hedge guy those who run bars and restaurants operate on different terms with the cartels they ask you you want to pay or you want us to run our business inside which means that you can walk into a nightclub or a bar and you can see him you know selling dope whatever you want selling dope drugs i don't know whatever you want cocaine pills mad if you don't want them in your business you pay this is how it works guys see that guy behind me he just stands here by the loose and offers everyone drugs mexico's black market economy started long before the world got acquainted with cocaine and heroin and it's hard to blame mexicans for it because it's all down to the geography they're stuck between the most developed economy in the world the us and colombia that produces everything that's in huge demand but at the same time is banned in the us back in the 20th century during the introduction of dry states in the mexicans were the ones who supplied them with alcohol at first they did it single-handedly and these people were called bootleggers because they actually wore boots that had wooden patches on the soles to make their footprints look as if they were cows passing by therefore sheriffs didn't pay much attention to those when searching for secretive bootlegger trails at some point the supply increased to such an extent that alcohol production in mexico increased eight fold once the dry lures were cancelled mexicans started to import weed and no it wasn't some kind of weed you'd grow on your balcony in 1984 a field of weed was discovered worth over three billion dollars which is more than what saudi's oil reserves used to cost there was enough weed there to fill the road from new york to washington which excuse you me is roughly 400 kilometers long shortly after was followed by colombian cocaine when escobar and cali cartels the two most powerful cartels in the world struck a deal with the most influential godfather in mexico miguel angel filith gallardo this is adriana and she knew felix in person well [ __ ] and we all were privileged kids you know and here we are we knew the government we knew the governor we knew the president of the city we we you know is like our parents friends and it just gave us a lot of power and it was really bad because and after a while it stopped being fun and it started being very very scary where they had nothing to do that would kill people you know you have to be very careful what you said um if you insulted them or if they thought they were you were insulting them you were like no it it it was it's it's a miracle that i'm sitting here talking to you today one of the main godfathers in tijuana was attracted to adriana and was always around her at those crazy parties where people would ride their motorbikes into the pool and snork cocaine like there was no tomorrow he was wearing his his cowboy boots leather shorts mink vest no shirt it was very surreal i was expecting this big guy like macho with like guns and you know and it wasn't it was this funny looking guy wearing leather shorts boots cowboy boots and a mink jacket in the middle of june do you remember something shocking from the store they're like let's go to this party and we go to this party and i walk in and there's ramon giving out like little envelopes with coke you know like the seal packages and he was giving me one and i'm like no thank you no thank you and he's like what are you like straight age or what i'm like it doesn't matter what i am or not you know i'm not gonna take drugs from you because i'm not gonna go to bed with you what the [ __ ] are you thinking and you're like the worst thing that could have ever happened to our society and i just started going on and on and on and on like i know how to do yes and all of a sudden the music stops and my voice just travels like all through the whole four walls of the party my legs were like trembling because i thought he was going to kill me right there and then oh and these guys were capable of it one of my good friends uh was asked out by his brother and she didn't want to go out with him so he had her brakes the the the cables to the brakes cut she was coming down a hill but thankfully they had these you know how they have the piles of sand in case your brakes go and you can just crash into those so she crashed into those but it was it was very scary we're now in the most upmarket neighborhood in guadalajara it was practically formed when the main cartels started to make their first big money and went on a shopping spree buying these houses left right and center this house here used to belong to one of the leaders of the cartel and he too owned dozens of houses in the area so that police don't keep track of his whereabouts as for ray he never managed to earn this much but still had two cadillacs an audi and enough money for a good living i was getting between five and fifteen thousand per kilo depends on how much they take because the price changes the more they take the cheaper it is and i did that for like a year and i got calm i got called because the guy that i was working with he got caught they were chasing him actually he was on the surveillance for like two years so when i started working for him he was already hot and i didn't know we have a guy that was snitching on us uh he was telling us he was recording us he had microphones and cameras so it was like a policeman on the cover yeah we had another cover ray didn't care about much back then and rock and rolled his life away until after one party he returned from and fell asleep i was sleeping naked very nice you know hangover it was funny because it was like a movie the fbi came drug death sports came with a police department came they came in the house they didn't have a warrant but my uncle let me in because i was living at my uncle's house so he got scared he opened the door they came in i didn't have actually i have drugs but they didn't see it they searched the whole house i have two guns that's the reason they took me but they already had a lot of a lot of evidence against you know videos dvds and the guy he transcribed like 5000 pages about me so they hadn't us officials were planning on jailing ray for 25 years but since he cooperated with the police his term was decreased to 57 months which is a little less than five years once his jail term came to an end he was deported back to mexico and he now works as an uber driver reminiscing of the fun times he had like like right now you know like you can be out at 10 11 12 1 am 2 am you don't worry about nothing right now is 10 you have to be yeah but they were not violent because now you know they were not they were all together there was one cartel for the whole country you'd be surprised but it's the truth back then the largest cartel in guadalajara absorbed smaller cartels and turned into a monopoly they called themselves federacion and it was making billions of dollars everything changed when the usdea agent arrived and found the huge field i mentioned earlier right after it he was kidnapped by the guadalajara cartel tortured for 30 hours and then killed since then though cartels had to deal with consistent ambushes organized by both u.s and mexican governments eventually they even managed to capture felix the boss of the cartel just look in his eyes he seems to be undisturbed he was the most powerful cartel boss in the whole history of mexico federeccion was then split into smaller cartels and a couple of years later the massacres started between them at a scale that was never before seen by the police back in 96 we had 96-98 we had the worst violent criminal wave that we've ever had people were being kidnapped left and right people being shot and killed and my brother my oldest brother was kidnapped according to the police two of adriana's brothers were also cartel members and one is still in jail police regard him as a sicario whilst the second brother just knew too much the family on the other hand believes the police mixed up the two brothers and got the wrong one they tortured them and they they would show him pictures of his of his kids and of his wife and my parents and myself and my brothers and like doing our daily stuff and saying you know well we know where they are and it is only after 30 years of narcos dominance that the government decided to really fight back in 2006 the elected president felipe calderon announced a war on narcos he didn't have a plan really and instead decided to send the army to the most roughest of the spots as a result by the end of his presidency there are 120 000 victims of his war which equates to 53 deaths per day for six years it's 7 am and i'm in the capital of the most dangerous state in mexico we're about to leave to even crazier places because as it turns out there are cities that are governed completely by the cartels which means that they have their own police own army and they don't let the official government police an army in my people in the next episode we will meet someone who controls not just one but several different villagers and ask him to tell us what's up hey what's up we are right now in the middle of this self-proclaimed state and as you see it's not just checkpoints where you see people with guns but even petrol stations in the next episode we will meet human traffickers who will not just take you over the border but up to that famous wall for just a couple of grand us is right next door to us now and the only people who can stop us are the u.s patrols because as for our trafficker friend he pays to the cartel for security make sure you subscribe so you don't miss the next episode and do keep an eye on my instagram page where i'll be posting pictures from this trip this is leodoll on how people live [Music] mexico

Channel: The People

Views: 3,134,655

Rating: 4.6706948 out of 5

Keywords: mexico documentary, documentary, how people live, travel mexico, tours, anton lyadov, lyadov, the people, mexico vlog, documentaries, travel, travel vlog, mexico tourism, tourism, people, north korea vlog, north korea documentary, crimes, crime, interesting facts, guerrero, gangs, gang member, drug war, narcos, war zones, mexico, drug cartel, sinaloa cartel, journalism, el chapo

Id: aN4_Htzltjc

Length: 62min 45sec (3765 seconds)

Published: Fri Dec 25 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/bill-lowney]

Well done documentary

[u/chansondinhars]

Didn’t mum ever teach him that it’s dangerous to stick your head out the window of a moving car?