Most astonishing way. The american agent who helped capture el chapo comes out of the shadows. I didnt know who wed be able to trust. Exclusive details of this whiteknuckled manhunt. Pictures seen her for the first time. Secret drug depths, hidden escape routes. Hes like Harry Houdini. Youre inside this real life thriller. This is it. Hes there. He was there. He was like living a movie. Hello and welcome to dateline. He was the infamous kingpin who inspired fear among criminals and Law Enforcement on both sides of the border. His name was el chapo. For over a decade hed evaded authorities by disappearing into a secret network of tunnels built under his many safe houses. But one man was determined to capture the fugitive and would lead his team to great lengths, even risk his own life to get the job done. Heres lester holt with inside the hunt for el chapo. He was hiding somewhere in these forbidding mountains or in this sprawling city or in this sun splashed beach resort. Somewhere somewhere in mexico. He was the most wanted drug lord in the world implicated in hundreds of murders, and finding him became the Dangerous Mission of this man and a team of u. S. And mexican Law Enforcement agents. I am pretty sure ive never started off an interview with a question im about to ask you, but you were chasing some really bad people with really long memories. What are you doing talking to me in front of these cameras . Originally i started out under an alias. For the First Time Ever this former dea agent was coming out of the shadows despite the fears for his life. The dangers, theyre real, right . Really ive got to watch my back the same way whether i was under an alias or using my name. Was it a calculated risk . I was always calculating it in my head, but it was time to step up and be proud of what id done, what my teammates had done. His name was drew hogan. Facing incredible odds he and the team put their lives on the line to stop an elusive prey. We go inside drews hunt as he pursues el chapo from safe house to face house and finally comes facetoface. Its not just a story about one man. Its larger than that. Its two countries coming together and accomplishing something that everyone thought was impossible. He recounts that journey in his book, hunting el chapo. In the book for security reasons he changed the names of some people and places. We blurred the faces of others who are still working in the field because for all of them danger lurked around every curve in the road. Youre always going to have that in the back of your mind. But its what you do with that fear. What he did was obsess over el chapos whereabouts. A small town in the midwest where he played High School Football and dreamt of going into Law Enforcement. Your first shot at carrying a badge was as a local sheriff deputy. Correct. Loved working the street. One day i was with a buddy of mine, a former Police Officer and he said, hey, why dont you just go into chicago and test with the dea. The dea, the United StatesDrug Enforcement administration. He joined in 2005. His new job brought into a city in the southwestern United States. His first order of business was to learn about the mexican narco cultures which included songs about a ballad about el chapo. His mentor was an undercover agent drew calls in the book diego. As he was translating them to me i started to understand what was behind these songs that connect the dots for me, the whos who in that world. Were these like the modern day out laws . Absolutely. And el chapo was at the very top. Chapo, el chapo. Realtime joaquin guzman. The city of chicago named him public enemy number one for his role in bringing in tons of drugs that were sold on the streets in the u. S. Drews coauthor. Chapo is a ruthless and murderous guy, lets not sugar coat that. He rose to power, though, on his ability to deliver huge amounts of cocaine and he was the guy that could deliver. He invenlted the narco tunnel. The narco tunnel, the ubiquitous tunnels burrowed underneath the u. S. Mexico border that the cartels use to smuggle drugs into the u. S. The syndicate had thousands of members and spanned the globe, it made el chapo a folic hero in mexican culture. Hes a little boy that sold oranges on the street and rises from absolute nothingness, cant read or write to being a billionaire. Thats extremely captivating as a mythology for poor working people in a very impoverished country. He started in the drug trade in 1970s and was arrested in 1993. But el chapo was able to run his cartel from a high security mexican prison for eight years. And then in 2001 his legend grew when he escaped, hidden in a laundry cart. The way he escaped was like a movie. Hes covered mexican drug wars and el chapo for years. I mean its pure gold for a legend, right . El chapo was the master of bribery. He spent millions of dollars a year secretly doling out cash to every branch of the Mexican Government so officials would turn a blind eye to his criminal enterprise. With el chapo the truth and the reality is more than 200,000 people have died because of his war on drugs and there are more than 20,000 people who have disappeared. The sconced in his safe houses el chapo remained free for years and seemed untouchable by the time drew hogan joined the dea. Thered been so many failed attempts throughout the years. El chapo would escape out the back door. He was wired into the Law Enforcement . Absolutely at every level. But u. S. And mexican agents never gave up on capturing el chapo. A 30year veteran of the dea he over saw his Agents Division to bring him to justice. In the sense of capturing el chapo guzman, they were very successful in developing intelligence. The knowledge of how these cartels were operating. Drew hogan and diego first joined hunt with a daring move, by infiltrating chapos cartel. That would have been 2010 into 2011 where diego and i started moving cartel money. They worked as part of a task force. Diego was a local detective not a federal agent like drew. These are photos taken during their operations. Diego passed himself off as a Big Time Operator as drew coordinated behind the scenes. By doing this, they were risking their lives. You guys were playing the role of money launderers. Diego was posing as the director of a criminal network. We could move millions of dollars as a time and a ton of quantity of drugs at any point. That was our sales pitch. That was their pitch, and they were successful. For instance, see those fedex boxes, they contained nearly 1. 2 million destined for el chapos operations. Drew and diego were getting inside the belly of the beast. Coming up were you actually reading their texts . Every single one of them. Drew hogan moves closer to el chapo, and his family moves deeper into danger. My wife knew everything that we were getting ourselves into. When dateline continues. Ino when dateline continues s s until you find the perfect tree. Thats the one. Lowes has our widest selection ever. With all the trimmings. You have fastacting power over pain, so the whole world looks different. The unbeatable strength and speed of advil liquigels. What pain . They have businesses to grow customers to care for lives to get home to they use stamps. Com print discounted postage for any letter any package any time right from your computer all the Amazing Services of the post office only cheaper get our special tv offer a 4week trial plus postage and a digital scale go to stamps. Com tv and never go to the post office again hey. Hey. You must be stevens phone. Now you can take control of your home wifi and get a notification the instant someone new joins your network. Only with xfinity xfi. Download the xfi app today. 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 chapos 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 at a new location, we 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. They were playing a very dangerous game. And drew was becoming obsessed obsessed with tracking down el chapo. Drew felt he went as far as he could in the u. S. He needed to immerse himself south of the border. He made a decision to move to mexico city with his young family. I had a talk with my wife extensively. Shoe knew everything we were getting ourselves into. And she told me whats your gut telling you . And i said to go to go. Lets do it. Leaving diego back in the states drew and his family arrived in mexico city in may 2012. He and the team were now stalking one of the most powerful criminals in the world on el chapos own turf. Its just like whos watching me . And it could be anybody from chapos people to the local cartel around mexico city to the street thugs or even the Mexican Government. He worked in a cluttered cubicle in the u. S. Embassy in mexico city. During long days and nights he barely saw his family. Drews attention was focused on it Mountain Range far to the west. Its known as mexicos lawless land, el chapos home base the mexican state of sinaloa comprises part of it. The biggest city there is the reputed narco capital of mexico. And el chapo essentially owned the town. It would be like in the heyday of prohibition for capone. It was a place where kingpins were placed in large ornate tombs. They seemed to stand as reminders of the violence and the danger that engulfed. Those areas are completely controlled by the drug cartels. But drew was relentless. For instance just before he arrived in mexico he came upon a treasuretrove of evidence. El chapo had left his safe haven for this mansion in cabo st. 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 cant just target the man himself. You have to target his entire infrastructure. That means 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. Pilots who would swoop el chapo in and out of his hide outs under cover of darkness. It was a big discovery. Drew learned an agent from Homeland Security investigations back in the states who he calls brady had also uncovered the pilots numbers. He came back and said, oh, my god, you know, this could be a gold mine. And we just began intelligence back and forth him in the states and me back in mexico. They knew el chapo usually didnt carry a phone himself but was always with an underling who did. So they thought if they could track the phone of chapos closest associates they would find chapo himself. But making things more difficult is chapos people kept changing what were called burner phone, diz posable phones used a short time and tossed away. Dont you have to go back to square one every time they toss them . If they drop their phones at all times yes. But theres hundreds of people in this organization and theyre not all dropping their phones at the same time. I toss my phone now, she tosses her phone tomorrow, youre three days later. That was their weakness. How were you able to identify where these communication were coming from . Through the names they were using. They were very open in their communications. It was a big mistake by el chapos operation. Drew and the team could now track them. And the Cartel Operatives had no idea. They didnt think that those communications could be intercepted by u. S. Law enforcement. Were you actually reading their texts . Every single one of them. Could you tell where they were coming from and whether you were in fact seeing communications directly from el chapo . Yes. It took us a while to infiltrate this mirror structure they had setup. A mirror structure, a ladder of phones belonging to el chapos underlings, climbing to up the tafrom 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 new 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. Its on fire. Somethings not right. 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So what does the dishwasher do . Cascade platinum does the work for you, prewashing and removing stuckon foods, the first time. Wow, thats clean cascade platinum. This is mexico, the base of operations for the cartel and in to13 a fortress for the worlds most dangerous drug lord, el chapo. By tracing the burner phones used by el chapos underlings the dea was zeroing in on his target. All that mattered through this entire time was his location, wheres he at . Thats the only question i wanted answered. As you realized you were building this ladder potentially to el chapo what was that like . Are you reading the messages . Reading the messages, piecing together. They did a structure of his organizations, haze day to day operations. It must have been an eye opener. It was like reading a novel you couldnt put down. This was a strong hold. Right. So you have the information but what can you do in that moment . Once i knew where he was, i had to find another location. He was going to be far too dangerous to actually go in and root him out. We thought it would be an absolute bloodbath. Th then a break, obsessed with his mission drew hogan once again sacrificed time with his family to continue the hunt. He worked with brady, his colleague from Homeland Security investigations back in the states together they tracked phones of el chapos closest associates knowing el chapo would most likely be with them and plotting their locations on google maps. We had seen him come down to a remote location, and we were trying to pinpoint it. And after hours of searching on google maps we found it. El chapo was camped out at a place known for duck hunting. Where he would come down, meet with his most trusted lieutenants or his sons just for a few hours and then he would head back to the city. Once we had that location, it was our x and i nicknamed it duck dynasty. Drew now knew el chapo was venturing outside his fortress. This was the best shot they may ever have. He and his partners pushed their superiors and a decision was made. They would grab el chapo at duck dynasty. So now youve got him in your sights but im assuming this is not an operation you can pull off by yourselves. No, we cannot do anything as the United States government without the host nation. From the beginning i didnt know who wed be able to trust with this. I hadnt shared anything with the Mexican Government. And the only unit that i could do that with, that i had some level of trust in with the Mexican Marines. Theyre the elite. Theyre the elite. Sasewb mar, the Mexican Marines had a sterling reputation and ability to keep a secret. But this time something went wrong. As soon as we met i provided chapos location. But the second they moved resources up to sinaloa, chapo new instantly. You saw that in your intercepts. Yes. How did you feel . Devastated. It was an eerie feeling. The team had been betrayed but no one knew who did it or why. The heat in and around duck dynasty deterred him from coming out. He stayed holed up in his safe house where he spent 90 of his time there and he didnt come out. And its the last place you want to have to go and get him. Right. Brady had flown to mexico to join drew in person. The clock was ticking. Because of the leak el chapo now knew Something Big was about to go down. The team had no choice. We had to make a move, and that move was to go into Enemy Territory and root him out. The Task Force Leaders approved a bold action, to do what they didnt want to do and strike at el chapo in his fortress city. You went in with had Mexican Marines. Once again you had to trust them. Right. Drew was recording on his cellphone as the operation began. This particular operation in february 2014 was the first time that the Mexican Marines had ever done an operation on the ground in this area because of the danger and the compromises and the risks involved. Laser focused on their mission, drew and brady and the team had narrowed down el chapos location to a oneblock radius. But they needed to find the right house and a specific door to get at him. So we sent our teams down there to do that. And they spent 24 hours in that city alone trying to pinpoint that door. Drew and the rest of the team waited at a nearby military base for the call to come in that el chapos location had been pinpointed. In the meantime cooliacon was abuzz. Fear hung in the