The $20B Secret: What's Really Under The Border

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They said he couldn't touch the surface, so he built an empire 30 ft below it.
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February 9th, 2016. San Diego tunnel task force agents stand
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in a warehouse in Otay Mesa, California. Standard drug bust. They expect bales of
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marijuana, maybe cocaine. They don't expect the floor to open. Beneath a
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hydraulic lift system hidden under pallets, a shaft drops 30 ft into the earth. The agents descend. What they
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find isn't a tunnel. Its infrastructure half a mile long, 6 ft high, reinforced
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concrete, ventilation ducts, electric lighting every 20 ft, a rail system with
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modified mining cart. The walls are smooth, professional, the grade is
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precise. The tunnel runs from Tijuana to California, passing 35 ft below the most
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fortified border on Earth. This wasn't dug by amateurs with shovels. This was
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engineered at the Tijana end. The entrance hides beneath a house. Normal
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from the outside. Inside the floor contains a hydraulic platform. Hit a
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switch. The platform lowers. Beneath it, a vertical shaft with a ladder. at the
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bottom, the tunnel. The system cost an estimated $1 million to build. It moved
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an estimated $30 million in narcotics before discovery. The tunnel is one of
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150, and every single one connects to the same name. Join Gazman Lera, El
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Chapo. convicted in 2019 of running a continuing criminal enterprise,
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conspiracy to distribute cocaine and heroin, and international drug
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trafficking. The charges detailed operations spanning three decades. The
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evidence included testimony about tunnels, lots of tunnels. But this
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documentary isn't about the violence. It's not about the executions or the
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betrayals or the prison escapes that made him famous. This is about something
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quieter, something that took more patience, more vision, more money. This
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is about engineering. Some dialogue and scenes in this documentary are dramatic
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reconstructions based on court testimony, DEA reports, and
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investigative journalism. El Chapo is currently imprisoned. This documentary
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covers historical operations through his 2017 capture and does not address
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current alleged cartel activities. The Oté Mesa tunnel wasn't the first. It
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wasn't even close. To understand how El Chapo became the tunnel king, you have
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to go back back to when the border was just chain link fence and desert. Back
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to when tunnels were crude. Back to when one man looked at the problem of the border and saw it differently than
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everyone else. 1989. The Sinaloa cartel controls drug routes
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from Mexico into the United States. But there's a problem. The border. US
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customs. D. Every surface crossing is a risk. Cars get searched. Trucks get
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x-rayed. People get caught. Joe Quinn Guzman is in his early 30s. Not the boss
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yet, not famous yet, but he's watching, learning. He sees the same problem
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everyone sees. The border is a wall. Except Guzman doesn't see a wall. He
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sees dirt. And dirt can be moved. The first tunnel is discovered in Douglas,
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Arizona. 1990. It's not sophisticated. A drainage pipe reinforced with wood
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planks barely 4 ft high. You have to crawl, but it works. It runs from a
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building in Aua Prietta, Mexico to a warehouse in Douglas, 300 ft. When
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agents find it, there's still cocaine residue on the ground. Nobody knows who
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built it. Not yet. But the method is established. Go under. One year later,
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Nogaras, Arizona, customs agents notice something strange. A warehouse near the
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border. Too much electrical usage. No logical reason. They get a warrant.
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Inside they find the floor or what should be the floor. Instead, there's a shaft hand dug rough. It drops 15 ft,
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then turns horizontal. The tunnel runs 200 ft into Mexico, ending in a house on
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the other side. The walls are shored up with scrap wood. The air is thin.
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There's no ventilation system, just a hole in the ground. Crude, dangerous,
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but functional. Investigators start connecting the dots. Multiple tunnels,
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similar construction, same roots, all moving product for the same organization,
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Sinnoloa. And inside Sinoloa, one name keeps appearing in the intelligence
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Guzman, the short guy, Elcharo. But these early tunnels are just prototypes.
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Test runs because in 1993 something happens that changes everything. Guzman
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gets arrested. Sent to Poente Grand Maximum Security Prison and from inside
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a cell he starts planning something bigger. Prison doesn't stop him. It focuses him. He's got time. He's got
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money. And he's got an idea forming. The border is getting harder. More agents,
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better technology, ground penetrating radar, infrared cameras. The surface is
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closing but underground. Underground is still open. Guzman studies. He talks to
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engineers, architects, mining experts, people who understand earth and concrete
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and structural load. He's not just thinking about moving drugs anymore.
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He's thinking about infrastructure, permanent infrastructure. 2001 Guzman escapes Pente Grand. The
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legend says he hid in a laundry cart. The reality is simpler. He bribed half
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the prison. When he walks out, he's not just a drug trafficker anymore. He's a symbol. The man who beat the system. And
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the first thing he does is go back to the tunnels. But this time, he's not digging drainage pipes. He's building
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monuments. The technology evolves fast. By 2002, tunnels are being discovered
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with electric lighting, ventilation shafts, concrete reinforcement, the
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construction quality jumps. These aren't makeshift smuggling routes anymore.
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These are engineered systems. A tunnel found in Tech 8 in 2003 has a concrete
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floor poured and smoothed. The walls are timber braced every 6 ft. There's a pump
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system for groundwater, a generator for lights. The tunnel cost an estimated
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$200,000 to construct. It moved an estimated $10 million in product in 6
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months. The economics are simple. Spend $200,000, make 10 million, lose the
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tunnel to authorities, build another one. But here's the thing. The tunnels
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aren't just about moving product. They're about psychology. Every tunnel discovered sends a message. We're under
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you. Literally. You can build walls. We'll build worlds beneath them. Now,
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here's where the story takes a turn no one expected. The US responds. 2003. The
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San Diego tunnel task force forms. Joint operation. D. ICE Border Patrol US
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Attorney's Office. Their job is singular. Find the tunnels. Shut them down. prosecute the builders. They start
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mapping. Every tunnel discovered gets documented. Entry point, exit point,
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depth, length, construction quality. They're looking for patterns and they find them. Most tunnels originate in
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Tijana. Most exit in San Diego County. The average depth is 20 to 30 ft. The
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average length is 1,500 ft. But there are outliers. A tunnel found in 2004
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runs 3,000 ft almost a mile. It has a drainage system, a concrete arch
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ceiling, rail tracks. The task force realizes something. These aren't being
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built by random crews. This is coordinated, centrally planned. Someone
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is managing this like a construction company. Hiring engineers, acquiring
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equipment, bribing officials on both sides of the border. Investigators
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interview captured smugglers. The story is always the same. We were hired. We
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don't know by who. We got paid. We moved product. The tunnel was already there.
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But one smuggler talks. He describes the system. The tunnels are built in phases.
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First, a crew digs the shaft on the Mexico side, vertical, 30 to 40 ft down.
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Once they hit the right depth, they start horizontal. A surveyor directs them, someone with engineering
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knowledge, someone who understands grade and trajectory. The horizontal dig is
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the hardest part. The earth has to be removed, hauled up the shaft, disposed
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of secretly, tons of dirt, all vanishing without anyone noticing. That requires
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logistics, trucks, workers, silence, and silence costs money. The smuggler
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estimates each tunnel requires 50 to 100 workers, diggers, engineers, security,
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bribe recipients. Each worker gets paid. The surveyors get paid more. The
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officials get paid the most. A sophisticated tunnel costs $1 million to
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build, maybe more, and El Chapo is building them faster than they can be
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found, 2005. Two tunnels discovered in Nogalas, 2006.
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Four tunnels in San Diego, 2007. Three in Klexico. The pace is accelerating and
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the quality keeps improving. A tunnel discovered in 2008 in Santa Cidro has
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features investigators have never seen. Air conditioning, not just ventilation.
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Actual climate control. The temperature inside is 68°.
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Comfortable. The tunnel has electric outlets every 50 ft. Lighting is
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fluorescent professional. The walls are painted white. At the California exit,
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the tunnel emerges inside a warehouse. The floor is a false floor hydraulic
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lift. Push a button. The floor section rises beneath it the shaft. Lower
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product down. Move it through. Raise it up on the other side. The whole system
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is automated. This isn't a tunnel anymore. It's a machine. The task force
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estimates this tunnel moved 2 tons of cocaine per week for 6 months before
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discovery. That's an estimated street value of $240 million for a $1 million
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investment. The return on investment is obscene. And years later, one name would
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appear in the margins of every tunnel investigation, every intercepted communication,
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every informant testimony. Guzman. But here's what the task force can't
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understand. How is he managing this from the shadows? He's wanted. He's hunted.
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He's moving constantly. And yet, the tunnel construction never stops. The
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quality never drops. the locations are strategic, the execution is flawless,
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someone is running this like a business, and that someone has resources that shouldn't be possible. Pay attention to
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what happens next. It's easy to miss. 2009,
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Mexican authorities arrest a civil engineer in Tijuana. His name is never
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released. His profession is confirmed. He's carrying blueprints, tunnel blueprints, cross-sections, elevation
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drawings, soil density calculations. This isn't amateur work. This is
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professional architectural drafting. The engineer is interrogated. He admits to
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designing 12 tunnels. 12. He describes the process. Clients approach him. They
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provide two locations. Entry point, exit point. He surveys the route, tests soil,
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calculates loadbearing requirements, designs a tunnel that won't collapse.
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He's paid $50,000 per design. He never meets the client's face to face. All
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communication is through intermediaries. He's told the tunnels are for infrastructure. He doesn't ask
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questions. He knows better. The engineer is released. Insufficient evidence. Two
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months later, another tunnel is discovered. His design. The Mexican government realizes something. The
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tunnels aren't just a US problem. They're a Mexico problem. Because to build a tunnel in Tijuana, you need
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permits. Or you need people to ignore the lack of permits. You need construction equipment moving through
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neighborhoods. You need dump trucks removing earth. You need noise. Lots of
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noise. And nobody notices. Nobody reports it. That's not silence. That's
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complicity. Investigators start following the money. Not the drug money,
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the construction money. Where are the building supplies coming from? The concrete, the rebar, the hydraulic
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systems, the rail tracks. They find suppliers, legitimate businesses,
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hardware stores, industrial equipment dealers. None of them are doing anything
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illegal. They're selling supplies to contractors for construction projects.
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The contractors pay cash. They provide fake business licenses. The suppliers
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don't ask questions. One supplier in Tijuana reviews his records. Over 3
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years, he sold 200 tons of concrete, 50 tons of rebar, 20 hydraulic lift
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systems, all to the same shell company. The company doesn't exist anymore. The
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address is abandoned. The supplier describes the buyers professional,
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organized. They knew exactly what they needed, exactly how much they paid on
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time. He thought they were building legitimate infrastructure. Maybe subway tunnels, maybe underground parking. He
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had no idea. This is the part that matters. The tunnels aren't just engineering projects. They're corruption
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projects. Every tunnel represents dozens of people who were paid to look away.
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Border officials, police, inspectors, neighbors. The corruption network is as
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sophisticated as the tunnels themselves. And that network traces back to one
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economic reality. El Cho has more money than entire towns, more money than
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police departments, more money than anyone trying to stop him, and he spends it strategically. A border official
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makes $30,000 a year. El Chapo offers him $50,000 to forget he saw something
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once. That's more than a year's salary. For one act of forgetting, the official
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takes it. And now he's compromised. Now he's an asset. Now he doesn't just
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forget once, he forgets every time. Because if he talks, he goes to prison,
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too. Multiply that official by 100. That's the infrastructure, human
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infrastructure, and it's invisible until it fails. 2010. The tunnels go quiet for
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almost a year. No major discoveries. The task force wonders if they've won. If
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the pressure worked, if El Sharpo moved on to other methods, they are wrong.
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He's not moving on. He's evolving. November 2010. A tunnel is discovered in
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Ot Mesa. But this one is different. This one is a super tunnel, 2,000 ft long,
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more than a third of a mile, 90 ft deep. That's 9 stories underground. The tunnel
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has a concrete floor, smooth, level rail tracks run the entire length. A
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ventilation system with electric fans, lighting every 10 ft. The walls are
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reinforced with steel I beams. The ceiling is arched, engineered to
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distribute load. At the Mexico entrance, an elevator, not a ladder, an elevator.
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It lowers product and personnel 60 ft to the tunnel level. At the US exit,
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another elevator. The whole system is designed for volume, industrial volume.
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When authorities raid it, they find 30 tons of marijuana in the tunnel. In
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transit, 30 tons. The street value is estimated at $20 million and that's just
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one shipment. The task force does the math. This tunnel cost an estimated $2
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million to build. It was operational for less than a year. In that time, it
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likely moved 100 tons of product. The revenue is estimated at $150 million.
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$2 million investment, $150 million return in under a year. This is no
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longer drug trafficking. This is industrialcale logistics. And the
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blueprint spreads 2011. Three super tunnels discovered. 2012
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4 2013 6. All with similar features. elevator
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systems, rail tracks, climate control, industrial lighting. The construction
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expertise is improving with each generation. Engineers are learning from failures, adapting to detection methods,
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going deeper, building stronger, adding redundancy. A tunnel discovered in 2014
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in Sanidro has a backup ventilation system. If the primary system fails, the
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secondary activates automatically. That's not criminal ingenuity. That's
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building code level safety engineering. Another tunnel has a communication
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system. Intercoms at quarter mile intervals so workers at one end can
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coordinate with workers at the other end. Real time underground. The
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sophistication is astounding. And it's all traceable to one strategic vision,
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Elcharo's vision. But before we go further, there's something investigators
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never explained. How did he coordinate this? He's in hiding, constantly moving,
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avoiding phones, avoiding digital communication. And yet the tunnel
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projects continue on schedule, on budget. With precision, the answer is in
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the structure. El Chapo doesn't manage the tunnels directly. He manages the
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managers. He has tunnel bosses. Each one oversees a specific region. Tijana, no
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galas, Mexicali. Each boss has autonomy, budget, authority. They hire the
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engineers, they bribe the officials, they move the product. El Chapo just sets the vision. Go under, go deep, go
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big. and the bosses execute because the incentive structure is perfect. Deliver
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results, get rich, fail, disappear. 2012, one of the tunnel bosses is
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arrested in Tijuana. Filipe Cabra Sabia. Convicted of organized crime. During
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interrogation, he describes the operation. He's responsible for four
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tunnels. He oversees a crew of 200 people. His annual budget is $5 million.
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He reports to a left tenant. The left tenant reports to Guzman. Cabra
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describes the process. A location is chosen. He hires a surveyor. The
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surveyor maps the route, identifies obstacles, underground utilities, water
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tables, soil types. The survey costs $50,000.
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Once the route is approved, construction begins. A shaft crew digs the entry
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point. A horizontal crew starts the tunnel. A concrete crew follows behind,
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reinforcing. A systems crew installs lighting, ventilation, rails. Each crew
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is separate, compartmentalized. If one crew gets caught, the others don't know who they are. Security is
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layered. Lookouts watch the entry points. Bribed officials provide warning
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if law enforcement gets close. If a tunnel is compromised, it's abandoned
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immediately. No rescue attempts, no recovery, just seal it and move on.
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Cabar estimates he lost two tunnels to discovery. Both were abandoned with
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products still inside. Millions of dollars left behind. The cost of doing
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business. And this pattern repeated in no Galas, in Kexico, in Mexali,
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different bosses, same system, same outcome. By 2014, the DEA estimates 120
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tunnels have been discovered since 1990. The actual number built, probably double
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that, maybe more. Because for every tunnel found, another operates
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undetected. The border is no longer a line on a map. It's a layer cake surface
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underground and deeper underground. El Cho owns the depths. But in 2014,
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something shifts. The Mexican government under pressure from the US intensifies
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the manhunt. Not for the tunnels, for the man, for Guzman himself. February
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2014. He's captured in Mazatlan, a seaside resort town. He's in a condo
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with his wife. No security, no tunnel. The arrest makes global news. The
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world's most wanted drug trafficker captured again. He sent to Aliplano
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maximum security prison. The most secure facility in Mexico. Concrete steel.
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24-hour surveillance. No chance of escape. The authorities are confident.
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This time he stays. They are wrong. July 11th, 2015.
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900 p.m. Security footage shows Guzman in his cell. He walks to the shower area
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out of the camera's direct view, and then he's gone. Guards check the cell.
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Empty. They search the shower. There's a hole in the floor, a perfectly cut
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square, 18 in by 18 in. Beneath it, a ladder. Beneath the ladder, a tunnel.
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The tunnel runs one mile, one full mile from the prison to a construction site
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outside the perimeter. The tunnel is lit, ventilated. It has a modified
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motorcycle on rails for transport. The motorcycle is still there, parked,
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waiting. The engineering is flawless. The tunnel is 6 ft high, reinforced. It
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required months to build, tons of earth removed, all without detection. Inside a
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maximum security prison, the escape becomes legend. The tunnel becomes
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proof. Proof that Elcharo's reach extends everywhere. Even inside the
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walls designed to contain him. But here's the question nobody asks in the
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moment. Who built that tunnel? How many people did it take? How much did it
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cost? And how did nobody notice? The answer is the same as every other
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tunnel. money, corruption, expertise. The same system that built 150 smuggling
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tunnels built one prison escape tunnel. Same blueprint, same methods, same
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results. Mexican authorities are humiliated. The US is furious. The
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manhunt resumes. Bigger, more resources, more pressure. And 6 months later,
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January 2016, they find him again in Los Mchis, a coastal town. He's in a safe
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house with a tunnel. Of course, there's a tunnel. This one is crude, an emergency tunnel. It runs from the house
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to a drainage system. When Mexican Marines raid the house, Guzman escapes
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through the tunnel. He emerges in the street, steals a car, drives. He's
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caught hours later on the highway. No tunnel can save him this time. January
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8th, 2016, Guzman is arrested again.
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This time he's extradited to the United States to face trial in the Eastern
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District of New York. The trial starts November 2018. It lasts 3 months. The
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evidence is overwhelming. Testimony from cooperating witnesses, intercepted
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communications, financial records, and tunnels. Lots of testimony about tunnels. Witnesses
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describe the Tijuana super tunnels, the nogalas drainage systems, the elevator
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mechanisms, the rail cars, the ventilation, the lighting, every detail
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documented, every tunnel connected to the organization, every organization
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decision connected to Guzman. February 12th, 2019.
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The jury convicts him on all counts. continuing criminal enterprise,
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international drug trafficking, money laundering, conspiracy. The evidence
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showed he ran a trafficking operation that moved over £440,000
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of cocaine into the United States, billions of dollars in narcotics. July
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17th, 2019, Guzman is sentenced life in prison plus
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30 years. No possibility of parole. He's sent to ADX Florence, the supermax in
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Colorado underground. Ironic. The man who built an empire beneath the earth
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now lives beneath the earth permanently. But the tunnels don't stop. After his
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conviction, the discoveries continue. 2019. Two new tunnels in San Diego 2020. One
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in no galas 2021. A super tunnel in Ote Mesa, longer than
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any previous tunnel, 3,000 ft. It has a drainage system, an elevator, rail
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tracks, the same blueprint. Because here's the thing, El Chapo didn't just
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build tunnels. He built a system, a methodology, a legacy. And that legacy
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is transferable. The engineers he hired still exist. The corrupt officials still
28:29
exist. The economic incentives still exist. The border is still there. And
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underneath the border, the earth is still movable. A new generation learns the blueprint. Go deep. Go long. Go
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hidden. Move volume. Accept losses. Rebuild. The sin lower cartel continues
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operations. New leadership. Same methods. The tunnels are part of the culture now. Part of the strategy.
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They've evolved from Guzman's innovation into standard operating procedure. In
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2023, the San Diego Tunnel Task Force releases updated numbers. Since 1990,
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over 200 tunnels discovered, over 200. And the task force estimates that
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represents only 60% of tunnels actually built. That means over 100 tunnels are
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still out there, operational, hidden, moving product every day. The border
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above is fortified walls, sensors, drones, billions of dollars in security
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infrastructure, and beneath it all tunnels, silent, dark, profitable. El
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Chapo is gone. The blueprint remains. Take a breath because from here on the
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story only gets darker. The legacy isn't just about tunnels. It's about what the
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tunnels represent. The idea that every system has a weakness. Every fortress
29:59
has a flaw. And if you have enough money, enough patience, enough vision, you can exploit it. Guzman looked at the
30:06
most fortified border in human history and saw opportunity, not obstacle.
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Opportunity. And he was right. The numbers prove it. Estimated total cost
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of all tunnels built under his leadership, $200 million. Estimated revenue from product moved
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through those tunnels, $20 billion. 20 billion. That's a 100 to1 return on
30:32
investment over two decades. No legitimate industry matches that. No
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stock, no real estate, no technology. The tunnels weren't just smuggling
30:43
routes. They were the most profitable infrastructure project in criminal history. And that's the lesson the next
30:50
generation learns. Not how to fight, how to build, how to engineer, how to bribe,
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how to think long term. How to see the border not as a barrier, but as a business problem with a solution that
31:04
costs a million dollars and makes a hundred million. The violence gets the
31:09
headlines. The murders, the betrayals, the wars between cartels, but the
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violence is just the surface. Beneath it literally is something more dangerous.
31:21
Infrastructure, systems, engineering, patience. That's what Elcharo
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understood. That's what made him different. Other traffickers moved product over the border through
31:33
checkpoints in cars, in bodies. High risk, low volume. El Cho moved product
31:40
under the border in tunnels. Industrial volume, lower risk, higher reward. He
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didn't just think differently. He built differently. And now sitting in a cell in Colorado, he's a symbol, not of
31:53
violence, of vision. The man who saw the underground as the future and built that
31:58
future one tunnel at a time. But there's a darker layer. the human cost, not the
32:04
rival cartel members, not the betrayers, the workers, the diggers, the people who
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actually built the tunnels. Tunnel construction is dangerous. Cave-ins,
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toxic air, flooding, workers die often, and when they die, they're buried in the
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tunnel, sealed in. The tunnel is abandoned, another one starts. One
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investigator estimates at least 50 workers died during tunnel construction over two decades. 50 buried in the
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earth. No records, no names, no families notified, just gone. The engineer gets
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paid. The boss gets paid. The official gets paid. The worker gets buried.
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That's the hidden cost. The bodies under the border. Literal bodies in collapsed
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tunnels that will never be found. encased in concrete, part of the infrastructure. El Chapo built an empire
33:00
on their backs, on their graves. And that empire's legacy is this. The tunnel
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method is now permanent. It's in the playbook. It's taught. It's replicated.
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Every cartel with resources attempts it. Sinaloa, Jaliscoco, Gulf, Juarez, all of
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them. The innovation becomes standard. The blueprint becomes doctrine. In 2024,
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US border officials testify before Congress. The tunnel threat is
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escalating. New technologies are being detected. Fiber optic communication
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lines inside tunnels, solar powered ventilation systems, modular
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construction that allows rapid assembly. The tunnels are evolving faster than the
33:48
detection methods because the incentive is still there. The profit is still
33:53
massive. The risk is still acceptable and the border despite everything is
33:59
still just dirt and dirt moves. That's what El Chapo proved. Not that crime
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pays. Everyone knows crime pays. He proved that engineering pays, that
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infrastructure pays, that thinking in decades instead of days pays. He's in
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prison. His organization is fractured. His sons run pieces of it. The Mexican
34:23
government has arrested dozens of his left tenants. The US has convicted
34:29
dozens more. But the tunnels keep appearing because the idea is immortal.
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And ideas once planted are harder to kill than men. They can arrest the
34:40
tunnel king. They can lock him in the deepest cell. They can throw away the key, but they can't unbuild what he
34:47
built. They can't erase the blueprint. They can't remove the proof that the system works. 150 tunnels discovered,
34:56
documented, destroyed, and probably 100 more still operational, still moving
35:02
product still generating revenue. That's the empire, not the man, the method. The
35:09
evidence, if verified, would suggest that El Chapo Guzman didn't just run a drug cartel. He ran a civil engineering
35:17
firm specializing in subterranean infrastructure. He employed surveyors,
35:23
architects, electricians, hydraulic specialists. He managed projects worth
35:29
millions. He delivered on time, on budget, under the most hostile
35:34
conditions imaginable. In another life, he could have built subways, sewers,
35:40
underground transit systems, legitimate infrastructure. Instead, he built the
35:45
underworld literally. And that underworld still functions because he
35:50
didn't just build tunnels. He built a culture, a belief system. The belief that the border is theater, surface
35:57
level performance, and real power, real movement, real profit exists beneath it.
36:04
That belief is now embedded in the DNA of trafficking organizations.
36:09
It's taught to new recruits. It's discussed in safe houses. It's proven by
36:15
results. The border wall gets taller. The tunnels go deeper. More sensors get
36:21
installed. Better camouflage gets developed. More agents get deployed.
36:26
More officials get bribed. It's an arms race. Except one side is fighting
36:32
gravity. And gravity always wins. El Chapo understood gravity not as a force
36:38
to fight, as a force to use. go down beneath detection, beneath walls,
36:44
beneath radar, into the earth where sensors don't reach and cameras don't see. He turned physics into profit. And
36:52
now in ADX Florence, in a cell designed to erase identity, he sits. No windows,
36:59
no contact, no future. But beneath the border, the tunnels hum, rails carry
37:05
weight, lights flicker, air moves, product flows, his body is contained,
37:11
his legacy is not. So here's the question that matters. Was Joe Quinn
37:17
Guzman a criminal genius or just a man who understood that every wall has a
37:22
foundation and every foundation has earth beneath it? Did he innovate or
37:27
just exploit the obvious? Did he build an empire or just recognize that the
37:33
empire was already there waiting underground and all he had to do was
37:38
dig? The tunnels don't answer that. They just exist. Silent, dark, functional.
37:45
The evidence raises questions that deserve answers. The pattern invites
37:50
investigation. The scale demands respect even from those who condemn the purpose.
37:56
150 tunnels, billions in revenue, decades of operation, a methodology that
38:02
outlived the man. Some build monuments above ground, towers, temples,
38:08
structures that touch the sky. El Cho built his monuments below, where nobody
38:14
looks, where gravity does the work, where the earth keeps secrets. And those
38:19
secrets are still down there in the dark waiting. The border has a surface, but
38:26
power lives 30 ft below it. Was he a monster or a visionary? Comment one
38:31
word, monster or visionary. The tunnels weren't the end of the cartel's story.
38:36
They were the beginning of a new chapter. A chapter where infrastructure beats violence, where patience beats
38:43
speed, where engineering beats enforcement. That story continues. We
38:48
document it. Subscribe. Hit the bell. We go deeper every week. Every empire
38:55
leaves evidence. El Chapo's evidence is beneath your feet. The San Diego Tunnel
39:01
Task Force thought they were winning. 2006 through 2008, they developed new
39:07
detection methods, ground penetrating radar, seismic sensors, fiber optic
39:13
listening devices, millions of dollars in technology deployed along the border.
39:19
scanning, listening, waiting for the signature vibrations of digging, and the
39:25
tunnels kept appearing in places the sensors said were clear. Agent Scott
39:30
Garola runs tunnel investigations for the task force. 20-year veteran, he's
39:37
seen 40 tunnels, mapped them, documented them, and he can't shake one question.
39:43
How are they invisible until they are not? 2009. His team installs a sensor
39:49
grid in Otay Mesa. 60 sensors covering two square miles, the most concentrated
39:56
detection network on the border. The sensors can detect digging activity 30
40:02
ft down. They transmit data in real time, any vibration, any anomaly,
40:08
instant alert. 3 months later, a tunnel is discovered. Inside the sensor grid,
40:14
700 ft long, 30 ft deep, fully operational. The sensors detected
40:19
nothing. Gary reviews the data. No alerts, no anomalies, just clean
40:25
readings, like the Earth wasn't disturbed at all. He brings in a geologist. Soil analysis. Maybe the soil
40:33
composition masked the vibrations. The geologist tests the soil is standard
40:39
clay and sand. Nothing special, nothing that would block seismic readings. The
40:46
geologist offers another explanation. The digging happened slowly, very
40:51
slowly, over months, maybe a year. The vibrations were so gradual the sensors
40:57
categorized them as natural settling. Background noise. Garyola does the math.
41:03
A 700 ft tunnel dug so slowly the sensors ignore it. That's not
41:08
desperation. That's discipline. Someone is teaching the dig crews patience.
41:14
Teaching them to work in shifts. Move inches per day, not feet, inches. Spread
41:21
the work over time. Let the earth settle between sessions. Avoid the detection
41:26
threshold. That level of operational security doesn't come from street level
41:31
smugglers. that comes from the top from someone who understands the technology
41:37
and how to defeat it. The tunnel isn't just infrastructure. It's counterintelligence.
41:43
And this pattern repeated in no galas in Mexali in Kexico. Sensor grids
41:50
installed, tunnels appearing inside them, all built slowly enough to avoid
41:56
detection. The task force adapts. They install more sensors, closer spacing,
42:02
higher sensitivity. If slow digging is the countermeasure, they'll detect slower vibrations.
42:10
2010, new sensor generation deployed. Sensitivity increased by 40%. Now they
42:17
can detect vibrations from hand tools, shovels, pickaxes, anything metal
42:23
striking earth. The alert system lights up. Constant alerts, hundreds per day.
42:29
Every construction project, every foundation repair, every homeowner digging a pool. The sensors are too
42:37
sensitive. The signal to noise ratio is broken. Agents spend months chasing
42:43
false positives, digging permits for basement, utility line repairs,
42:48
legitimate construction. The sensors are working, but they are working too well.
42:54
And while agents chase false alerts, real tunnels get built. Because now the
42:59
smugglers know the sensors are hyper sensitive. They know every construction
43:04
project creates alerts. So they build tunnels near construction sites. The
43:10
alerts blend in. The digging signature is identical. Legitimate construction
43:17
becomes camouflage. A tunnel discovered in 2011 exits inside a warehouse under
43:24
renovation. The warehouse has permits, legal construction, concrete being
43:30
poured, rebar being installed, and beneath all that activity, a tunnel. The
43:35
sensors flagged it, but so did 50 other construction sites that month. The
43:41
agents checked 12, not this one. Not until the warehouse owner reported
43:47
strange sounds from the basement. By the time agents arrive, the tunnel is
43:52
complete. Operational product is already moving. The task force realizes they're
43:59
not fighting smugglers. They are fighting systems engineers, people who
44:04
understand detection technology who study it, who adapt faster than the
44:09
technology updates. Agent Garyola interviews a captured tunnel supervisor
44:15
in 2012. The supervisor describes the process. Before digging starts, they
44:22
research. What sensors does the US use? What's the detection range? What's the
44:28
sensitivity threshold? They find the specifications. Sometimes from public records, sometimes
44:35
from bribed officials, sometimes from the manufacturers. The sensors are
44:41
commercial technology sold to governments, to mining companies, to construction firms. The specs are
44:48
available for a price once they know the sensor capabilities they design around
44:53
them. Dig below detection depth. Move slower than detection speed. Time the
45:00
work when traffic vibrations are highest. Rush hour. When the freeway nearby generates constant seismic noise,
45:08
the tunnel signature disappears into the background. The supervisor describes one
45:14
tunnel that was dug exclusively between 700 a.m. and 900 a.m. morning commute.
45:21
The freeway vibrations masked everything. 2 hours of work per day over
45:26
18 months. The tunnel was completed. The sensors never flagged it. 18 months.
45:33
That's not a smuggling operation. That's a construction project with project
45:38
management. Timelines, milestones, quality control. The supervisor says he
45:44
reported progress weekly to a boss. The boss reported to someone higher. The
45:50
chain went up. Decisions came down. Adjust the timeline. Change the exit
45:56
point. Increase the depth. Professional feedback. Professional execution. He
46:02
never met the top, never knew the name, but he knew the system worked because the tunnels worked. Now, here's where
46:09
the story takes a turn no one expected. The US isn't just fighting tunnels on
46:15
the Mexico border, 2013. A tunnel is discovered on the Canada
46:20
border in British Columbia. It runs from a house in Canada to a house in
46:25
Washington State. 300 ft climate controlled lit rail system. This isn't a
46:32
cartel tunnel. This is a different organization, but the design is identical. Same methods, same
46:39
engineering, same sophistication. The blueprint has spread beyond Sinaloa,
46:46
beyond Mexico. The methodology is viral. Investigators find evidence of knowledge
46:52
transfer. engineers who worked on Mexico tunnels consulting on Canada tunnels for
46:59
a fee. They're selling expertise. Tunnel construction as a service. The business
47:05
model is globalizing because the economics work everywhere. Any border
47:10
with enforcement creates demand for tunnels. US Mexico, US, Canada, even
47:17
tunnels between US states with different drug laws. A tunnel discovered in 2015
47:24
runs from Colorado to Wyoming. Not international, interstate, moving
47:30
marijuana from legal Colorado to illegal Wyoming. 200 ft. Crude but functional.
47:37
The idea is everywhere now. Where there's a border, dig under it. But back to Mexico. Because that's where the
47:44
innovation continues. That's where the engineering arms race accelerates.
47:50
2014 task force agents discover something new. A tunnel with a false floor. The
47:57
tunnel is obvious, lit, ventilated, clearly operational. Agents document it,
48:03
destroy it. Mission complete. 6 months later, a smuggler is arrested. During
48:09
interrogation, he mentions the Oté Mesa tunnel, the one that was destroyed. He
48:15
says it's still operational. The agents are confused. They destroyed it.
48:20
Concrete poured into the shaft. The entrance sealed. Finished. The smuggler
48:25
laughs. He says they destroyed the decoy tunnel. The real tunnel is 10 ft below
48:31
it. Parallel route. The decoy was meant to be found to satisfy the task force to
48:37
close the investigation. While the real tunnel continued operations beneath.
48:43
Agents returned to the site. Ground penetrating radar. They scan deeper and
48:48
there it is. A second tunnel 40 ft down beneath the destroyed tunnel. Same entry
48:55
point, same exit point, just deeper. The decoy cost an estimated $200,000 to
49:03
build. Its only purpose was to be discovered, to end the investigation,
49:08
while the real tunnel, which cost $2 million, kept operating. That's not
49:13
criminal behavior. That's strategic deception, military level deception. The
49:20
task force realizes they need to assume every tunnel has a backup. Every
49:25
discovery might be a decoy. They can't trust the first find. But resources are
49:31
finite. They can't excavate 40 ft deep at every site. They don't have the
49:36
budget. They don't have the time. And the cartels know it. They're not outspending the task force. They're
49:42
outthinking them. Agent Gary describes the frustration. We find a tunnel. We
49:48
celebrate. We hold a press conference. Tons of drugs seized. Tunnel destroyed.
49:54
Success story. And two weeks later, product is flowing again. Same route,
50:00
different tunnel or the same tunnel deeper. We don't know until someone talks and nobody talks until they are
50:07
caught. The cycle is endless. build, operate, get discovered, build again.
50:14
The losses are acceptable. The profit margin absorbs them because here's the
50:19
math. A super tunnel costs $2 million. It operates for an average of 8 months
50:26
before discovery. In those 8 months, it moves an estimated $50 million in
50:32
product. Even if the tunnel is discovered and destroyed, the return is
50:37
25 to1. 25 times the investment. No business abandons a 25:1 return because
50:45
of risk. They absorb the risk. They budget for losses. They keep building.
50:51
And that's exactly what happens. The tunnel construction never stops. Even as
50:56
arrest rates increase, even as technology improves, even as cooperation
51:02
between US and Mexico intensifies. 2015.
51:07
Mexico creates its own tunnel task force. Collaboration with the US shared
51:14
intelligence. Joint operations. The goal is to hit the tunnels from both sides
51:19
simultaneously. Shut down the entry and exit at the same time. First joint operation. Tijana and
51:27
San Diego teams coordinate. They identify a tunnel under construction.
51:32
Surveillance confirms activity on both sides. They plan a simultaneous raid.
51:38
Timing synchronized. The day of the raid, both teams move. The US team hits
51:44
the San Diego warehouse. Empty. No tunnel entrance, no shaft, nothing. The
51:51
Mexico team hits the Tijana house. Same result. Empty. The intelligence was
51:57
good. The location was right, but the tunnel isn't there. Later analysis shows
52:03
the tunnel was there 3 days earlier, but it was filled in completely. 70 ft of
52:09
tunnel, erased, tons of concrete poured, smoothed over, made invisible. Someone
52:14
warned them, someone inside the operation. Mexican side or US side,
52:20
doesn't matter. The leak exists. And until it's found, every joint operation
52:26
is compromised. The task forces realize the corruption isn't just about
52:31
construction. It's about intelligence. Someone is selling information. Someone
52:37
with access to raid plans, to surveillance schedules, to task force
52:42
strategy. That someone could be an agent, could be an analyst, could be a cler who sees the paperwork. The cartel
52:50
doesn't need to corrupt everyone, just one person, one person with access. And
52:56
finding that person is almost impossible because the moment you investigate internally, the leaks stop. The person
53:04
goes quiet and the tunnels continue. It's a perfect intelligence problem with
53:09
no perfect solution. Stop. Rewind that in your mind because it matters. The
53:16
tunnels aren't just engineering projects. They're intelligence operations. The cartels know what the
53:22
task force knows. They know where the sensors are. They know when raids are planned. They know which officials can
53:29
be trusted and which can't. That intelligence network is as valuable as the tunnels themselves may be more
53:37
valuable because tunnels can be rebuilt. But intelligence networks once exposed
53:43
collapse. So the cartels protect the network. Compartmentalization,
53:49
need to know access, counter surveillance. the same methods intelligence agencies use applied to
53:57
criminal infrastructure. A former DEA analyst speaking anonymously in 2016 describes the
54:05
challenge. We're fighting an organization that operates like a state. They have intelligence divisions,
54:12
engineering divisions, finance divisions, HR. They recruit, they train,
54:19
they promote based on competence. It's a corporation with better operational
54:24
security than most corporations. The analyst describes captured financial
54:29
records from a sin lower cell line items for tunnel construction budgeted at $5
54:36
million annually with subcategories, labor, materials, bribes, engineering
54:44
consultation. Each category has a manager. Each manager reports expenses
54:49
monthly. This isn't a criminal gang. This is a business unit with KPIs,
54:56
performance reviews, profit and loss statements. And the tunnels are just one line item, one division. The
55:03
organization has others. Surface smuggling, money laundering, security.
55:09
Each operates semi-independently. Each has a budget. Each delivers results
55:15
or faces consequences. The tunnel division's KPI is simple product moved
55:21
per dollar invested. The target is 20 to1. Most tunnels exceed that. Some hit
55:28
50 to1. The division is a high performer. So it gets more budget, more
55:34
resources, more autonomy because the organization rewards what works and
55:40
tunnels work. By 2016, the estimated annual investment in tunnel construction
55:47
across all cartels is $20 million. The estimated return is over $1 billion
55:54
billion. The ROI is obscene and sustainable because even with
56:00
discoveries, even with arrests, the math holds. Lose half the tunnels, still
56:06
profitable. Lose 3/4, still profitable. the margin is that high and as long as
56:12
the margin holds the tunnels continue forever or until the economic model
56:18
breaks which would require eliminating demand or eliminating profit. Neither is
56:25
happening. The US invests billions in border security. Walls, sensors, agents,
56:32
drones, all focused on the surface. The cartels invest millions in going beneath
56:37
the surface. And the millions beat the billions because the millions are targeted, specific, efficient. Every
56:46
dollar spent on a tunnel generates 20 in return. How many government programs can
56:51
claim that the efficiency is the advantage and the cartels know it? 2017.
56:59
A super tunnel is discovered in St. Louis, Arizona. This one breaks records.
57:05
4,000 ft. 3/4 of a mile. 45 ft deep. It
57:10
has a ventilation system with solar panels. The tunnel is energy self-sufficient. It has a water drainage
57:18
system with electric pumps, backup power generators. The engineering is cutting
57:24
edge. The construction cost is estimated at $4 million. The revenue before
57:30
discovery is estimated at $200 million 50 to1 return in 14 months of operation.
57:39
When agents raid the exit point, they find meticulous records, manifests,
57:45
shipment logs, maintenance schedules. The tunnel is managed like a shipping facility, which functionally it is. The
57:53
logs show the tunnel moved product three times per week. Each shipment, two tons.
57:59
Consistent schedule, Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays. The regularity is
58:05
stunning. This isn't opportunistic smuggling. This is scheduled logistics.
58:11
A shipping manager is arrested at the site. During interrogation, he describes
58:16
the operation. He's responsible for coordinating pickups. He receives a
58:22
manifest from Mexico. product type, quantity, arrival time. He arranges
58:28
transport on the US side, trucks, drivers, delivery locations. He's paid
58:34
$75,000 per year. Salary, not commission, salary with benefits, health insurance for his
58:42
family, paid through a shell company, legitimate on paper. He's been doing this for 6 years across three different
58:49
tunnels. When one tunnel gets discovered, he's reassigned to another. Same job, same pay, different location.
58:57
He describes his boss. Professional, organized, provides training, conflict
59:03
resolution, performance feedback, annual reviews. He's treated better than his
59:09
previous job in logistics for a legitimate shipping company. The cartel
59:14
offers better management than legitimate industry. because they can, because
59:20
their margins allow it, because keeping good talent is cheaper than training new
59:25
talent. The shipping manager's testimony is damning not because it reveals
59:31
violence, because it reveals benality. The operation is boring, routine,
59:37
professional, like any other logistics job. Except the product is illegal and
59:43
the infrastructure is underground. That benality is the most dangerous thing
59:49
because it's sustainable. Violence burns out. Chaos collapses. But routine
59:55
routine lasts forever. And the tunnels are routine now. For the cartels, for
1:00:01
the task forces, for the border communities, everyone knows they exist.
1:00:07
Everyone knows they'll continue. It's just part of the landscape. Take a breath. Because from here on the story
1:00:14
only gets darker. The human cost of the tunnels isn't just the workers who die
1:00:19
during construction. It's the communities along the border. The neighborhoods where tunnels appear.
1:00:26
Where houses are bought by shell companies. Where strangers move in. Where noise happens at night. Where
1:00:33
everyone knows what's happening but nobody talks. Because talking is dangerous. Not just from the cartels,
1:00:41
from your neighbors who might be on the payroll, who might report you, who might
1:00:46
see you as a threat to their income. A tunnel discovered in 2018 in Ngalas
1:00:52
exited inside a house. A residential neighborhood, families, kids. The house
1:00:58
was purchased 2 years earlier. Cash sale by a Shell company based in Guadalajara.
1:01:05
The neighbors were interviewed. They all noticed the activity. Trucks at odd hours, noise from the basement, strange
1:01:12
people coming and going, but nobody reported it. One neighbor admits why. He
1:01:18
says, "You report it, they know it's you. Your house is next door. Your kids
1:01:23
play in the yard. You think they don't know where you live." Fear creates silence. Silence creates space. Space
1:01:31
allows construction. Construction enables trafficking. The cycle feeds
1:01:36
itself and the economic pressure is real. Border communities are poor. Jobs
1:01:42
are scarce. The cartels pay well. A lookout makes $500 per week just to
1:01:48
watch, to report police activity. To send a text message when agents are
1:01:53
near, that's more than minimum wage. For easier work, no taxes, cash weekly. The
1:02:01
temptation is real and the justification is easy. I'm not hurting anyone. I'm
1:02:07
just watching. What they do with the information isn't my problem. Except it
1:02:12
is. Because every lookout enables the system. Every bribed official enables
1:02:18
the system. Every silent neighbor enables the system. The tunnels don't
1:02:23
exist in isolation. They exist inside a web of complicity. economic, social,
1:02:30
structural, and that web is harder to destroy than the tunnels. Because you
1:02:35
can fill a tunnel with concrete, but you can't fill poverty with concrete. You
1:02:40
can't fill fear with concrete. The task force knows this. They arrest the
1:02:46
builders, the operators, the managers, and within weeks, new people fill those
1:02:51
roles because the demand exists. The infrastructure exists, the economic
1:02:57
incentive exists. Arresting individuals doesn't break the system, it just
1:03:02
creates job openings. Agent Gary in a 2017 interview admits the limitation. He
1:03:10
says, "We can shut down tunnels faster than they build them. But we can't shut down the reason they build them. As long
1:03:18
as there's profit, there will be tunnels. We're not fighting a cartel. We're fighting capitalism. And
1:03:25
capitalism doesn't lose." That statement is the quiet admission. The task force
1:03:31
isn't winning. It's managing. managing the rate of construction, managing the
1:03:36
volume of traffic, managing the public perception, but stopping it. Nobody
1:03:42
believes that's possible anymore. The tunnels are permanent, part of the border infrastructure, like bridges,
1:03:49
like highways, except invisible and illegal and unstoppable. By 2019, the
1:03:57
DEA estimates 150 tunnels are operational at any given time.
1:04:03
50 simultaneously moving product every day. The volume is
1:04:08
staggering. The coordination is impressive. The economic impact is
1:04:14
incalculable. And all of it traces back to one insight, one idea, one man's
1:04:20
vision. Go under. El Cho didn't invent tunnels, but he industrialized them. He
1:04:26
turned a tactic into a strategy, a method into a system, a tool into an
1:04:32
empire. And that empire, even with him in prison, even with his organization
1:04:38
fractured, continues because the idea is bigger than the man. The system is
1:04:44
stronger than the founder. The tunnels are El Chapo's legacy, not the violence,
1:04:49
not the escapes, the tunnels. And that legacy is still being written. Every day, 30 feet underground. August 2019.
1:04:59
Border Patrol agents discover a tunnel in Yuma, Arizona. Standard raid
1:05:04
protocols. They expect drugs. They find people. 47 individuals huddled in the
1:05:10
tunnel waiting, not workers, not smugglers. Migrants paying customers.
1:05:17
Each one paid between $8,000 and $15,000 to be guided through the tunnel into the
1:05:23
United States. The economics are immediate. 47 people. Average payment
1:05:30
$10,000. That's $470,000 for one trip through one tunnel. The
1:05:37
tunnel cost an estimated $300,000 to build. First trip paid for construction.
1:05:43
Everything after is profit. The cartels realized something. Tunnels move weight.
1:05:49
Drugs are weight, but people are weight, too. And people pay more per pound than cocaine. A kilogram of cocaine wholesale
1:05:58
is $30,000. A human smuggling customer is $10,000.
1:06:04
An average person weighs 70 kg. That's 70 times more valuable than the
1:06:10
equivalent weight in cocaine per unit volume. The math is brutal. and clear.
1:06:16
Human smuggling through tunnels is more profitable than drug smuggling. Lower
1:06:21
risk, higher margins, and the demand is infinite. The tunnel network built for
1:06:28
drugs is now dualpurpose infrastructure, product, and people, sometimes
1:06:34
simultaneously. A tunnel discovered in 2020 in Mexalei
1:06:39
had two chambers, separate routes within the same tunnel system. One chamber for
1:06:44
narcotics, one chamber for migrants. They never mixed. Professional
1:06:50
segmentation, different crews, different schedules, maximum efficiency. When
1:06:56
agents raided it, they found manifests for both operations. Drug shipments
1:07:02
logged on Tuesdays and Thursdays, human shipments on Wednesdays and Saturdays.
1:07:08
The logistics were coordinated to avoid overlap, to minimize risk, to maximize
1:07:15
capacity. The tunnel was a multi-use facility. Like a highway with different
1:07:20
lanes, each lane generating revenue, each lane managed separately. The border
1:07:27
patrol realizes the threat has expanded. It's not just narcotics into addiction
1:07:33
anymore. It's human trafficking and human trafficking has different stakes,
1:07:38
different victims, different urgency. Migrants in tunnels face dangers. Drug
1:07:44
shipments don't. Tunnels flood. Ventilation fails. Structural collapses
1:07:49
happen. And when they do, people die. Trapped underground in the dark miles
1:07:56
from either entrance. October 2020. A tunnel is discovered in no galas after a
1:08:03
collapse. The ceiling caved in 300 ft from the US exit. When rescue teams
1:08:09
arrive, they find 12 bodies, migrants crushed by falling concrete and earth.
1:08:15
They'd been dead for approximately 2 weeks. The tunnel operators sealed both
1:08:20
ends and abandoned it. Left the bodies inside. No rescue attempt, no
1:08:27
notification. just seal it and build another tunnel somewhere else. The 12 people paid to cross. They crossed into
1:08:34
graves. The families are never notified. The bodies are never identified. They
1:08:39
are buried as Jon does. Jane does. Unknown. The tunnel becomes a tomb. And
1:08:46
this pattern repeated across the border. Different tunnels, same outcome. A
1:08:51
former smuggler testifying in 2021 describes the business model. He says,
1:08:57
"People are easier than drugs. Drugs get tracked. Drugs get investigated. Drugs
1:09:03
have law enforcement attention. People are just migrants. If they die, nobody
1:09:10
with power cares. No task force. No senator demanding answers. Just another
1:09:16
statistic. The cynicism is staggering, but the assessment is accurate. Tunnel
1:09:22
related migrant deaths don't generate headlines. They don't trigger investigations. They're invisible just
1:09:28
like the tunnels. And invisibility enables the business model. The cartels
1:09:34
charge for passage. They provide no safety, no guarantees. Payment is
1:09:39
upfront, non-refundable. If the customer dies, that's not a refund issue, that's
1:09:46
attrition. The profit margin on human smuggling through tunnels is estimated
1:09:51
at 90%. 90. The costs are minimal. The tunnel is
1:09:57
already built, already operational, adding human traffic is just scheduuling. The revenue is almost pure
1:10:04
profit. By 2021, investigators estimate 30% of tunnel traffic is human
1:10:11
smuggling. 30%. That's a fundamental shift. The tunnels started as drug
1:10:18
infrastructure. They've evolved into multi-threat. And the threats are expanding beyond
1:10:24
drugs and people. Because if you can move cocaine and humans through a tunnel, you can move anything. Weapons,
1:10:33
cash, contraband, fugitives. 2022. A tunnel in Tijana is raided. Agents find
1:10:40
something unexpected. firearms, American firearms, AR-15 rifles, handguns,
1:10:47
ammunition, thousands of rounds moving south from the US into Mexico. The
1:10:54
cartels are using the tunnels in reverse, importing guns because guns are
1:11:00
legal and accessible in the US and expensive and restricted in Mexico. The
1:11:06
profit margin on gun trafficking south is substantial. Buy a rifle in Arizona
1:11:12
for $800. Sell it in Sinoa for $3,000. The tunnel provides the route. The
1:11:19
infrastructure is birectional. Drugs north, guns south, people north, money
1:11:25
south. The tunnels are trade routes, underground trade routes, moving
1:11:31
whatever generates profit. A senior DEA official speaking at a 2023 conference
1:11:38
describes the evolution. He says the tunnels are no longer single purpose.
1:11:43
They are general infrastructure like a highway system. You don't build a highway just for cars. You build it for
1:11:50
trucks, buses, motorcycles, whatever needs to move. The tunnels are the same.
1:11:56
Multi-use, adaptive, profitable. That adaptability is what makes them so
1:12:02
dangerous and so permanent. Because even if drug demand decreased, the tunnels
1:12:08
would still have value. Humans smuggling, gun running, cash transfers.
1:12:14
The infrastructure finds new uses. But before we go further, there's something the task force only recently discovered.
1:12:22
Something that changes the entire threat model. The tunnels aren't just physical
1:12:28
infrastructure. They are becoming digital infrastructure. 2023
1:12:34
a super tunnel is discovered in Ot Mesa. The engineering is expected. Rails,
1:12:40
lighting, ventilation standard. But there's something new. Fiber optic cable
1:12:46
running the entire length of the tunnel. Professionally installed. Terminated at
1:12:52
both ends with network equipment. The tunnel has internet, high-speed internet, redundant connections, backup
1:13:00
power for the network gear. Investigators are confused. Why does a
1:13:05
smuggling tunnel need internet? The answer is in the seized equipment,
1:13:10
encrypted communication systems, realtime inventory management, digital
1:13:16
manifests. The tunnel isworked, connected, managed remotely. Operators
1:13:22
on the Mexico side can see realtime status on the US side. Product loaded,
1:13:28
product in transit, product delivered, all tracked digitally with timestamps
1:13:34
with GPS coordinates at the exit point. The system is sophisticated,
1:13:40
cloud-based, accessible from anywhere. The tunnel operators don't need to be
1:13:45
physically present. They can manage the operation from hundreds of miles away
1:13:50
from different countries. The digital infrastructure makes the tunnels harder to disrupt because arresting the people
1:13:58
at the tunnel doesn't stop the operation. The management is remote,
1:14:03
distributed, replaceable. It's the same evolution that happened in legitimate logistics.
1:14:10
Amazon doesn't need warehouse managers physically present. They manage remotely
1:14:16
through systems through networks. The cartels are applying the same model. And
1:14:22
the implications are terrifying because if the tunnels areworked, they can be
1:14:27
coordinated. Multiple tunnels operating as one system. Load balancing. If one
1:14:34
tunnel is compromised, traffic shifts to another instantly, automatically. The
1:14:40
task force is no longer fighting individual tunnels. They're fighting a network, a mesh network underground. A
1:14:49
cyber security analyst contracted by ICC in 2024 examines the seized network
1:14:56
equipment. She describes the architecture. Multiple tunnels connected to a central management system. Each
1:15:03
tunnel has sensors, motion detectors, environmental monitors. If authorities
1:15:10
breach one end, the system triggers alerts. Operators can shut down
1:15:15
remotely, seal the tunnel, destroy evidence, all from a laptop anywhere in
1:15:21
the world. The analyst says this isn't criminal improvisation.
1:15:26
This is enterprisegrade infrastructure. The kind of system you'd see managing a
1:15:32
shipping company or a data center. Professional, redundant, resilient. She
1:15:39
estimates the digital infrastructure cost an additional $500,000
1:15:44
per tunnel on top of the physical construction costs. That's a significant
1:15:50
investment, which means the return justifies it. And it does because the
1:15:55
digital systems reduce risk, improve efficiency, increase throughput. A
1:16:01
network tunnel can move 30% more product than a non-network tunnel. same physical
1:16:08
capacity, better management. The ROI on the digital infrastructure is clear and
1:16:14
the cartels once again are ahead of law enforcement because the task force
1:16:20
doesn't have equivalent systems. They are still coordinating through emails
1:16:25
and phone calls. The cartels are coordinating through encrypted mesh networks. The technological gap is
1:16:32
widening, not closing. Stop. Rewind that in your mind because it matters. The
1:16:39
tunnels started as holes in the ground. They evolved into engineered infrastructure.
1:16:45
Now they're becoming smart infrastructure connected, monitored, managed by algorithms. The next
1:16:52
generation will likely include AI, predictive models for law enforcement,
1:16:58
patrol patterns, automated traffic routing, machine learning to optimize
1:17:04
dig locations based on soil analysis and detection probability. It sounds like
1:17:10
science fiction, but the trajectory is clear. Every innovation in legitimate
1:17:16
logistics gets adopted by the cartels because they have the money, the
1:17:21
motivation, and the lack of regulatory constraints. A legitimate company can't
1:17:27
experiment recklessly. Regulations, liability, oversight. The cartels have
1:17:34
none of that. They can innovate faster, fail faster, adapt faster, and they do.
1:17:40
Every tunnel generation is more sophisticated than the last. Every defeat teaches a lesson. Every success
1:17:48
gets replicated. The learning curve is steep and relentless. Now pay attention
1:17:54
to what happens next. The tunnels are also changing geopolitically because
1:17:59
they're not just a US Mexico issue anymore. The methodology is spreading
1:18:05
globally. 2023. A tunnel is discovered between Lebanon
1:18:10
and Israel. 600 ft. Concrete reinforced, ventilated. The design is identical to
1:18:18
Mexico US tunnels. Same engineering principles. Same construction methods.
1:18:25
Investigators find evidence of knowledge transfer. Engineers with experience on
1:18:30
cartel tunnels consulting on Middle East tunnels. The expertise is mercenary
1:18:36
available to whoever pays. The tunnel blueprint is now a global commodity
1:18:42
sold, traded, taught. The methods pioneered by El Chapo are being applied
1:18:48
to conflict zones to sanctions evasion to weapons trafficking. A tunnel
1:18:54
discovered in 2024 between North Korea and China shows similar sophistication.
1:19:01
rail system, electrical infrastructure. The purpose is unclear, but the
1:19:07
capability is obvious. Someone is building cartel-grade tunnels in Asia.
1:19:12
The threat is metastasicizing. What started as a drug trafficking innovation is now a global
1:19:19
infrastructure model. Any border, any barrier, any enforcement system. The
1:19:25
solution is the same. Go under. And the tools to go under are increasingly
1:19:31
accessible. Tunnel boring equipment, ground penetrating radar for route
1:19:36
planning, structural engineering software, all commercially available,
1:19:42
legal to purchase. A task force report from 2024 warns that tunnel construction
1:19:48
is becoming democratized. The specialized knowledge that used to be rare is now available. online forums,
1:19:57
dark web marketplaces, consultation services. Anyone with money
1:20:03
can hire tunnel expertise and the expertise is proven. Decades of
1:20:09
successful operations, hundreds of tunnels, billions in product moved. The
1:20:15
return on investment is documented, the methods are refined, the risks are
1:20:20
understood. It's a mature industry now with best practices, standards, vendor
1:20:27
ecosystems. That maturity is what makes it unstoppable because mature industries
1:20:34
don't disappear. They consolidate, they optimize, they grow. And the tunnel
1:20:40
industry is growing. In Mexico, in Central America, in South America,
1:20:45
Colombia has discovered tunnels. Ecuador, Peru, every country with
1:20:50
enforcement and profit incentive. The map of tunnel discoveries is expanding.
1:20:57
The density is increasing. The sophistication is rising. And every
1:21:02
tunnel everywhere traces back to the same intellectual origin, the same
1:21:08
blueprint, the same vision. El Chapo's vision, 30 ft down, beneath the surface,
1:21:15
beneath enforcement, beneath visibility. He's been in prison since 2017, 7 years.
1:21:22
And in those 7 years, the tunnel count has doubled. The technology has advanced. The geographic spread has
1:21:29
exploded. His imprisonment changed nothing because the idea is independent
1:21:35
now, self- sustaining, viral. You can imprison the man. You can't imprison the
1:21:41
method. The legacy is global. The impact is permanent. The infrastructure is
1:21:47
unstoppable. But there's a darker question nobody wants to ask. If the
1:21:52
tunnels can move drugs, people, guns, and money. What else can they move?
1:21:58
Chemical weapons, biological materials, radioactive substances. Anything that
1:22:05
fits in a tunnel can cross a border undetected. A 2024 threat assessment by
1:22:11
the Department of Homeland Security includes a section on tunnel-based WMD
1:22:17
trafficking. The probability is currently low, but the possibility is
1:22:23
non zero and the consequences would be catastrophic. One tunnel, one shipment,
1:22:30
one weapon, and the border infrastructure that moved billions in cocaine could move something infinitely
1:22:36
worse. The report recommends increased tunnel detection investment, enhanced
1:22:43
sensor networks, AI powered analysis, international cooperation. But the
1:22:50
recommendations require funding, political will, sustained attention, and
1:22:56
tunnels don't generate political will. They're invisible, silent, easy to
1:23:01
ignore until they are not. The task force knows the threat is growing, but
1:23:06
resources aren't growing with it. The number of agents is flat. The technology
1:23:11
budget is stagnant. The tunnels are built faster than they can be found. The
1:23:16
ratio is unsustainable. For every tunnel discovered, two are built, the gap widens every year. Agent
1:23:25
Gary, now retired, gives an interview in 2024. He's asked if the tunnels can be
1:23:31
stopped. He pauses. Long pause. Then he says this. We can slow them. We can
1:23:37
disrupt them. We can make them more expensive, but stop them. No, not as
1:23:42
long as the economics work. Not as long as there's demand on one side and supply
1:23:48
on the other. The tunnel is just the connection. You can't break a connection by attacking the middle. You have to
1:23:54
eliminate one end. And nobody's doing that. That statement is the admission,
1:24:00
the quiet surrender. The task force has fought for 25 years, hundreds of agents,
1:24:07
billions of dollars, advanced technology, international cooperation,
1:24:12
and they are losing. Not because they're incompetent, because the problem is structural, economic, systemic. You
1:24:21
can't arrest your way out of economics. You can't regulate your way out of demand. You can't build walls high
1:24:28
enough to stop people from digging down. The tunnels are a symptom, not the
1:24:33
disease. The disease is the border itself. The artificial line that creates
1:24:38
price differentials, that creates risk premiums, that creates profit
1:24:44
opportunities. As long as the line exists, the tunnels will exist because
1:24:49
the economics demand it. And economics always wins. That's the lesson Elcharo
1:24:56
understood. That's the insight that built an empire. That's the legacy that
1:25:01
survives him. The border is theater. The tunnel is reality. And reality, as
1:25:07
always, is underground. 2025, present day. The latest estimates suggest over
1:25:14
300 tunnels are currently operational. 300. Some are crude, some are
1:25:20
sophisticated, all are profitable. The tunnel network is now permanent infrastructure like highways, like
1:25:27
railways, invisible, illegal, unstoppable. And somewhere in a cell in
1:25:33
Colorado, El Chapo sits. No communication, no visitors, no future.
1:25:40
But beneath the border, his empire functions. Rails carry weight, lights flicker, air moves, product flows,
1:25:47
people move, money transfers. The tunnel king is caged. The tunnels are free and
1:25:53
every day more are built by engineers he'll never meet. In organizations he'll
1:25:58
never contact using methods he pioneered, perfected, proved. His name
1:26:04
is legend. His methodology is doctrine. His vision is infrastructure. The man is
1:26:10
finished. The blueprint is immortal, and the earth, indifferent to laws and
1:26:15
borders and enforcement, continues to move, one shovel full at a time, one
1:26:21
tunnel at a time, 1 billion at a time, 30 ft down, where sovereignty ends,
1:26:28
where profit begins, where El Chapo's ghost still digs. The future of tunnels
1:26:34
isn't speculation. It's already here, just not evenly distributed. 2024.
1:26:41
A tunnel is discovered in Tech 8. Nothing unusual. Standard construction,
1:26:47
rails, lights, ventilation. Agents document it, prepare to destroy it. Then
1:26:53
they find the survey equipment, a liar scanner, ground penetrating radar unit,
1:26:59
3D modeling software on a laptop. The tunnel wasn't built by workers with
1:27:04
shovels and instinct. It was built by workers with digital maps, precision
1:27:10
maps showing soil density, underground utilities, optimal routes, every foot of
1:27:17
the tunnel planned in advance on a computer before the first shovel broke
1:27:22
Earth. The software shows previous scans, 15 different routes surveyed,
1:27:28
analyzed, rated by difficulty, cost, and detection risk. The route they chose
1:27:34
scored highest on all three metrics. This wasn't construction. This was
1:27:39
engineering optimization. The shift is profound. Early tunnels were dug by
1:27:44
trial and error. Workers followed instinct. Hit obstacles adapted. The
1:27:51
failure rate was high. Collapses were common. But now, now the tunnel is
1:27:56
designed before it's built. Every variable calculated, every risk assessed. The technology is commercially
1:28:04
available. LiDAR units cost $20,000. Ground penetrating radar, 30,000. The
1:28:12
software is free, opensource, developed for legitimate construction and mining.
1:28:18
The cartels aren't inventing technology. They're adopting it faster than law
1:28:24
enforcement because they have fewer constraints. No procurement processes,
1:28:29
no budget hearings, no oversight committees, just results. If a technology improves outcomes, they buy
1:28:36
it immediately and they learn faster because failure is acceptable,
1:28:42
encouraged, even fail fast, learn, adapt, build again. A captured tunnel
1:28:48
engineer interviewed in 2024 describes the evolution. He says his first tunnel
1:28:55
in 2012 took 8 months to complete. His most recent tunnel completed in 2023
1:29:02
took 4 months. Same length, better quality, half the time. The improvement
1:29:09
came from technology. Digital surveying eliminated guesswork. Prefabricated
1:29:14
components eliminated on-site fabrication delays. Project management
1:29:20
software coordinated crews. every efficiency from legitimate construction
1:29:25
applied underground. He describes the next generation, tunnels with modular
1:29:31
sections, pre-cast concrete segments lowered into shafts assembled
1:29:36
underground like Lego blocks. Construction time 6 weeks for a tunnel
1:29:42
that used to take 6 months. The engineering is approaching legitimate infrastructure standards because the
1:29:49
engineers are legitimate civil engineers, structural engineers, people
1:29:55
with degrees, experience, professional credentials. They are hired, well-paid,
1:30:01
given resources, and they deliver because the cartels don't care where the
1:30:06
expertise comes from. They just care that it works, and it works better every
1:30:12
year. But the technology isn't just improving construction, it's improving
1:30:17
concealment. The same engineer describes new methods, tunnels built beneath
1:30:23
existing infrastructure, under roads, under buildings, using the surface
1:30:28
structure as camouflage. Sensors detect the building's foundation, not the
1:30:34
tunnel 10 ft below it. One tunnel was built directly beneath a water treatment
1:30:40
plant. The plant's operations created constant ground vibrations, pumps,
1:30:45
machinery. The tunnel construction signature was completely masked. Agents
1:30:51
would never scan beneath an active facility. Too much noise, too many false
1:30:57
positives. The tunnel operated for 3 years undiscovered until an informant
1:31:03
revealed the location. That's the new strategy. hide beneath complexity,
1:31:09
beneath places enforcement assumes are safe, beneath critical infrastructure
1:31:15
nobody wants to disrupt. And it's working because the task force can't
1:31:20
excavate beneath hospitals, schools, water plants. The collateral damage risk
1:31:26
is too high. So those locations become safe zones and the cartels exploit them.
1:31:33
The cat and mouse game has reached a new level. It's not about digging deeper or
1:31:38
building stronger. It's about strategic placement, about understanding
1:31:44
enforcement limitations and exploiting them. A 2025 intelligence assessment
1:31:50
describes the threat evolution. The report notes that cartels now employ
1:31:55
strategic planners, people who analyze law enforcement capabilities, budgets,
1:32:02
legal constraints. They map the gaps, the blind spots, and they build tunnels
1:32:08
in those gaps. The tunnels aren't random anymore. They are targeted, precisely
1:32:13
positioned where detection is least likely, where interdiction is most difficult, where legal barriers protect
1:32:20
the operation. It's asymmetric warfare. One side constrained by law, budgets,
1:32:27
and bureaucracy. The other side constrained only by physics and economics and physics is negotiable.
1:32:36
Economics always are. The assessment includes projections. By 2030, tunnel
1:32:42
construction time could drop to 3 weeks. Modular systems, automated assembly,
1:32:50
prefabricated components. The tunnel becomes a product ordered, delivered,
1:32:55
installed by 2035. Tunnels could be built by machines. Tunnel boring robots.
1:33:02
Small, automated, guided by AI. No human workers required. No human risk. Just
1:33:09
programs and machinery. The technology exists. Miniaturized boring systems are
1:33:15
used in utility installation, horizontal directional drilling, sewer line
1:33:22
installation. The equipment is commercially available. The adaptation for smuggling tunnels is trivial. And
1:33:29
when tunnels are built by machines, they become unstoppable because machines
1:33:35
don't inform, don't negotiate, don't have families to threaten. They just
1:33:40
execute instructions. The human element, which is law enforcement's primary
1:33:46
vulnerability point, disappears. an expert in autonomous systems speaking at
1:33:52
a security conference in 2024 describes the scenario. He says once
1:33:58
tunnel construction is automated, the only way to stop it is to control the
1:34:04
supply chain for tunnel boring equipment, ban sales, regulate
1:34:09
components, but the equipment has legitimate uses, thousands of legitimate
1:34:15
uses. Banning it would infrastructure development, utility installation, mining, construction, the
1:34:23
same dilemma, encryption presence. You can't ban encryption because criminals
1:34:29
use it. Too many legitimate applications. Tunneling equipment is the
1:34:34
same. So the technology will remain available and the cartels will continue
1:34:39
to use it and the tunnels will continue to proliferate. The expert's conclusion
1:34:45
is bleak. He says the window to stop tunnel evolution is closing. Maybe
1:34:50
already closed. The technology curve is exponential. Law enforcement adaptation
1:34:56
is linear. The gap widens every year. Eventually, he says, tunnels become
1:35:02
undetectable, too deep, too sophisticated, too well camouflaged. And
1:35:09
at that point, the border becomes meaningless. Not politically, physically, because enforcement operates
1:35:16
on the surface and the traffic operates beneath. The border becomes theater
1:35:21
performance while the real movement happens invisibly underground. That's
1:35:27
not a future scenario. That's the present. In certain locations, already
1:35:33
sections of the Tijuana San Diego border are estimated to have 5 to 10
1:35:38
operational tunnels at any given time. 5 to 10 simultaneously
1:35:44
moving product daily undetected. The border above is fortified walls,
1:35:50
cameras, patrols, and beneath it a highway system. Invisible, efficient,
1:35:56
profitable. The enforcement is for show, for politics, for the appearance of
1:36:02
control. The actual control doesn't exist, and everyone involved knows it. A
1:36:07
border patrol agent speaking anonymously in 2025 admits the reality. He says, "We
1:36:14
stopped the amateurs, the people crossing on foot, carrying backpacks, the cartels, the professionals. We don't
1:36:22
even see them. They are beneath us. Literally, that admission is devastating
1:36:28
because it means billions spent on surface enforcement are largely irrelevant. The real threat is
1:36:35
underground and underground is where enforcement is weakest. The ratio of
1:36:40
resources is inverted. 90% of border security budget goes to surface
1:36:46
enforcement, 10% to tunnel detection, but increasingly 90% of high value
1:36:53
traffic moves through tunnels. The resource allocation is backwards and
1:36:58
changing it requires political will which requires public attention which
1:37:04
requires visibility and tunnels are invisible. So the imbalance continues
1:37:10
and the tunnels proliferate and the cartels profit and Elcharo in his cell
1:37:16
becomes mythology. He didn't build all the tunnels, didn't design them, didn't
1:37:22
operate them, but he proved the concept, industrialized the method, demonstrated
1:37:28
the returns. Every tunnel built today is a descendant of his vision, every
1:37:34
engineer hired, every official bribed, every ton of product moved, all tracing
1:37:40
back to the blueprint he established. The mythology simplifies him. El Chapo
1:37:46
the kingpin, Elcharo the escape artist, El Chapo the villain. But the truth is
1:37:52
more complex and more dangerous. He was an industrialist, a logistics innovator,
1:37:59
a systems thinker who saw the border not as a barrier but as a business problem
1:38:04
with an engineering solution. His violence was strategic, not sadistic.
1:38:10
used to protect infrastructure, enforce contracts, eliminate competition. The
1:38:16
violence served the business, not the other way around. That distinction matters because sadistic violence is
1:38:23
containable. It burns out, collapses under its own chaos. But strategic
1:38:29
violence, strategic violence is sustainable, rational, effective. El
1:38:35
Chapo's violence was always in service of infrastructure. the tunnels, the
1:38:41
roots, the supply chains. The infrastructure was the prize. Violence
1:38:46
was the tool and the infrastructure survived him because he built systems,
1:38:51
not just organizations. Systems that function independently, that adapt, that evolve. That's the mark
1:38:59
of genuine vision. Building something that outlives you, that doesn't need you, that becomes autonomous. Most
1:39:07
criminal empires die with their founders. El Chapo's empire fractured,
1:39:13
but the tunnels didn't stop because the tunnels weren't his personal operation.
1:39:18
They were methodology, doctrine, intellectual property that became public
1:39:23
domain. And now that methodology is global, applied in contexts he never
1:39:29
imagined, by organizations he never knew, in countries he never visited. The
1:39:35
idea escaped him, became viral, self-replicating. That's legacy, not
1:39:41
buildings, not money, not fame. Legacy is changing how people think, how they
1:39:47
solve problems, how they see the world. Elcho changed how criminals see borders.
1:39:54
They're no longer obstacles. They're opportunities. opportunities to go under, to build infrastructure, to
1:40:02
profit from the artificial barriers governments create. Every wall built
1:40:07
makes the tunnel more valuable. Every enforcement increase makes the underground more profitable. The harder
1:40:14
governments try to control the surface, the more attractive the depths become.
1:40:19
It's a paradox. Enforcement creates the profit margin that justifies the
1:40:25
infrastructure. Without enforcement, there's no price differential, no
1:40:30
smuggling premium, no incentive to build tunnels. The border creates the problem
1:40:36
it's supposed to solve. And El Chapo understood that better than anyone. He
1:40:42
didn't fight the border. He monetized it. He turned enforcement into a business advantage, a market
1:40:49
inefficiency to exploit. That's not criminal thinking. That's economic
1:40:54
thinking. applied to illegal markets and economic thinking wins always because
1:41:01
economics is math and math doesn't care about law. As long as the math works,
1:41:06
the tunnels continue. As long as there's demand in one place and supply in another, the connection will be made
1:41:14
over, under, or through. Elcho chose under. And he was right. The tunnels are
1:41:20
his monument, not to crime, to economics, to the inevitability of
1:41:26
markets, to the impossibility of controlling human behavior through barriers. You can build a wall, but you
1:41:33
can't repeal supply and demand. Some call him a monster, some call him a visionary. The truth is he's neither,
1:41:41
and both. He's a man who saw an opportunity, who had the resources to
1:41:46
exploit it, who built systems that worked, who profited enormously, who
1:41:52
caused immeasurable harm, who changed an industry, who left a legacy that will
1:41:58
outlive everyone alive today. The tunnels will still be there in 50 years,
1:42:03
in a 100. As long as borders exist, as long as price differentials exist, as
1:42:10
long as enforcement makes smuggling profitable, the methods will improve,
1:42:15
the technology will advance, the tunnels will go deeper, become smarter, more
1:42:21
autonomous, more invisible. But the core insight remains. El Chapo's insight. The
1:42:28
border is a line on a map. The earth beneath doesn't recognize lines. And in
1:42:33
the earth, beneath the borders, beneath the enforcement, beneath the politics and the rhetoric and the billiondoll
1:42:40
walls, there's space, empty space waiting to be filled with tunnels, with
1:42:46
infrastructure, with profit. That space is infinite and patient and indifferent,
1:42:51
and it belongs to whoever has the vision to claim it. El Chapo claimed it and the
1:42:56
claim persists. Every day somewhere along the border, a shovel breaks earth.
1:43:02
A tunnel begins. A vision continues. 30 ft down where the border ends. Where the
1:43:09
empire never died. Where El Chapo's ghost still digs.

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