this happening again. >> that's all for this edition of "dateline." i'm natalie morales. thank you for watching. i'm craig melvin. >> i'm natalie morales. >> and this is "dateline." >> it's pitch black. >> we locked eyes for a split second. he was stunned. he was frightened. he had no idea what hit him. i knew that he had him. >> he was untouchable, ruthless, lawless, murderous. >> he was willing to kill whoever he needed to kill. >> the drug lord el chapo. >> the most wanted fugitive behind osama bin laden. >> everybody said no one will ever catch him. >> but he and this team did it in the most astonishing way. >> surprise you? >> i couldn't believe it. >> the american agent who helped capture el chapo comes out of

the shadows. >> i didn't know who we'd be able to trust. >> exclusive deals of the manhunt. >> we jump out of the helicopter pure cues haos. >> video seen tfor the first time. like harry houdini. he would escape. >> it was beyond imagination. >> to catch the bad guy, you got to become the bad guy. >> you're inside this real-life thriller. >> this is it. >> he's there -- >> he's there. >> it was like living a movie. >> hello, and welcome to "dateline." he was the infamous kingpin who inspired fear among criminals and law enforcement on both sides of the border. his name was el chapo. for over a decade, he evaded authorities by disappearing into

a secret network of tunnels built under his many safehouses. one man was determined to capture the fugitive and would lead the team to great lengths, even risk his own life, to get the job done. here's lester holt with "inside the hunt for el chapo." >> he was hiding somewhere in these forbidding mountains or in this sprawling city or in this sun-splashed beach resort. somewhere, somewhere in mexico. he was the most wanted drug lord in the world, implicated in hundreds of murders and finding him became the dangerous mission of this man and a team of u.s. and mexican law enforcement agents. i am pretty sure i've never started off an offwith the question i'm about to ask you,

but you were chasing really bad people with really long memories. what are you doing talking to me in front of these cameras? >> reporter originally i start alias. >> reporter: for the first time ever this former dea agent was coming out of the shadows despite the feeders fars for hi. >> i've got to watch my back, the same way whether i was under an ali can't say or using my real name. >> it s it a calculated risk? >> i'm always calculating it in my head. it was time to step up and be proud of what i had done, of what my teammates had done. >> reporter: his name is drew hogan, facing incredible odds he and the team put their lives on the line to stalk an elusive prey. we go inside drew's hunt as he pursue's el chapo from safe house to safe house and finally comes face to face. >> it's not just a story about one man. it's larger than that.

it's two countries coming together and accomplishing something that everyone thought was impossible. >> reporter: he recounts that journey in his book, "hunting el chapo." in the book, for security reasons, he changed the names of some people and places. we blurred the faces of others who are still working in the field because for all of them danger lurked around every curve in the road. >> you're always going to have that in the back of your mind. it's what you do with that fear. >> reporter: what he did was obsess over el chapo's whereabouts. >> it was nonstop. nonstop. i would dream about it. it totally consumed my life. >> reporter: drew hogan's international odyssey on the hunt for el chapo started far from mexico's narco killing fields. a small town in the midwest where he played high school football and dreamt of going into law enforcement. your first shot at carrying a badge was as a local sheriff's

deputy. >> correct. loved working the street. one day i was with a buddy of mine, a former police officer, and he said, hey, why don't you just go into chicago and test for the dea? >> reporter: the dea, the united states drug enforcement administration. he joined in 2007 at age 25. his new job brought him to a border city in the southwestern united states. his first order of business was to learn about the mexican narco culture. which included songs like a ballad about el chapo. his mentor was an undercover agent drew calls in the book diego. >> as he was translating them to me, i started to understand really what was behind these songs. to really connect the dots for me. kind of who's who in that world. >> were these like the modern day outlaws? >> yeah. absolutely. and chapo was at the top. >> reporter: chapo, el chapo,

real name, joaquin guzman. the city of chicago named him public enemy number one for his role in bringing in tons of drugs that were sold on the streets of the u.s. drew's co-author, doug century -- >> chapo's a ruthless and murderless guy. let's not sugarcoat that. he rose to power, though, on his ability to deliver huge amounts of cocaine. he was the guy that could deliver. he invented the narco tunnel. >> reporter: the narco tunnel. the ubiquitous tunnels burrowed under the u.s./mexico border that the cartels used to smuggle vast quantities of drugs into the u.s. his rise from abject poverty to running one of the most powerful drug syndicates on the planet which had thousands of members and spanned the globe made el chapo a folk hero in mexican culture. >> he's a little boy that sold oranges on the street and then

rises from absolute nothingless. can't read or write. he's iliteral, to being a billionaire. that's extremely captivating as a mythology for poor working people. n in an impoverished country. >> reporter: he started in the 1970s and was arrested in 1993. el chapo was able to run his cartel from a high-security mexican prison for eight years. then in 2001, his legend grew when he escaped, hidden in a laundry cart. >> the way he escaped was like a movie. >> reporter: telemundo's julio vavado has covered mexico's drug wars for years. >> escaping authorities -- it's pure gold for a legend, right? >> reporter: el chapo was the master of bribery. he spent millions of dollars a year secretly doling out cash to

every branch of the mexican government so officials would turn a blind eye enterprise. >> with el chapo the truth and reality is that more than 200,000 people have died because of this war on drugs. there are 20,000 people who have disappeared. >> reporter: ensconced in his safe houses, el chapo remain ee free for years and seemed untoughable by the time drew housing an joined the dea. >> there had been so many failed attempts throughout the years, and el chapo would escape out the back door. >> reporter: he was wired to law enforcement? >> absolutely at every level. >> reporter: u.s. and mexican agents never gave up on capturing el chapo, a 30-year veteran of the dea, derek moss ran the special operations division and oversaw his agents' efforts to bring the drug lord to justice. >> even though they were unsuccessful in the sense of capturing chapo guzman, they were very successful in developing intelligence, the

knowledge of how these cartels were operating. >> reporter: drew hogan and diego first joined the hunt with a daring move -- by infiltrating el chapo's sinaloa cartel. when did he get on your radar in a way that i think i might be able to get him? i want to hunt him? >> that would have been 2010 into 2011 where diego and i started moving sinaloa cartel money. >> reporter: he and diego worked as part a task force. diego was a local detective, not a federal agent like drew. these are photos taken during their operations. diego passed himself off as a big-time operator as drew coordinated behind the scen skh. by doing this they were risking their lives. you guys were playing the role of money launderies. >> right. diego was posing a a director of operations in a covert network that had access to airplanes and

trucks and yachts. we could move millions of dollars at a time and ton quantities of drugs at any point. that was our sales pitch. >> reporter: that was their pitch, and they were successful. for instance, see those fedex boxes? they contained nearly $1.2 million destined for el chapo's operations. drew and diego were getting inside the belly of the beast. coming up -- >> reporter: were you reading their texts? >> every single one of them. >> drew hogan moves closer to el chapo, and his family moves deeper into danger. >> my wife knew everything that we were getting ourselves into. o ♪ here? nah. ♪ introducing the all new chevy trailblazer. here? nope. ♪

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by 2011, drew hogan was part of a hunt for drug kingpin el chapo. drew and his task force partner diego infiltrated the sinaloa cartel. these are photos of their undercover operations. they acted as money launderers, and each step of the way as they moved cash, they found a new target to exploit leading them closer to the top. >> as diego and i landed at a new location, we would

immediately hit the streets. we would go out that night into the different bars and hotels and clubs to -- >> reporter: try not to look like agents. >> exactly. >> reporter: they were playing a very dangerous game. and drew was becoming obsessed, obsessed with tracking down el chapo. drew felt he went as far as he could in the u.s. he needed to immerse himself south of the border. he made a decision to move to mexico city with his young family. >> talked with my wife extensively. she knew everything that we were getting ourselves into. and she told me, what's your gut telling you? and i said, to go. to go. let's do it. >> reporter: leaving diego back in the states, drew and his family arrived in mexico city in may, 2012. he and the team were now stalking one of the most powerful criminals in the world on el chapo's own turf.

just. >> just like who's -- who's watching me? it could be anybody from chapo's people to the local cartel around mexico city to the street thugs or even the months government. >> reporter: he worked in a cluttered cubicle in the u.s. embassy in mexico city. during long days and nights, he barely saw his family. drew's attention was focused on the mountain range far to the west, the sierra madre. it's known as mexico's lawless land. el chapo's home base. the mexican state of sinaloa comprises part of it. the biggest city there is the reputed narco capital of mexico. and el chapo essentially owned the town. >> it would be like in the heyday of prohibition when al capone completely owned chicago, for somebody to come in and just try to throw handcuffs on capone.

they'd get shotment. >> reporter: -- shot. >> reporter: it was a place where kingpins were placeded in large tombs, they seemed to stand as reminders of the violence and the danger that engulfed the area. >> i think it is very dangerous. sinaloa and those areas are completely controlled by the drug cartels. >> reporter: but drew was relentless. for instance, just before he arrived in mexico, he came upon a treasure trove of evidence. el chapo had left his safe haven for this mansion in cabo san lucas. it was raided by mexican law enforcement. el chapo got away, but there were key scraps of paper, notebooks, and phones left behind with phone numbers that drew could target. >> you can't just target the man himself. you have to target his entire inner infrastructure. that means his pilots, his facilitators, his couriers, his wives, his girlfriends, his

sons, down to his maid and his cook. but it began with his two most trusted pilots. >> reporter: pilots who would swoop el chapo in and out of his hideouts under cover of dark not. it was a billing discovery. drew learned an agent from homeland security investigations back in the states who he calls brady had also uncovered the pilot's numbers. >> he came back and said that, oh, my god, you know, this could be a gold mine. and we just began vowing intelligence -- volleying intelligence back and forth. him in the states and me down in mexico. >> reporter: drew and the team knew el chapo usually didn't carry a phone himself but was always with an underling who did. so they thought if they could track the phones of el chapo's closest associates, they would find el chapo himself. but making things more difficult was that el chapo's people kept changing what are called burner

phones, disposable phones used a short time and then tossed away. don't you have to go back to square one every time they toss them? >> if they drop their phones at the same time, yes. but there's -- there's hundreds of people in this organization, and they're not all dropping their phones at the tame time. >> i toss my phone now, she tosses tomorrow that, was their weakness. >> right. >> reporter: it's not registered in anybody's name. how were you able to identify where the communications were coming from? >> through the names they were using. they were open in their communications. >> reporter: a big mistake by el chapo's operation. drew and the team could track them, and the cartel operatives had no idea. >> they didn't think that those communications could be intercepted by u.s. law enforcement. >> reporter: were you reading their texts? >> every single one of them. >> reporter: could you tell where they were coming from and whether you were, in fact, seeing communications directly

from el chapo? >> yes. it took us a while to infiltrate this mirror structure that they had set up. >> reporter: a mirror structure, a ladder of phones belonging to el chapo's underlings, climbing to the top from third tier, maybe a runner to second tier, perhaps a driver, and so on. you essentially cracked the code. >> cracked the code. >> reporter: it was a high point in the search. after years of hunting, el chapo was in their sights at last. coming up -- >> chapo knew instantly. somebody was corrupt. >> drew hogan smells a rat and makes a move. >> we had to go into enemy territory and root him out. >> a bold strike with deadly stakes. >> the city is lighting up. it's on fire. something is not right.

>> reporter: this is the base of operations for the sinaloa cartel. and in 2013, foretouretttress f most dangerous drug lord, el chapo. by tracing the burner phones used by el chapo's underlings, the dea's drew hogan was zeroing

in on his target. >> all that mattered throughout this entire time was his location. where wasl ly al lhe at. that's the only question i wanted answer. >> reporter: as you were building this ladder potentially to el chapo, what was that like? you're reading the messages. >> reading the messages, piecing together the day-to-day structure, day-to-day operations. it was like reading a novel that you couldn't put down. >> it doesn't sound like a place that the dea or necessarily even mexican authorities could easily infiltrate. this was a stronghold for sinaloa. >> right. >> reporter: so you have the information, but what can you do at that moment? >> once i knew that he was there, i had to find another location. it was going to be far too dangerous to actually go in and root him out. we thought it would be an absolute bloodbalth. >> reporter: then a break, christmas eve, 2013. obsessed with his mission, drew

hogan again sacrificed time with his family to continue the hunt. he worked with brady, his colleague from homeland security investigations back in the states. together they tracked foents of el chapo's closest associates, knowing el chapo would most likely be with them and plotting their locations on google maps. >> we had seen him come down to a remote location, and we were trying to pinpoint it. after hours of searching on google maps, we found it. >> reporter: it was a location where they saw tiny shelters called palapas in the middle of nowhere. el chapo was camped out at a place known for duck hunting. >> where he would come down, meet with his most trusted lieutenants or his sons, just for a few hours, and then he would head back to the city. once we had that location, it was our x, and i nicknamed it

duck dynasty. >> reporter: he knew el chapo was venturing outside his fortress city. this of the best shot they may ever have. he and his partners pushed their superiors. and a decision was made. they would grab el chapo at duck dynasty. now you've got him in your sights, but i'm assuming this is not an operation you can pull off by yourselves. >> no. we cannot do anything as the united states government without the host nation. from the beginning, i didn't know who we'd be able to trust with this. i hadn't shared anything with the mexican government. and the only unit that i could do that with that i had some level of trust in was the mexican marines. >> reporter: they're the elite? >> they're the elite. >> reporter: samar, the mexican marines, had a sterling reputation for integrity and the ability to keep a secret. but this time, something went

wrong. >> as soon as we met, i provided chapo's location. i provided this duck dynasty location to them. but the second they moved resources up to sinaloa, chapo knew instantly. >> reporter: you saw that in your intercepts? >> yes. >> reporter: how did you feel? >> devastated. it was an eerie feeling. >> reporter: the team had been betrayed, but no one knew who did it or why. you still wanted him. was plan b to refocus on the area? >> the heat in and around duck dynasty deterred him from coming out. he stayed holed up in his safehouse where he spent 90% of his time, and he wasn't coming out. >> reporter: it's the last place you want to have to go get him. >> right. >> reporter: brady had flown to mexico to join drew in person. the clock was ticked. because of the leak, el chapo knew something big was about to

go down. >> we had to make a move. that move was to go into enemy territory and root him out. >> reporter: the task force leaders approved a bold action -- to do what they didn't want to do and strike at el chapo in his fortress city, coulichan. you went in with the mexican marines. once again you had to trust them. >> right. >> reporter: drew was recording on his cell phone as the operation began. >> this particular operation in february of 2014 was the first time that the mexican marines had ever done an operation on the ground in this area because of the danger and the compromises and the risks involved. >> reporter: laser focused on their mission, drew and brady and the team had narrowed down el chapo's location to a one-block radius.

they needed to find the right house and a specific door to get at him. >> we sent our teams down there to do that. and they spent 24 hours in that city alone trying to pinpoint that door. >> reporter: drew and the rest of the team waited at a nearby military base for the call to come in that el chapo's location had been pinpointed. in the meantime, the city was abuzz, fear hung in the air, rumors and text messages were flying among the people who live there. >> the city is lighting up. it's on fire. the lookouts all throughout the city were alerting everyone that something is not right. that there are people in the neighborhood that don't belong. >> reporter: they were right. the mexican marines were about to pounce. coming up -- inside el chapo's lair.

>> reporter: you slept in one of his did. >> i did. we slept in his beds, ate the food out of his refrigerator. >> a jewelled gun, a jaw-dropping stash, a tunnel under the pub -- >> so close i could taste it. ♪ here? nah. ♪ introducing the all new chevy trailblazer. here? nope. ♪ here. ♪ when the middle of nowhere, is somewhere. the all new chevy trailblazer. making life's journey, just better.

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here's what's happening -- puerto rico's governor is activating the national guard to deal with a rising coronavirus cases. it will help enforce a curfew and assist in closing beaches, restaurants, casinos, gyms, and churches, they'll also have to operate at 30% what'sity. the restrictions -- capacity. the restrictions will be in place until december 11th. the existing face masks and curfew will remain in place that. book to "dateline." welcome back to "dateline."

i'm natalie morales. dea agent drew hogan had spent years on the hunt for el chapo. known as the world's most dangerous drug lord. he and his colleagues had narrowed the search to a one-block radius in mexico, a town deep inside enemy territory. now a team of mexican marines and u.s. agents was on the ground, determined to strike before he could escape again. here again is lester holt with "inside the hunt for el chapo." >> reporter: february 16th, 2014. as drew was waiting at a military base 150 miles away, members of the mexican/u.s. team had entered the hornets nest in search of narco kingpin el chapo guzman. they'd been on the ground exposed for 24 hours and still hadn't located the exact safehouse el chapo was holed up in. >> i got a call from the ground

team. and they said, look, this isn't working. everyone's tired, hungry. we're exhausted. >> reporter: time was running out. >> we've got one option left -- chapo's most trusted courier. go find him. >> reporter: they did, and sure enough, he flipped on his boss and agreed to lead them to el chapo's five safe houses. a squad of more than 50 mexican marines and u.s. agents swarmed the area. drew and brady flew in from the base with another contingent of mexican marines. drew caught much of the operation on his phone. >> perfect. it's done. he is done. >> reporter: what followed was a tense cat-and-mouse game as the mexican marines raided el chapo's satisfehouses in search their prize. >> the first message from my guy says, cameras everywhere, the

place is a fortress. >> reporter: drew understood that when he and brady arrived at one of the safehouses. >> i see the steel reinforced door. it's about six inches thick. taken the marines probably 10 to 15 minutes to get through that door. >> reporter: these images inside those safehouses revealed details about el chapo's drug operation and his life underground. like these fake green bananas that drew says the cartel filled with cocaine and smuggled across the border. they also found tons of drugs and scores of weapons including chap which's prized possession -- this jewel-encrusted handgun with his initials on it. that's drew holding it. and drew uncovered another of chapo's signature items -- you write in the book that you help yourself to one of his hats. >> i did. i found one going through one of his safehouses up in the closet. essentially my only souvenir of

the hunt. >> reporter: what was your impression of the safehouses and the way he was living? >> i was surprised. he afforded himself no luxuries. each safehouse was the same type of construction. very basic. walmart-style plastic tables. >> reporter: not the lavish trappings of a drug kingpin. >> no, not at all. >> reporter: there was something else all the safehouses had in common. >> every single one had a tunnel underneath the bathtub which connected to the city's sewer system. >> reporter: when they saw the tunnels, they knew -- >> he's gone. don't know where he's at. >> reporter: it was a crushing blow. a low point. tunnels el chapo's trademark, expertly engineered, accessed by a secret switch that activated hydraulic lifts under the bathtub. here's video of drew and brady inside one of those tunnels.

el chapo was long gone. no sign of him. it was time to regroup while agents in the u.s. worked to locate el chapo. drew and the team waited, exhausted and on edge. they spent four days continuing to dismantle el chapo's criminal network from within his stronghold. you slept in one of his beds. >> i did. several of them. when we hit the safehouses, we needed somewhere to stay. the marines turned them into their bases. we slept in his beds. we went to the kitchen and ate the food out of his refrigerator. popped open a pacifico, a beer out of his fridge -- >> reporter: that must have surreal sitting there in his living room drinking his beer, sleeping on his bed. >> yeah. it was almost like i had become him in a way. >> reporter: but el chapo was cunning and elusive. mentally had you almost caught

him at that point? >> yes. we're so close. i could taste it. coming up -- >> we looked eyes there for a split second. >> at last, the hunter and the hunted come face to face. >> every single time you got close, chapo guzman would escape. he's like harry houdini. >> who had the ace up his sleeve this time? >> reporter: surprise you? >> i couldn't believe it. new advil dual action with acetaminophen fights pain in two ways. advil targets pain at the source... ...while acetaminophen blocks pain signals. the future of pain relief is here. new advil dual action. i'm a talking dog. the other issue. oh...i'm scratching like crazy. you've got some allergic itch with skin inflammation. apoquel can work on that itch in as little as 4 hours, whether it's a new or chronic problem. and apoquel's treated over 8 million dogs. nice.

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drug enforcement agent drew hogan and the team of u.s. agents and mexican marines had been close. so close to catching el chapo guzman. but the drug kingpin had escaped through a secret tunnel under his bathtub. the trail had not gone completely cold, however. figuring el chapo had fled with someone he trusted, the dea armed with information from another case tracked the cell phone of the kingpin's chief enforcer picudo. >> picudo had driven at a high rate of speed down to mazatlan. turned around and came right back to kuliachan. >> reporter: you see it go to mazatlan quickly -- >> right. right.

>> reporter: and then return? >> right. >> reporter: no other mission than to take el chapo to safety. >> right. >> reporter: mazatlan, the famous beach record on the mexican coast that attracts thousands of u.s. tourists a year. it was just a two-hour drive from the city. drew hogan and the team were ready to go, but they needed a plan first. >> we couldn't take 300 marines down there. he would know we were coming. in an instant. >> reporter: instead, they would sneak into mazatlan under the radar of el chapo's vast network of lookouts. his acones, hawks. >> we buy civilian clothes, and we're tourists. >> reporter: trying not to look like an invading army. >> right. we left at different times from different locations. >> reporter: they still didn't know where in mazatlan el chapo was holed up.

>> we're about halfway to mazatlan and hsi finds that new top-tier number. and we ping it from the back seat, and it's on the coast. >> reporter: what's it pointing to? >> it's point it a place called miramar. it's in the middle of the city. like this is it. this is where he's at. >> reporter: they had tracked el chapo's top-tier underling to this apartment building, miramar. they would soon find out if el chapo was with him. >> we set the operation for 5:30 in the morning. >> reporter: more than a decade of collective investigative work had come down to a predawn raid in the tourist heart of the city. the whole team suited back up in military gear. tell me how it went from that point. >> we came in right up to the front of the hotel, got out, the marines began filtering inside. and i was standing out front and n camouflage wearing a black ski

mask. at this time i had chapo's black ball cap on my head. >> reporter: they determined el chapo was likely holed up on the fourth floor. knowing he and his bodyguards were most certainly armed, the team was worried the operation would turn into a fire-fight, catching civilians in and around the apartment building in the deadly crossfire. >> i was worried about our perimeter. we didn't have enough manmanpow. so i wanted to stay outside. >> reporter: drew watched as lights flicked on in the building. the mexican marines had begun to make their entry. >> that's when i heard the excited radio chatter when i ran up to the guy that had the radio and said, what did they say? he said, they've got the target. they've got him. >> reporter: him, el chapo. drew had spent four years hunting el chapo, he had weathered the danger and the anxiety of stalking him on his own turf, had sacrificed countless hours with his family.

and now, finally, he was about to come face to face with the object of his obsession. drew drove his armored car into the garage. you're about to pick up el chapo. >> right. i run over to him, and i jump in to his face. the first thing that comes to my mind, i go, what's up, chapo? and his eyes kind of bulged out of his head. we locked eyes for a split second. and i put him into my vehicle, into the back seat. that's when i told him to turn around and look at me and took a couple of pictures. and that was it. he was done. >> reporter: as i listen to you tell the story, i find myself shocked that this wasn't a bloodbath. that there was no dramatic shoot-out. in fact, there were no shots fired at all, were there? >> none. >> reporter: surprise you? >> i couldn't believe it. i could not believe it. i mean, we could have ended up in a gunfight at every door,

every raid, driving around every corner. and it didn't happen. >> reporter: a mexican marine helicopter met the convoy and picked up their prized catch. flying him to a nearby military base. >> yeah, baby! >> reporter: drew and brady recorded their celebration on drew's phone. >> this is how we do it! >> reporter: back at the base, drew again pulled out his phone. here he is with brady posing next to a blindfolded el chapo. and drew caught a few moments of el chapo's interrogation by the mexican marines. hard to believe, but here is the world's most dangerous drug lord complaining about his teeth. and with el chapo finally in custody, there was one person

drew wanted to talk to -- his wife. >> i hadn't talked to her in days. and i grabbed my phone, and i sent a quick text. and i said, isaid, i got him. and she writes back, no way. and said, yeah, coming home. >> tonight, the world's top drug lord is in custody after decades on the run. the news of el chapo's capture reverberated around the world. >> to grab chapo guzman after years of a manhunt, it's like harry houdini out there. every time you got close, chapo would escape. amazing success for everyone. >> reporter: drew flew back to mexico city, mission accomplished. but then, the unthinkable.

coming up -- >> i just felt a wave wash over me. >> one more houdini move. and one wild last stand. >> it was always one step ahead of me. >> when "dateline" continues. cs hey! yeah!? i switched to geico and got more! more savings on car insurance!? they helped with homeowners, too! ok! plus motorcycle, boat and rv insurance! geico's got you covered! like a blanket! houston? you seeing this? geico. expect great savings and a whole lot more.

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mexico city.

two days after the extraordinary capture of el chapo, dea agent drew hogan returned to his desk at the u.s. embassy. >> i had this feeling, this empty feeling. i was completely hollow. i expected to be doing cartwheels up and down the hall, ecstatic. but i wasn't. >> reporter: drew could not understand why he was suddenly depressed. >> i felt almost like i was placed at dea to do this and then once it was done, that was it. it's time for me to go. >> agent mon >> reporter: eight months later, special agent drew hogan walked away from the dea and left mexico with his family. he got a job in the private sector. that was supposed to be the end of the story. then, 17 months after el chapo's capture -- >> i was in the backseat of a taxi cab in rome, on the way to

the airport, to new york city to meet with my literary agent about the story. my wife sends me a text. "c" is out. he just escaped. >> reporter: "c," chapo. he had escaped from prison again. drew's head was spinning. >> i just felt a wave wash was anymore. it was -- i couldn't believe it. it was always one step ahead. >> reporter: turns out, it was all caught on tape. mexican authorities had installed a security camera in el chapo's cell as a precaution. >> you see el chapo walking back and forth inside the cell. then, you suddenly stop seeing him. he just disappears off the frame. and that's when he left.

>> reporter: as the world learned, el chapo escaped through a tunnel right under the prison and into his cell. the job to retake him was now in the hands of the mexican marines and the same group of u.s. agents, minus drew. this time, they weren't starting from scratch. >> they understood the organization. they understood the network. they understood the movements. he wasn't as clever as he thought. >> reporter: learning from and building on the 2014 playbook, the mexican and u.s. team cornered el chapo on january 8th, 2016, just six months after he escaped. but this time, he didn't go down without a fight. and it was wild. this helmet cam footage shot by a mexican marine captured the operation as it quickly devolved into a shoot-out, killing five of el chapo's men and injuring

one marine. el chapo was once again in custody. and this time, quietly extradited to the united states. in february 2019, guzman was convicted on all ten charges against him, including engaging in a continuing criminal enterprise, money laundering, and conspiracy to commit murder. he was sentenced to life plus 30 years in an american prison. he has filed an appeal. but the drug wars raged on. el chapo's arrest did not stem the flow of narcotics across the u.s. border. and there were nearly 30,000 murders in mexico in 2017, at the time, a record for that country. most of the killings were linked to drug violence. and the cartels are evolving, becoming key suppliers of the fentanyl that is wreaking havoc on the streets of america. >> enforcement is only one piece

of the problem. right? i'm very confident that we made a difference. but the reality is, that unless you stop the demand, the young kids that are getting addicted that have no idea what they're taking, this is going to be a very long battle. it starts with the schools, the educators. we need to have a full-court blitz on this problem. >> reporter: even though he left the dea in 2014, drew still has security concerns. afraid? >> no. i wouldn't asssay afraid. just hyperaware. ready for anything. >> reporter: and ready for his place in law enforcement history. a dea agent who was obsessed with the hunt for the most wanted drug lord in the world. >> i think that's where people had gotten caught up before, is they had become infatuated with the man, the legend, the myth. and for me, that was never the

case. it was about the challenge. it was about the hunt. that's all that mattered. that's all for this edition of "dateline." i'm natalie morales. thank you for watching. ♪ hey. >> first up on msnbc, tensions flaring overnight, as trump supporters and counterprotesters clash over election results in washington, d.c. it started with thousands rallying for the president, claiming e lux fraud. by nightfall, 20 people had been arrested throughout the day. >> i was walking over there. you can't walk that way. why? there's a crime scene. there's blood on the ground. i lky