and get started with a great offer on fast and reliable internet and voice for just $64.99 a month. plus, ask how to get a prepaid card up to $500. call or go online today to learn more. comcast business. powering possibilities. >> it's pitch black. we locked eyes there just for a split second. he was stunned. he was frightened. he had no idea what hit him. i knew that we 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 in

the most astonishing way! surprise you? >> i couldn't believe it. >> tonight, 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 new details of this white-knuckle manhunt. >> we jump out of the back of that helicopter, pure chaos. >> pictures never seen before. secret drug dens. hidden escape routes. >> he's like harry houdini. every single time you got close, chapo would escape. >> it was beyond imagination. >> to catch the bad guy, you gotta become the bad guy. >> tonight, you're inside this real-life thriller. >> this is it. >> he's there? >> he's there. it was like living a movie! >> 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 interview with the question i'm about to ask you. but you were chasing some really bad people with really long memories. what are you doing talking to me in front of these cameras? >> you know, originally, i started out under an alias. >> now, for the first time, this former dea agent is coming out of the shadows, despite the fears for his life. >> the dangers, they're real, right? but really i've gotta watch my back the same way, whether i was under an alias or using my real name. >> is it a calculated risk? >> i'm always calculating it in

my head. but it was time to really step up and be proud of what i had done, of what my teammates had done. >> 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 pursues 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. >> he recounts that journey in his new 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 gonna have that in the back of your mind but it's what you do with that fear. >> what he did was obsess over el chapo's whereabouts. >> it was nonstop, nonstop. i would dream about it. it totally consumed my life. >> 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 deputy. >> correct. that was all i wanted to do from an early age, ever since eighth grade. i came from a family of firefighters and was the only black sheep. went into law enforcement, loved working the street. and 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?" >> 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 this, "el nino de la tuna" 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. it really connected dots for me, kind of a who's who in that world. >> were these, like, the modern-day outlaws? >> oh yeah. absolutely. and chapo was at the very top. >> 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 very ruthless and murderous guy. let's not sugarcoat that. he rose to power, though, on his ability to deliver huge amounts of cocaine. and he was the guy that could deliver. he invented the narco tunnel. >> the narco tunnel. the ubiquitous tunnels burrowed underneath the u.s./mexico border that the cartels use to smuggle vast quantities of drugs into the u.s. >> for a guy that dropped out of school at 8 years old he figured out you couldn't smuggle large amounts of weed in tractor-trailers because it smells. dogs will smell it. he created tunnels with hydraulics that go under the ground. you can move all kind of weed easily. he's an extremely sophisticated businessman. >> his rides 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 nothingness, can't read or write, he's completely illiterate, to being a billionaire. that's extremely captivating as a mythology for poor working people in a very impoverished country. >> he started in the drug trade in the 1970s, and was arrested in 1993. but 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 -- like a movie. >> telemundo's julio vaqueiro has covered mexico's drug wars and el chapo for years. >> him being able to embarrass authorities, i think that's what made him. i mean, it's pure gold for -- for a legend, right? >> el chapo was the master of bribery. he spent millions of dollars a

year secretly doling out cash to every branch of the mexican government. so officials would turn a blind eye to his criminal enterprise. >> with el chapo, the truth and the reality is that more than 200,000 people have died because of this war on drugs. and there are more than 20,000 people who have disappeared. >> ensconced in his safe houses, el chapo remained free for years and seemed untouchable by the time drew hogan joined the dea. >> there had been so many failed attempts throughout the years -- dea or whoever it was would get that intelligence, act on it very quickly. grab the closest mexican counterpart team willing to risk their unit, and they would go hit the location and chapo would escape out the back door. >> he was wired into -- >> -- the law enforcement?

>> absolutely, at every level. >> but u.s. and mexican agents never gave up on capturing el chapo. a 30-year veteran of the d.e.a., derek maltz, 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 the developing intelligence, the knowledge of how these cartels were operating. >> 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, or i want to hunt him? >> that would have been 2010 into 2011, where diego and i started moving sinaloa cartel money. >> he and diego worked as part of a task force. diego was a local detective not a federal agent like drew. these are photos taken during their operations. diego passed himself off as a big-time operator as drew coordinated behind the scenes.

by doing this, they were risking their lives. you guys were playing the role of money launderers? >> right. diego was in his undercover role posing as director of operations of a covert criminal 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 -- that was our sales pitch. >> that was their pitch. and they were successful. for instance, see those fedex boxes? they contained nearly $1.2 million destined for el chapo's operations. drew and diego were getting inside the belly of the beast. coming up -- were you actually reading their texts? >> every single one of them. >> drew hogan moves closer to el chapo and his family moves deeper into danger. >> my wife knew everything that

we were getting ourselves into. she asked me what's your gut telling you, and i said to go. >> when "inside the hunt for el chapo" continues. for el chapo" continues this is the sound of an asthma attack... that doesn't happen. this is the sound of better breathing. fasenra is a different kind of asthma medication. it's not a steroid or inhaler. fasenra is an add-on treatment for asthma driven by eosinophils. it's one maintenance dose every 8 weeks. it helps prevent asthma attacks, improve breathing, and lower use of oral steroids. nearly 7 out of 10 adults with asthma may have elevated eosinophils. fasenra is designed to target and remove them. fasenra is not a rescue medication or for other eosinophilic conditions. fasenra may cause allergic reactions. get help right away if you have swelling of your face, mouth, and tongue, or trouble breathing. don't stop your asthma treatments unless your doctor tells you to. tell your doctor if you have a parasitic infection or your asthma worsens. headache and sore throat may occur.

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and just doubled the capacity here. how do things look on your end? -perfect! because we're building a better network every single day. by 2011, dea agent drew hogan was part of the hunt for drug kingpin, el chapo. drew and his task force partner, diego, infiltrated el chapo's 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 in a new location we would immediately hit the streets. we would go out that night into the different bars and hotels and clubs to -- >> try not to look like agents? >> exactly.

>> they were playing a very dangerous game. and drew was becoming obsessed. obsessed with tracking down el chapo. drew felt he went as far as he could in the u.s. he needed to immerse himself south of the border. he made a decision to move to mexico city with his young family. >> i 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." >> 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. >> it's 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 mexican government. >> he worked in a cluttered cubicle in the u.s. embassy in mexico city. during long days and nights, he barely saw his family. 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 culiacan, 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 shot. >> it was a place where kingpins who died in mexico's drug wars were placed in large, ornate tombs. they seemed to stand as reminders of the violence and

danger that engulfed culiacan. >> i think it is very dangerous. culiacan, sinaloa and those areas are completely controlled by drug cartels. >> 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 in culiacan 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 -- his pilots, his facilitators, his couriers, his wives, his girlfriends, his sons, down to his maid and his cook. but it began with his two most trusted pilots.

>> pilots, who would swoop el chapo in and out of his hideouts under cover of darkness. it was a big discovery. drew learned an agent from homeland security investigations, back in the states, who he calls brady, had also uncovered the pilot's numbers. >> he came back and said that "oh, my god, you know, this could be a gold mine." i said, "look, this is what i have historically. this is what i know about chapo guzman. this is how vulnerable he is at this present moment," and we just began volleying intelligence back and forth. him, in the states, and me down in mexico. >> 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 all 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 same time. >> i toss my phone now. she tosses her phone tomorrow. you're three days later. that was their weakness? >> right. >> it's not registered in anyone's name, how were you able to identify where these communications were coming from? >> through the names that they were using. they were very open in their communications. >> it was a big mistake by el chapo's operation. drew and the team could now track them, and the cartel operatives had no idea. >> they didn't think that those communications could be intercepted by u.s. law enforcement. >> were you actually reading their texts? >> every single one of 'em. >> 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. >> 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. >> 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. the lookouts throughout the estate were alerting everyone that something is not right.

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this is culiacan, mexico, the base of operations for the sinaloa cartel. and in 2013, fortress for the world's 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 was he at? that's the only question i wanted answered. >> as you're realizing that you were building this ladder potentially to el chapo, what was that like? and you're reading -- >> -- piecing together -- >> -- the messages? >> reading the messages, piecing together chapo's day-to-day structure of his organization, his day-to-day operations. >> that must have been an eye-opener. >> yeah, it was like reading a novel that you couldn't put down. >> was he more sophisticated, less sophisticated than you thought? >> he was more involved in the details than i thought he would

be. in every granular detail. he had eyes out. that surprised me. >> culiacan. doesn't sound like a place that the dea or necessarily even mexican authorities could easily infiltrate? this was a stronghold for sinaloa? >> right. >> so you have the information, but what can you do with it that moment? >> once that i knew that he was in culiacan, i had to find another location. it was gonna be far too dangerous to actually go into culiacan and root him out. we thought it would be an absolute blood bath. >> then a break. christmas eve 2013. obsessed with his mission, drew hogan once again sacrificed time with his family to continue the hunt. he worked with brady, his colleague from homeland security investigations back in the states. together, they tracked phones of el 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 out

of culiacan to a remote location. and we were trying to pinpoint it. and after hours of searching on google maps, we found it. >> 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. >> drew now knew el chapo was venturing outside his fortress city of culiacan. this was the best shot they may ever have. he and his partners pushed their superiors, and a decision was made. they would grab el chapo at duck dynasty. so now 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. i wanted to pinpoint chapo's location, have it ironclad, wrap it up in a big red bow and walk into the mexican government and deliver the package and say, "do you want chapo." and the only unit i could do that with that i had some level of trust in was the mexican marines, semar. >> they're the elite? >> they're the elite. >> semar, 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. >> you saw that in your intercepts? >> yes. >> how did you feel? >> devastated. you knew somebody was corrupt, somebody that you had just shared your both prized and protected intelligence with has just leaked that out to chapo's people. it was an eerie feeling. our next meeting walking in and sitting down with the admiral and his folks, you didn't know -- it could have been somebody in that room. >> the team had been betrayed. but no one knew who did it or why. but you still wanted him? was plan b to refocus on culiacan? >> so the heat in around duck dynasty deterred him from coming out.

he stayed holed up in his safe house, where he spent 90% of his time there in culiacan. and he wasn't coming out. >> and it's the last place you want to have to go and get him? >> right. >> brady had flown to mexico to join drew in person. the clock was ticking because of the leak, el chapo now knew something big was about to go down. the team had no choice. >> we had to make a move. and that move was to go into enemy territory and root him out. >> the task force leaders approved a bold action, to do what they didn't want to do, and strike at el chapo in his fortress city, culiacan. you went in with the mexican marines into culiacan. once again, you had to trust them? >> right. >> drew was recording on his cellphone 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. >> laser-focused on their mission, drew and brady and the team had narrowed down el chapo's location to a one-block radius. but they needed to find the right house, and a specific door to get at him. >> so, we sent our teams down there to do that. and they spent 24 hours in that city, alone trying to pinpoint that door. >> drew and the rest of the team waited at a nearby military base for the call to come in that el chapo's location had been pinpointed. in the meantime, culiacan was abuzz. fear hung in the air. rumors and text messages were flying among the people who lived 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. >> they were right. the mexican marines were about to pounce. >> coming up -- inside el chapo's lair. >> you slept in one of his beds. >> i did. i slept in his bed, i ate the food out of his refrigerator. popped open a beer out of his fridge. >> a jewelled gun, a jaw-dropping stash, a tunnel under the tub. mentally had you almost caught him at that point? >> we were so close, i could taste it. ♪ music playing. ♪

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hi, in the top stories, new jersey's governor announced two new deaths due to tropical storm ida. it's now caused a total of 27 deaths in the state. four people remain missing.

president biden plans to tour damage in new jersey and new york tuesday. and legendary "today" show weatherman willard scott has died. scott's "today" show successor, al roker, announced the 87-year-old died this morning surrounded by family. he began his career at nbc news in 1950 and joined "today" in 1980. back to "dateline." february 16th, 2014, as drew was waiting at a military base 150 miles away, members of the mexican/u.s. team had entered the hornet's nest in search of narco kingpin joaquin "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 workin'. everyone's tired, hungry. we're exhausted." >> time was running out. >> we've got one option left. chapo's most-trusted courier. go find him. >> 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 fifty 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. >> i said, "perfect." he's done, he is done. >> what followed was a tense cat and mouse game as the mexican marines raided el chapo's safe houses and stash pads throughout culiacan in search of their prize. >> first message that comes in from my guy says, "cameras everywhere.

the place is a fortress." >> drew understood that when he and brady arrived at one of the safe houses. >> and i see the steel-reinforced door that's about six inches thick, taking the marines probably 10 to 15 minutes to get through that door. >> these never-before-seen images inside those safe houses 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 el chapo'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 safe houses, up in the closet. essentially, my only souvenir of the hunt.

>> what was your impression of the safe houses and the way he was living? >> i was surprised. he really afforded himself no luxuries. each safe house was the same type of construction, very basic. walmart style plastic tables. >> not the lavish trappings of a drug kingpin. >> no, not at all. >> and there was something else all the safe houses had in common. >> every single one of 'em had a tunnel underneath the bathtub, which connected to the city sewer system. >> when they saw the tunnels, they knew. >> he's gone. i don't know where he's at. >> 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 in culiacan. 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 these safe houses we needed somewhere to stay. and 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. i popped open a pacifico, a beer out of his fridge. >> it must have been surreal sitting there in his living room, drinking his beer, sleeping on his bed. >> yeah, it was almost like, you know, i had become him in a way. so enveloped in his life at that point. just days prior you thought it was impossible to ever even go

in let alone be standing in the living room. >> what about his vehicles? some were left behind, as well. >> he had an armored vehicle at every location which we took. the marines took and put them into our fleet. i'm glad we did. they were the only armored vehicles that we had at the time. so i felt safe once we had done that. >> but el chapo was cunning and elusive. meantly, had you almost caught him at that point? >> yes. we're so close. i could taste it. coming up -- >> we locked eyes there just 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? surprise you? >> i couldn't believe it.

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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 from culiacan down to mazatlán, turned around, and came right back to culiacan. really at the moment of escape. you could see where he left the city and i said, "this is our drop. this is our drop.

chapo's in mazatlan right now." >> you're seeing the location where that phone is. >> yes. >> and you see it go from culiacan to mazatlán quickly and then return? >> right. right. >> no other mission other than to -- to take el chapo to safety? >> right. >> mazatlan, the famous beach resort on the mexican coast that attracts thousands of u.s. tourists a year. it was just a two-hour drive from culiacan. 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. >> instead they would sneak into mazatlan under the radar of el chapo's vast network of lookouts. his alcones, hawks. >> we buy civilian clothes, t-shirts and shorts and flip-flops and we're tourists. >> you're trying not to look like an invading army, at this point? >> right.

we all left at different times out of the city from different locations. >> they still didn't know just where in mazatlan el chapo was holed up. >> we're about halfway to mazatlán. and hsi finds that new top-tier number. and we ping it from the backseat. and it's on the coast. >> and what's it pointing to? >> it's pointing to a place called -- called miramar, it's in the middle of the city. like this is it. this is where he's at. >> 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. >> 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 in camouflage, wearing a black ski mask. at this time i had -- had chapo's black ball cap on my head. >> 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 manpower. so i wanted to stay outside. >> drew watched as lights flicked on in the building -- the mexican marines had begun to make their entry. >> and that's when i heard the excited radio chatter, when i ran up to the guy that had the radio. and i said, "what did they say?" he said, "they've got the target. they have got him." >> 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 into his face. and the first thing that comes to my mind, i go, "what's up, chapo?" and his eyes kind of bulged out of his head and we locked eyes there just for a split second. and they put him into my vehicle into the back seat. and that's when i told him to turn around and look at me, took a couple of pictures and that was it. he was done. >> how did he look to you, did he look stunned, defiant? >> he was stunned. he was frightened. he had no idea what hit him.

>> as i listen to you tell the story i find myself shocked that this wasn't a blood bath, that there was no dramatic shootout. in fact, there were no shots fired at all, were there? >> none. >> 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. >> a mexican marine helicopter met the convoy and picked up their prized catch, flying him to a nearby military base. >> yeah, baby! >> drew and brady recorded their celebration on drew's phone. >> this is how we do it! >> 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.

[ speaking foreign language ] >> 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 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 -- in days. and i grabbed my phone and a sent a quick text. and i said "i got him." and she writes back, "no way." and i said, "yeah, i'm coming home." >> the job was over. >> that was it. >> 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. he's like the harry houdini out there, just evading law

enforcement. every single time you got close, chapo guzman would escape. so basically it was amazing success for everyone. >> 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! >> he was always one step ahead. >> you see elchapo walking back and forth inside the cell and then you suddenly stop seeing him. he just disappears. >> and one wild last stand when inside the hunt for el chapo continues. r el chapo continues.

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. you know, and i expected to be doing cartwheels up and down the hall, ecstatic. but i wasn't. >> 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. >> 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. and that was supposed to be the end of the story. then, seventeen months after el chapo's capture. >> i was in the backseat of a taxicab, in rome, on my way to the airport, headed to new york

city to meet with my literary agent about this story when my wife sent me a text. she writes, "c is out. he just escaped." >> c, chapo. he had escaped from prison, again. drew's head was spinning. >> and i just felt a wave wash over me there in the backseat of that taxicab, not knowing what was right anymore. it was -- i couldn't believe it. he was always one step ahead. >> 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 just walking back and forth inside the cell. and then you suddenly stop seeing him. he just disappears off the frame, and that's when he left. >> as the world learned,

el chapo escaped through a tunnel dug right under the prison and up into his cell. the job to retake him was now in the hands of the mexican marines and virtually the same group of u.s. agents minus drew. but this time they weren't starting from scratch. >> they understood his organization, they understood the network, they understood the movements. he wasn't as clever as he thought. >> 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 shootout killing five of el chapo's men and injuring one marine. el chapo was once again in custody.

this time quietly extradited to the united states. in february 2019 guzman was convicted on all ten charges against him, including engaging in a continual 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 rage 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've made a difference, but the reality is that unless you stop demand, these 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. >> even though he left the dea nearly four years ago, drew still has security concerns. >> afraid? >> no. i wouldn't say afraid, just hyperaware, you know, ready for anything. >> and ready for his place in law enforcement history, a dea agent who was obsessed with the hunt nor the most wanted drug lord in the world. >> i think that's where people had gotten caught up before, is that they just become almost infatuated with -- with the man, with the legend, with 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. i believe that he had an old soul, beautiful soul. i know he's my son, but -- he was the kindest person i've ever met in my life. he was definitely god's gift to me. >> a beloved teenage boy who disappeared. >> i have to report my son missing. >> they saw his truck with caution tape around it. the police, told my father that he was gone. >> i was like "are you sure? like, what are you talking about?" >> reporter: grieving alongside his family, his girlfriend. >> she sent messages of

condolences, "we a