[REAL TALK] What is a regular day like in the life of one of the most wanted men on earth? Like El Mencho or El Mayo?

[Mike D]

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El Mayo is the current leader of the Sinaloa cartel (El Chapo's former organization). El Mencho is the head of the CJNG cartel, which depending on the source, is quite possibly on the verge of overtaking the Sinaloa cartel as the biggest cartel in Mexico -- if it hasn't already.

What's a "normal" day like for these guys? Hiding out in the mountains of Mexico somewhere (where the DEA believes both are hiding)? Deciding which cartel rivals to kill that day and how to torture them? Do they just mostly sit around and coordinate where their product is going each day?

It must be such a surreal life, to know that you're one of the most wanted men on earth, assuredly surrounded by an army of killers everywhere you go. Having scores and scores of other human beings at the hands of your organization killed. Daily. And how can it be worth it? Yes you are one of the wealthiest men on the planet, but how can one even enjoy it when you have to hideout for the rest of your life? In El Chapo's final days of "freedom" (and years honestly), he was living very, very modestly. Despite being worth hundreds of millions. Because he didn't want to draw attention to himself. Same thing with Pablo Escobar in his final days. They recently apprehended Colombia's biggest drug lord since Escobar, and when they tracked him down he was hiding out in a jungle living out of tents. Both El Mencho and El Mayo have had their real families decimated because they're in prison. Both have sons in prison. El Mencho's wife was arrested very recently and is likely facing lengthy prison time (she was the chief of the cartel's finances).

But yeah I just wonder what a typical day is like for these guys. What a bizarre life these drug lords lead.

[Mike D]

By the way, that one cartel torture video that my guy beercules posted a few years ago still stands to this day as the only video of like that I have ever seen. That was beyond horrific. Curiosity got the best of me, unfortunately. If I can help it I will never see one of those videos ever again. But I do follow this one guy's YouTube channel, and his content is elaborating on the cartel torture videos that are uploaded onto the internet. Obviously he doesn't show any of the videos themselves (which would be against YouTube rules). He just talks about them. Describes them. Just the descriptions alone are enough to make you ill inside. These guys commit unspeakable acts of horror on these videos. It's at a point now where the rival cartels are trying to one up the other with their acts of torture. It's not enough for them to simply kill you anymore. They actively try to come up with more and more creative (and horrific) methods of torturing and killing their victims. They even bring in doctors to keep their victims alive longer, just to prolong the torture. And then they upload it onto the internet.

They make ISIS killings look humane...

[lopetego]

Both live in hidden fortresses, under several circles of protection, with a small army of heavily armed thugs ready to die for them

they have thousands of civillian spies with radios in the vecinities, to alert them about every move from the govt or enemy cartels

El Mayo spends his time in the mountains of Sinaloa, in places that are not easily accesible

El Mencho has complete control over several towns of the narco-state of Jalisco, where there's no govt aside from his, so he stays in there

[Mike D]

El Mayo spends his time in the mountains of Sinaloa, in places that are not easily accesible

It's amazing that he's 74 and has supposedly never spent a day in jail. Lots of rumors out there that the Mexican government prefers "working" with him as opposed to other cartel figures, thus the reason he has escaped apprehension for so long.

[lopetego]

It's amazing that he's 74 and has supposedly never spent a day in jail. Lots of rumors out there that the Mexican government prefers "working" with him as opposed to other cartel figures, thus the reason he has escaped apprehension for so long.

Yeah, el Mayo is one of the few old school drug lords that are still around

He's always kept a low profile, he doesn't like to draw attention to himself, unlike other drug lords like Pablo Escobar or El Chapo, who enjoyed being celebrities

he doesn't like to bring �the heat?either, so if he can get what he wants without excessive violence, he'll take that route.

He'd bribe the govt and the police, instead of using violence against them, and he wouldn't mess with innocent civillians. as long as you didn't mess with his business, you'd be fine

or at least, that was his modus operandi before the early 2000's, when Los Zetas appeared.

The whole wave of brutal narco-violence, the beheadings, tortures, corpses hanging from bridges, mass massacres, ********* acts, civillians being targeted, etc that now plagues Mexico was started by the military-turned-narcos of Los Zetas.

they were the first narco group to use extreme violence as a regular intimidation tactic, and now all the cartels do the same.

That's why el Mencho, who is a younger drug lord, has been using these tactics since the beginning and is one sadistic SOB

[VegasMichael]

Haven't they had plastic surgery to change their looks and then murdered the surgeons so the surgeons can't identify them?

[Mike D]

or at least, that was his modus operandi before the early 2000's, when Los Zetas appeared.

The whole wave of brutal narco-violence, the beheadings, tortures, corpses hanging from bridges, mass massacres, ********* acts, civillians being targeted, etc that now plagues Mexico was started by the military-turned-narcos of Los Zetas.

Yeah the history of the Zetas is absolutely wild. Weren't the founders all former elite special forces? The history of former Zeta leader Heriberto Lazcano in particular.

[Mike D]

Haven't they had plastic surgery to change their looks and then murdered the surgeons so the surgeons can't identify them?

Yeah there are stories of that out there.

Amado Carillo Fuentes allegedly died on the operating table getting plastic surgery -- although there are some out there that believe to this day his death was staged, and that he's still out there somewhere. Others think he was killed on purpose by the doctors.

Speaking of the doctors, they were later found in oil drums.

[lopetego]

Yeah the history of the Zetas is absolutely wild. Weren't the founders all former elite special forces? The history of former Zeta leader Heriberto Lazcano in particular.

Yeah, originally the Zetas were a group of 31 Special Forces soldiers, with the highest military training in Mexico, trained by the U.S army, Israel, and in the infamous School of the Americas.

So they had all kind of combat skills never seen before in a drug cartel: rapid deployment, ambushes, urban warfare, surveillance, counter-surveillance, etc, and also �interrogation techniques?aka torture, and psychological warfare. Like a bunch of bloodthirsty Rambos working for a criminal organization, that was los Zetas, Heriberto Lazcano was one of them and his codename was �Z-3?

Then these guys recruited more military personnel and trained other sicarios in military tactics, and the escalation of violence in the drug business became exponential, more so after the competition started using the same tactics to keep up with them.

It's gotten to the point that the police is now completely useless against cartels. Mexico won't be rid of cartels unless the govt unleashes a literal bloody war on them, but no president will have the balls to do that

[Mike D]

Yeah, originally the Zetas were a group of 31 Special Forces soldiers, with the highest military training in Mexico, trained by the U.S army, Israel, and in the infamous School of the Americas.

So they had all kind of combat skills never seen before in a drug cartel: rapid deployment, ambushes, urban warfare, surveillance, counter-surveillance, etc, and also �interrogation techniques?aka torture, and psychological warfare. Like a bunch of bloodthirsty Rambos working for a criminal organization, that was los Zetas, Heriberto Lazcano was one of them and his codename was �Z-3?

Then these guys recruited more military personnel and trained other sicarios in military tactics, and the escalation of violence in the drug business became exponential, more so after the competition started using the same tactics to keep up with them.

It's gotten to the point that the police is now completely useless against cartels. Mexico won't be rid of cartels unless the govt unleashes a literal bloody war on them, but no president will have the balls to do that

You have impressive knowledge about the cartel world, lopetego.