La Barbie: The Narco Los Zetas Couldn't Kill

In the last episode, I covered La Barbie's rise from a small-town kid in Laredo to a Mexican cartel boss, and how he met the Beltrán Leyva brothers and El Chapo Guzmán himself. This episode goes back to the wars that made him who he was: his war against Los Zetas and the 2008 rupture and war inside the Sinaloa Cartel. For this investigation, I went through court documents, interrogation transcripts, and testimony never covered in this level of detail. What you're about to hear goes far beyond anything previously published: how a rogue special forces unit turned against the Mexican army and seized Nuevo Laredo by force, k*lling La Barbie's closest ally in the process, and the secret meeting with Osiel Cárdenas, the leader of the Gulf Cartel that was the only thing standing between Barbie and a bullet. Then comes the Federation's answer: 300 gunmen deployed into a single city, a battle so brutal it left over 400 people d*ad in the streets, and a betrayal at the top that finally split the most powerful cartel alliance in Mexican history, allegedly triggered by a half-million-dollar watch with a tracking device hidden inside. I go through La Barbie's own words, taken directly from his interrogation, describing the last phone call he ever received from Arturo Beltrán Leyva, made as Mexican Navy special forces stormed the building he was hiding in. What Barbie said, and didn't say, on that call would define his legacy forever. Also details of how Arturo Beltrán Leyva was, his addictions, and how were his lasts days. This is Episode 2 of the complete story of La Barbie, from Laredo to the Sinaloa Cartel. And this is only the beginning, his full story, from his rise inside the cartel to his fall, will be told across upcoming episodes. Music: Tension Mode - Soundrisemusic