Documentary Now! (2015–…): Season 1, Episode 3 - DRONEZ: The Hunt for El Chingon - full transcript

Good evening.

I'm Helen Mirren,

and you're watching
Documentary Now!,

season 50.

In order to tackle
a dangerous topic,

a documentary filmmaker

often has to put their own life
on the line,

and no group of filmmakers
risk more

than those at Dronez,

a consortium
of participant journalists

whose motto is,
"ballz to the wallz."



And it should be noted
that both "ballz" and "wallz"

are spelled with zeds.

Please enjoy tonight's film,

Dronez: The Hunt For El Chingon.

The world is nuts.

No one knows
what's gonna happen next.

But whatever goes down,
we'll be there,

keeping a close eye
on all the madness.

This is the world of Dronez.

Hi. I'm Jamison Friend.

We're here in the Dronez offices
in Brooklyn, New York,

where our staff is working hard

to bring you the real news
of today's world.

For this week's story,
we go to Juárez, Mexico,



where the war on drugs

has turned
this once beautiful city...

into the deadliest place
on Earth.

Kidnappings, murder,

a broken system,

Mexicans...

Ciudad Juárez,

it's the city
most closely associated

with the Mexican drug wars.

To have this once beautiful city

become the drug capital
of the world...

time for a little
geography lesson.

Mexico is
directly south of America,

which means it shares a border
with the United States.

And what goes over that border?

Drugs.

Is that sinking in yet, America?

This is happening

in your backyard.

In Juarez,
the drug game is headed

by the Salvez cartel,

which is run by this man,

El Chingon.

He's killed thousands

and made millions,

but he left a big mess
in the process.

We decided to hit the streets

and ask the locals
what they could tell us

about this modern-day
Mexican Scarf ace.

You guys seen El Chingon?

El Chingon?

Oh, he's saying
it's dangerous to have a camera.

All right, thank you very much.

Yeah, whatever, bro.

Hey. So they're saying...

Hey, thanks, man.

Unfortunately for us,

most were too paralyzed by fear
to speak up.

She's clearly afraid
of something, man.

Tell us your story.

Are you afraid?

She might be asleep.

El Chingon!

Finally, through social media,

we met someone
brave enough to talk.

- Buenos tardes.
- Hey, hi.

Buenos tardes.

Manuel Bautista has lived
in Juárez his whole life.

Last year, his son Felipe

was kidnapped by the cartel.

- Yeah? All right.
- Okay.

He invited us
into his humble hacienda

to tell us the tale.

We're going into, uh,
his home right now.

Hacienda.

And just a warning.

The poverty you're about to see

may be disturbing to
your first world sensibilities.

Oh, look at that.

Whoa.

Just to give you an idea
of the size of everything,

just so you can get the scale,

I-I-I want to show you guys
that this

is how far my arms extend

in a hallway in a home

where someone
is raising their family.

So the family portrait...
like, look how sad this is.

Wow, this is how people live,
you know.

They make do with what they can.

This kid's probably
a drug dealer now.

Look at him. You can tell.

He was a man
who had next to nothing,

but the real tragedy
was not what he owned

but what he had lost.

What did he say?

I'm not really sure.

Just look at the floor.

No, but look back at him.

Yeah, yeah, no, we've...

We've lost friends too,

you know, um, Raya and...
and Rick and, um...

Yeah.

And, uh, Sam... a lot of people.

To, uh, the urban farming boom.

They left Brooklyn
and went to Detroit.

We're happy to hear your story,

and we're getting
your story out there.

And, uh, it's all drug money,

and everything's built
on drug money,

and, you know, your clothes
are drug money,

and this house is
built on drug money.

Manuel wanted answers,

and we wanted answers, too,
about El Chingon.

Comes in and pays for the rug.

Who's that? What's up?

- It's El Chingon.
- Yeah, yeah.

- All right, all right.
- All right.

Turn the light off.
Turn the light off.

Turn the light off.

All right, so some guys,

uh, who work for El Chingon
are outside.

We're gonna talk to them,
relate,

get 'em to relax,

and maybe get
some info out of 'em.

Let's see how it goes.

What's going on, fellas?

How's it going?

Well, that didn't work.

So Kyle and John were dead.

Luckily for us,

they had already recorded
their voice-overs,

but we still wanted
to get to the bottom

of this whole El Chingon stuff,

so we brought in
two more reporters

who'd been off
on other assignments...

Trevor Kenney,

who was in Alabama
making omelettes

with a racist sorority...

Ow..

Whoa!

That was not cool.

And Bryce Bowen,

who was in the middle east
where he was introducing.

The Syrian rebel forces
to Mario Kart.

You're just driving.
You're just driving.

What time does that end?

We put Bryce and Trevor
on the next flight to Juárez

to pick up where their
brothers in arms had left off.

Back to the mean streets.

Here at Dronez,
we had a sneaking suspicion

that John and Kyle
were killed off

because they were asking
too many questions

about the infamous drug lord
El Chingon.

But that wasn't gonna stop us
from tracking down the man

behind the legend.

We're gonna go meet
this New York Times reporter

and, uh, see what she knows

about El Chingon,

trade some secrets.

Dronez.

Yeah, we've been doing

some research on El Chingon,

and it turns out
that he's, like,

super oppressive to the people.

I don't know, like Skeletor
or Darth Vader or something.

Yeah, yeah, like,
just an evil presence.

Yeah, it's funny.

You'd think that the locals

would be, like,
really against him,

but people here, they really...
they really love him.

I mean, he's kind of a
Robin Hood-type figure to them.

He provides for them in a way

that their own
government cannot.

But that's what you heard.

- Right.
- No, that's what I know.

I've been doing research on it.

The cartel has
a really huge stronghold

on this whole town.

I mean, they fund festivals.

They have a lot of bars.

They have dangerous, scare...

What is it?
What's the name of the places?

Uh, the Caballo de Oro.

- Hacienda Corona.
- Right.

So they're like
touristy kind of places?

No, these are places
you do not want to go ever.

We should go there.

No, no, no, you guys do not
want to go to that place.

It is one of the most
dangerous places.

The cops don't want to go there.

- To you.
- To you.

To everybody, you guys.

But what if we sp...
well, I don't speak Spanish.

Do you speak Spanish?

Well, exactly. You guys...

No, I mean, the army
won't go there.

Seriously, you guys.

The army in every
country's paid off.

I've been everywhere.

No, I've done stuff too,
you know?

I went to the Ukraine.

They buried me up to my neck,
and dudes took turns

hitting me in the head
with a golf club.

And I was fine there.

I covered fist boxing in China.

You know, it's where
those, like...

Just like fist fighting,
no boxing gloves,

uh, just a melee,
uh, of... of men,

you know, a group just, like,
throwing punches,

and that's their sport.

And I was there to cover it.

I got bruised, but...

I was embedded in Tunisia.

They put me in a tent,
and they fattened me up,

and then they just, like,

tried to marry me off
to, like, one of the men.

Why?

I got a kick-ass story
out of it.

- I would go to that length...
- Wow, wow.

- Okay?
- Yeah.

Because we have the balls
to go in there and do it.

Okay.

Like, this is extreme.

You understand you might die?

That's what someone
told the guys before us.

Yeah.

And they're dead,

and that's why we're here,
but...

I don't know, guys.

If you're gonna go,

can I give you a name
of a good fixer?

We already got somebody,

and he's pretty sweet.

All right.

Good luck to you.

Our fixer is none other

than our good friend,

streetwise rapper Ty Dolla sign.

♪ Yeah, I'm paranoid ♪

♪ I'm trippin',
I've been smokin' ♪

Rolling with Ty
gives you immediate cred,

and as a bonus,
it was his first time in Mexico.

Well, the music
was a bit of a boner,

so to make things interesting,

we asked ty to get up onstage

for an all-out,
no-holds-barred rap battle.

Yeah, yeah, go up!

I think you should
go check it out.

No!

It was time
to hit the dance floor,

and thanks to our good buddies

in the third world
fashion scene,

we were already rocking
the freshest new styles.

These are pointy boots.

They're supposedly
hugely popular here.

We wore them to mix in
with the locals,

but, um, it doesn't look
like anyone else

is really, um, wearing 'em.

We look like a couple
of chooches.

As the night went on

and we looked around the club
a little more,

we made an incredible discovery.

El Chingon,
this is the guy we're looking for.

There were pictures
of El Chingon everywhere.

It turns out
the people of Juárez

actually love El Chingon.

He's kind of a Robin Hood figure
to them,

a hero who provides for them
in ways their government can't.

Even the words to the song
seemed to reflect this.

So this band,

what they're singing about...

they're saying that this Chingon

is a great guy

and he's really cool

and he can drink
six to eight beers a night

and never get a hangover.

Spending a night
in dangerous territory

had been risky, but by doing so,

we had won the trust
of the locals,

and now that trust
was about to pay off.

All right, look.

We met these guys inside.
They're cops.

They have some information
on El Chingon.

They're gonna tell it to us,

but we can't bring
the camera in the car, okay?

But we've got
our microphones on,

so listen in, okay?

Yeah!

Oh, sweet ride.

So, fellas, what's up?

Trevor and Bryce's tragic end

was confirmed in a letter
from Ty Dolla sign.

"Dear Dronez,

I think they melted
your friends."

And then these were delivered
to the office.

Hey, hey, hey, don't open that.

Let's keep these,
put 'em in the lounge,

throw a couple
coffee table books on 'em.

Mm.

Right?

- Mm-hmm.
- Mm-hmm.

First John and Kyle.

Now Trevor and Bryce.

Clearly someone in Mexico
was sending us a message,

but our work in Juárez
was far from over.

So we sent in
two of our very best reporters,

Lars Klegg,
who was up in the frozen north.

Investigating
Mongolian horse pimps...

Hey, so, uh,
how much is the horse?

And Denver McIver,
who was deep in the Amazon

for a little taste
of an ancient tradition

known as the burn circle.

Oh, really?

Di-di-di...

And this time,

we weren't messing around.

We were ready to turn Juárez
upside down.

To find El Chingon.

El Chingon!

Chingon, where are you?

El Chingon, where are you?

But as it turns out,

tracking down
the most wanted man in Mexico

wasn't as easy
as you might think.

Luckily we got hooked
up with a local "profesoro"

who had some sweet
insider information,

'cause knowledge is power.

- Thanks for having us.
- You're welcome.

- Hi. How are you?
- Thank you.

We're Dronez.

Hope you don't mind
our camera guy.

It's Chris.

Everybody knows El Chingon

lives somewhere in
the foothills of Salvez.

That is why it's called
the Salvez cartel.

Oh, Salvez cartel, okay.

You're reporters.

You knew that already.

- Yeah, yeah.
- Right, no, yeah.

- The foothills.
- Yeah, we...

- Salvez.
- Salvez, in the foothills.

- Let's go.
- And so if we just get...

- So if he's in the foothills...
- No, no, no, wait.

Promise me. Do not go there.

Even the police
do not go to Salvez.

Because...

Because if you go there,
you will die.

These guys don't play around.

But wait a minute.

Especially with a camera,

they won't even ask
any questions.

You will be killed.

But that's the key.

We do ask questions.

Okay, so you shouldn't
go there, then.

Foothills in Salvez. Right.

Promise me
you will not go there.

We promise we won't go.

Been walking for a couple hours.

Should be pretty close
to El Chingon's house.

There's no place to really walk.

There's a lot of weeds.

Weeds are a lot thicker
than you think,

a lot stronger.

And, uh, we're
the only ones out here.

New York Times isn't doing this.

Uh...

I think New York Times
did do a piece out here.

- They did?
- Yeah.

Well, cut that out.

- Whoa.
- Oh, wow.

So how do we find El Chingon?

The same way
they found Bin Laden.

We looked for the biggest house

and knocked on the front door.

It's got to be the house.

There's a dude. Hey.

Um, hi. We're from Dronez.

Uh, you're the...

Oh, whoa, whoa!

- Whoa, whoa, whoa!
- Oh, god, help me, help me!

No!

We're okay.

We're... we're good. We're cool.

We're cool. We're cool.

We're cool. We're cool.
We're cool.

- We're fine.
- We're cool. We're cool.

- Hi.
- Hi.

We're... we're,
um... we're, um...

We're from a show called Dronez,

Um...

With a z.

- The camera.
- Put the camera...

Put the camera up on him.

- Um, we...
- We were just walking around.

We saw the house.

We wanted to find you.

Kind of what we do is, uh,

We kind of find
the craziest people,

and we kind of just wanted
an interview with you.

- And, um...
- This is our cameraman.

Uh, this is Chris.
We're... we're unarmed.

Yeah, we're fine. We're cool.

And we just want to... yeah,

We just want to get to...

To get to ge...
know the real you,

If that's a thing
that you are open

and you and your friend...
your friends could be in it.

All you guys can be in the...

You know, we can
interview everybody.

The... we can interview.

Each and every one of your guys.

You guys could be on,
uh, the... the internet.

Okay.

Wh... what's up?

- Okay.
- Okay.

Hey, okay.

Mic, everything's working?
Camera's good?

Holy shit.

- All right.
- Thank you.

And thank you, man.

Thanks. That was... all right.

We suddenly had
unprecedented access

into the life of the world's
most dangerous drug trafficker.

At first, it was invigorating.

Oh, my god, I've never done

this much coke in my life.

Yes, you did.
What about Beth's barbecue?

- Oh, yeah.
- Right?

Chris, you got to get on this.

Here, I'll hold the camera.

Hit that shit, bro!

But as soon as we began
walking in El Chingon's shoes,

a strange logic emerged.

Whoo!

, man, that's some.

Fast and Furious shit, man.

Dude!

And as we unraveled the enigma,

we learned so much
about the real El Chingon,

like his middle name,
which is Ignacio,

which shortens to Nacho.

Pretty rad.

Oh!

Most importantly,
we discovered that deep down,

this powerful kingpin
is really just a fun dude

who's into cool stuff,

like smoothies...

Oh-ho-ho-ho.

A total partier with suave taste

and a generous heart.

We danced with his daughters,

hung with his compadres,

and fiesta'd
Mexican gangster style.

Oh! Oh, my god.

Oh, my god.

Oh, my god. Dude, are you okay?

You okay?

, Americano.

You okay?

Yeah.

Yeah, you, dude.

Things are going pretty good.

Uh, we still haven't gotten
that interview yet.

I think El Chingon is gonna
sit down with us pretty soon,

and it's gonna be pretty great,

but, I mean,
Juárez isn't that bad.

You have to speak up
for the mic.

I learned that from Chris.

Chris, you're a asshole, man.

You're an animal, Chris!

Dronez.

- Dronez.
- Dronez, Dronez!

We finally built up enough trust

to sit down
for our long-awaited interview

with the man himself,
El Chingon.

Thank you so much for
making us feel so welcome.

Uh, it's been
an unbelievable experience.

So, um, I guess, uh,

we could start
doing this interview.

So how do you decide
who, uh, is gonna be,

like, a guard for you?

Shit! Oh, oh, oh!

Oh, no. Oh, no!

I'm.

It all happened so fast.

One of the deadliest raids

in the history
of the war on drugs.

Afterwards, the
cops searched the property,

Smoked out the survivors,

but El Chingon
was nowhere to be found.

He was the stuff of legend,

like an epic verse

from one of their shitty
polka songs.

Wh-what do I say?

I mean, I have been embedded

with the federal police
for an entire year,

and this is
the biggest operation

they've ever conducted.

And apparently, you guys
are right in the middle of it,

so that is ju... that is...

Wow.

The cocaine's still in...

- What are you talking about?
- The cocaine's still in there.

- Who cares?
- You can't just leave it there.

Come on.

We're lucky.

What do you mean we're lucky?

Where we gonna go?
Got to walk back.

Could've got arrested.

We'll die. That's nuts.

Dronez.

Nice work, boys.

We're all really stoked
about your next piece

on vodka dicking.

You put your dick in some vodka

and get super wasted

on another can't-miss episode

of Dronez.

Oh, yeah.

That's good beef.

Kobe beef, straight from Tokyo.

But let's... let's take a look
at these bananas.

These are just natural,

not yellow, you know, chemicals,

not brought to you by Tide.

It's just like a regular banana,

And that's the simple life

that we kind of forget
about, you know?

Like, you can actually
eat a banana off a tree

as opposed to...

Huh.

Why do you guys own two copies

of Anger Management?