CrashOut by Ioan Grillo : CrashOut Podcast

How Deep Were US Agents In Mayo Kidnapping?

Ioan Grillo — Fri, 11 Sep 2026 16:07:52 GMT

The kidnapping of Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada on July 25, 2024, and his rendition to New Mexico, where he was handed into U.S. agents, is one of the craziest events in decades of crazy cartel wars in Mexico. It has huge implications, sparking a Sinaloa Cartel civil war, that has seen more than 3,800 murders, 4,400 kidnappings and 211 people shot dead by soldiers in the state in two years.

Yet there is still much we need to learn about the incident, and especially the role of U.S. agents. Joe Hefferon, a former New Jersey police captain, conducted an excellent investigation, which I discuss with him on this episode of the CrashOut podcast, and you can also read here. He discovers fascinating info that point to a wider role of U.S. federal agents in what they have already said was called “Operation Air Kings.” The most important findings include -

The tail number of the Beechcraft King Air that transported Mayo was cloned from a New Mexico company but also used in another plane in Brazil. This suggests use of the number in federal government operations.
A military plane landed in the Doña Ana County airfield shortly before the landing of Mayo.
Wording of a U.S. government message about “a highly complex, secretive, and daring arrest” suggests a much bigger role than simply arresting Mayo off the plane.

You can watch the fascinating interview with Hefferon above on video, read the transcript, or listen to the pure audio below.

Also, on another September 11, a moment of remembrance for the victims of that horrific attack a quarter of a century ago.

Behind the Netflix Film, La Captura

Ioan Grillo — Thu, 27 Aug 2026 20:44:20 GMT

Many episodes in the life of narco Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán are as crazy as fiction, including his two prison escapes. But details of his final capture in the city of Los Mochis in January, 2016, were especially nuts. When Mexican marines stormed his safe house, Chapo and his head of security Cholo Iván escaped down a drainage tunnel, only to flee flooding through a manhole wearing vests and steal a car. In a twist of fate, Chapo was then stopped by two lowly federal police patrolmen who stashed him in a roadside motel terrified of Sinaloa Cartel gunmen before they could hand him to the marines.

Journalist Héctor de Mauleón dug up details of this incredible tale, which he compares to the Glenn Ford Western 3:10 to Yuma, in a series of stories (or cronicas). A decade later, it has come out as Netflix movie called La Captura, or in English, Facing El Chapo, which is action packed and uses a certain artistic license while also providing a real window to the terror of the Mexican Cartel Wars.

In contrast to most narco movies and series, Captura centers on the police officers, who it portrays as heroes turning down million dollar bribes and risking their lives to do the right thing. I have long commented on how Mexico struggles to have cop heroes, while narcos are glorified, and I wonder if they have finally found some. I also wonder if this reflects a bigger shift in the culture as people here are fed up of crime while there is huge support for Security Secretary Omar García Harfuch cracking down. Or is there more to this story of why these police handed in Chapo and the politics of his arrest?

In this episode of CrashOut Podcast, I talk to De Mauleón about these issues and how the mighty Chapo could end up in a vest on the street with one bodyguard having to jack a car. The veteran journalist gets into fine details about the incident and about what happened to the police officers after they busted the most wanted narco on the planet.

NOTE - To see the English subtitles on the podcast during the Spanish section, turn off Substack’s auto-generated subtitles.

The Truth About Gangs In London

Ioan Grillo — Fri, 17 Jul 2026 05:10:43 GMT

When London journalist David Matthews dived into writing about boxing he decided that it wasn’t enough just to report on it, he had to get stuck in and box himself. The result in his book Looking For A Fight shows not only his level of grit as a journalist but his absolute determination to reach the truth about hard-hitting issues (literally).

When he researched gangs for a follow up book, Gang London, he didn’t literally join a gang but he spent a huge amount of time with them; using his knowledge he clears away the myths and hype to find out what is really going on amid the stabbings and coke deals on the the streets of the British capital.

What I love about David is that he gets deep into these issues without pushing any simple agenda. There is a real problem with organized crime in the UK but it’s often not how the tabloids describe it.

In this chat on the CrashOut Podcast, we get into some fascinating issues including: how Britain might have the biggest use of cocaine per capita in the world; the demise of old school cockney gangsters; how African war refugees are recruited into London gangs (a story reminiscent of the MS-13 fleeing El Salvador for Los Angeles); the rise of phone theft crews on electric bikes; and how serious Turkish traffickers hire black street gangs as foot soldiers. We also lament on England’s painful loss to Argentina in the World Cup.

You can also listen to the pure audio of the episode here:

Krame: "Cartels Will Get AI Drone Swarms"

Ioan Grillo — Sat, 25 Apr 2026 03:41:03 GMT

When Ghaleb Krame was working in the security department in Tamaulipas, he arranged to go for a breakfast in a prestigious restaurant in state capital Ciudad Victoria. However, he canceled at the last minute, which was lucky as gunmen came and sprayed it up. He soon learned he had a price on his head.

This is only one of many intense incidents in Krame’s crazy life that spirals through security, intelligence, academia and consulting, not only in his homeland of Mexico, but in Europe and the Middle East, where his family hails from. He went as a teenager to Lebanon and learned to shoot with the Syrian army and after September 11 was a valuable asset in the UK.

His unorthodox life contributes to making him one of the most interesting and outspoken former officials on Mexican security. While many here in Mexico understandably try to avoid the subject of cartels and crime, Krame digs deep into it. He recognized the cartel use of drones early and now foresees the development of AI drone swarms. He analyzes how sicarios operate as irregular armed forces.

Like with any guest, I don’t agree with everything Krame says, and may disagree strongly on certain points, but he is a fascinating thinker and in this episode we get into a range of subjects including the death of El Mencho (or is he really dead, Krame asks), the CIA agents (or officers!) in Chihuahua, the shooting at Teotihuacán, a divided country under Morena (he is a big critic), and hope for a less violent Mexico. I recommend listening through as the convo gets more intense as we go on. You can also check out the transcript or listen to the pure audio here.

You can follow Krame and his work here:

https://x.com/GhalebKrame

https://substack.com/@gkrame

Prosecutors Want A Show Trial For Caro Quintero

Ioan Grillo — Wed, 01 Apr 2026 13:38:50 GMT

The amount of major narco cases hitting U.S. courts right now is off the scale. Rafael Caro Quintero is heading to trial for trafficking, with the murder of DEA agent Enrique “Kiki” Camarena in the mix. Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, who may have moved more bricks than anybody, is awaiting a sentencing hearing.

Ryan Wedding, the former Olympic snow boarder, is represented by the grandson of a Mob boss and is yet to make a deal. Former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro is fighting to get assets unfrozen to pay his lawyer. And this is before we get to Z-40, Vicente “The Viceroy” Carrillo Fuentes, La Tuta, and others from the 92 alleged narcos that the Mexican military flew into U.S. custody over the last year.

With so much happening, it’s great to chat with Ángel Hernández, who has been covering all these cases for Mexican news outlet Milenio. While based in Mexico City, he has been up and down to the States like a yo-yo attending every major hearing and getting close to the colorful cast of narco lawyers. Here we break down the latest and what is coming in this historic moment of narco court cases.

You can also listen to pure audio of the podcast below, or on outlets including Spotify here and on Apple podcasts here.

Inside The Cabins Of Mencho's Last Stand

Ioan Grillo — Sat, 07 Mar 2026 06:10:09 GMT

While El Mencho has been buried in a golden casket, we are yet to see a photo of his corpse (those that have been circulated have been found to be fake). When I went to the cabins where Mencho’s was captured I found some curious details that didn’t add up, including .50 caliber shells inside a room with no visible damage to the walls or windows. There could of course be a non-nefarious explanation. But without a real disclosure of what happened, there are many questions around “the last stand of El Mencho.”

Watch the report on video above or listen on the go in pure audio below.

Inside The Venezuelan Militias

Ioan Grillo — Mon, 02 Feb 2026 17:50:37 GMT

Those who follow Venezuela will remember news of the militias that took to the streets in the days following the U.S. operation to nab Nicolás Maduro, raising fears of a Beirut-like situation of armed neighborhoods. While these militias, known as colectivos, returned to their bunkers as Delcy Rodríguez consolidated power, they remain a wild card in the volatile Venezuela situation.

The fleeting news reports only scratched the surface and gave little info about how powerful these Chavista colectivos are and where that might stand in post-Maduro Venezuela. But a friend of CrashOut, Martín “Marty” Markovits, spent years filming with crews in Caracas, producing an incredible documentary about them (link here).

In this convo, I talk with Marty about the history of the colectivos, who gave them their guns and how difficult it would be to disarm them. He also describes a scene which his main character didn’t want in the film about a meeting between colectivos and ELN guerillas.

You can listen to the pure audio of the podcast on the go below.

This is the seventh installment on the Venezuela situation since the U.S. operation against Maduro on Jan. 3. Here is the series contents, with links:

1. Trump Goes For Delta-Force Regime Change

The DEA Agent Who Debriefed Osiel Cárdenas

Ioan Grillo — Wed, 28 Jan 2026 23:27:15 GMT

Osiel Cárdenas, head of the Gulf Cartel, has eyes like the devil, former DEA Agent Mike Chavarria says, describing when he debriefed him after his extradition. “Looking in his eyes was like looking into a dark abyss,” he says. Osiel’s rival Armando “Maradona” Valencia, meanwhile, is an intellectual. He was always looking slick when Mike met the narco in safe locations and he began negotiations for a potential surrender. Azul is widely believed to be dead but Mike has heard info he could have escaped to the Seychelles.

I have talked to many current and former DEA agents over the years but Mike is one of the most fascinating. He was not only at the center of a dozen crazy cases, especially in a violent crazy period in Mexico, but he joins the dots to chronicle the bloody cartel history and has been using this knowledge to pen books, including “Junior: A Son of the Gulf Cartel,” which you can find here.

On this episode of the CrashOut Podcast, Mike breaks down how he went undercover to bust dope, his secret meetings with narcos, suspecting Mexican security chief Genaro García Luna before his conviction for cocaine trafficking, and Trump’s new war on drugs. It’s a nuts ride through a painful era.

You can also click below to hear the pure audio of the pod as you roll along in your truck (but don’t crash when you hear it).

Trump's Regime Decapitation Model (Plus Ryan Wedding Arrested)

Ioan Grillo — Fri, 23 Jan 2026 16:47:37 GMT

Reports have come out alleging that Venezuelan vice president Delcy Rodríguez coordinated with Washington before the special force attack on Caracas to seize President Nicolás Maduro on Jan. 3. The result is a strange hybrid of Venezuela’s socialist government still in place and now working with (or rather under) President Donald Trump.

It’s not the only curious and confusing feature of the “regime decapitation.” The CIA is now openly praising working with Rodríguez and it leaked a report saying that opposition leader María Corina Machado didn’t have the support (before she gave her Nobel peace prize to Trump). Can the Chavista government stay in power or is this a temporary situation? What really motivated Trump to take out Maduro and when did he make the call?

I get deep into the historic events with great journalist and friend Juan David Rojas, “our man in Miami,” (or close by in South Florida) in this latest episode of the CrashOut Podcast. You can find more of Juan’s work in various outlets, including Compact Magazine, at his own Substack, Social Democracy With Populist Characteristics, or on X at @rojasrjuand.

You can also listen to the podcast episode in pure audio here:

BREAKING NEWS - In other news, Ryan Wedding, the Canadian Olympic snow boarder turned cocaine king, was arrested in Mexico City yesterday, Jan. 22. You can find an updated story on Wedding with details of the arrest here.

Guerrillas, Gangs and Spies on the Venezuela Border

Ioan Grillo — Thu, 15 Jan 2026 22:55:31 GMT

The growth of the National Liberation Army or ELN, a sprawling guerilla force of 6,500 combatants shifting between Venezuela and Colombia, has hardly got any attention in the United States. Yet it’s just one of various explosive stories from the Colombia-Venezuela border, where spies, gangs, and insurgents are adjusting to the new political situation after U.S. special forces took out Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro.

Here I cut together video from a week reporting in Cúcuta and in the countryside north of the city, so you can see with your own eyes the dirt smuggling paths, border barrio of Venezuelan refugees, Colombian armored vehicles, contraband gasoline and more colorful scenes. It’s a CrashOut guerrilla podcast, but while it has a jagged edge style we go deeper than in the snappy cable news lives.

If you like to listen to pure audio of the adventure, then here it is below.

Copyright Ioan Grillo and CrashOut Media 2026

Inside A Satanic Temple in Mexico

Ioan Grillo — Fri, 02 Jan 2026 13:46:32 GMT

This is a weird and crazy story and one I found genuinely scary. I had been meaning to do something on Santa Muerte for CrashOut for a while, but as you can see in the video it turned into something different, and darker.

The edit was ready just before Christmas but it felt wrong to publish it too close to Christmas Day, so here it is into the new year. I’d be interested on your thoughts on this shadowy world.

This is a pretty visual story but if you prefer the straight audio version, then here it is below.

Secrets of Noriega and the CIA

Ioan Grillo — Tue, 09 Dec 2025 23:31:00 GMT

As U.S. military forces pile up in the Caribbean, pressuring Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro to run, the obvious comparison comes up with the 1989 invasion of Panama to take out dictator Manuel Noriega. This makes perfect timing for a remarkable new book by journalist Cillian Dunne about Noriega through the eyes of his right hand man, and as Cillian says “attack dog,” Carlos Wittgreen.

A young writer from Dublin, Cillian gained extraordinary access to Carlos and to his trove of documents, right before Carlos died a few months ago. The story of Noriega is fascinating and complex, how he was a CIA and DEA asset yet also worked with the Medellín Cartel, how he played off Washington and Cuba, and had a personal dispute with George H. W. Bush who took him down with a shower of bombs and rock music. Carlos is at the center of this drama while leading his own crazy life in the shadow world, getting training from the United States and Mossad and ending up in a Peruvian prison.

Sometimes the world chooses you to tell these surreal stories, and it did with Cillian, who makes a great guest on the CrashOut Podcast and takes us down some jaw dropping avenues. You can also hear pure audio of the ep below.

Joaquín Guzmán Jr Confesses To Kidnapping El Mayo

Ioan Grillo — Wed, 03 Dec 2025 05:23:15 GMT

Joaquín Guzmán López, the son of El Chapo, pled guilty to drug trafficking in a federal court in Chicago on Monday, and signed a plea agreement in which he confessed to kidnapping Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada (referred to as Individual A) and flying him to the United States to hand into U.S. justice.

Any regular reader of CrashOut knows we have been deep into this story all the way (check out the archive), and I break down what was revealed with Joaquín Jr’s confession. The saga of the Mayo kidnapping itself is coming to an end, but the war it provoked in Sinaloa rages on as bad as ever.

You can also listen to the pure audio of this sordid tale below.

Inside the 15N Protests and Riots

Ioan Grillo — Mon, 17 Nov 2025 00:30:19 GMT

It was tough day in Mexico City yesterday of protests, riots, vandalism, and arrests that highlighted some difficult divisions in Mexico. I went into report and got a good dose of gas myself. Here is the story. (Above for the video or below for the audio).

Trump's Drug Boat War

Ioan Grillo — Wed, 29 Oct 2025 12:32:40 GMT

It’s hard to keep up with the pace of U.S. missile strikes on alleged drug boats in the Caribbean and Pacific. When I began recording this it was 10 hits and 43 dead since September. When we finished the edit, it was 14 hits and 57 dead with the Mexican navy going out into the Pacific to rescue a survivor.

This is new territory in the war on drugs. Or is it all about regime change in Venezuela? I break it down in this episode of CrashOut Podcast.

For those who like the pure audio on the go, you can click here below.

Credits to Omid Visua on camera and edit.

U.S. Military Missiles Venezuelan "Drug Boat"

Ioan Grillo — Wed, 03 Sep 2025 05:38:48 GMT

The U.S. military earlier today used a missile to hit a boat of alleged Tren de Aragua gang members accused of moving drugs in international waters and killed the eleven people on board. This follows the designation of Tren de Aragua as terrorists and a directive by President Donald J. Trump for the military to go after such “narco-terrorist” targets.

While it may not be the top story in the news, it’s a major development that takes us into new rough waters in the drug war but it could also be the build up to a further U.S. attack on Venezuela. I break it down in this video, question if it went down as Trump said it did, and look at where this leads.

If you prefer the pure audio here it is below.

Trump Authorizes Military Hits On Cartels - Video Analysis

Ioan Grillo — Fri, 08 Aug 2025 19:46:34 GMT

The front page of the New York Times is now showing a report that President Donald J. Trump secretly signed a directive for the military to hit cartels (according to “people familiar with the matter.”) In this analysis video, I look at what we know and don’t know about the directive and three scenarios of where this could lead.

This is the first video b…

Exclusive Interview: Carlos Lehder, Founder of Medellin Cartel

Ioan Grillo — Thu, 07 Aug 2025 02:25:06 GMT

The Medellin Cartel rose in the 1980s by flooding the United States with cocaine, providing dope to dance floors in Miami all the way to crack houses in Los Angeles. Forbes magazine once estimated the tidal wave of powder made the cartel’s top trafficker Pablo Escobar $9 billion and its No. 2, Carlos Lehder, another $2.7 billion. While these numbers are likely major over-estimates of how much individual narcos actually keep, the cocaine trade certainly served up billions of dollars to Colombia, fueling an armed conflict with the cartels, army, leftist guerillas and right wing paramilitaries that tore the South American nation apart and left a lot of families weeping.

Escobar gained an infamy alongside Al Capone and later El Chapo as the most well-known mobsters of all time. Yet Lehder was also a fascinating character. He personally piloted planes and had his own private island in The Bahamas, which he used as a trampoline to bounce blow stateside. The son of a German, he was portrayed on Netflix Narcos with a swastika tattoo as a neo-Nazi narco (a charge he denies). And he went on to become the star witness against the Panamanian dictator General Noriega, who was a CIA agent and an ally of Medellin Cartel before the U.S. invasion of Panama took him down in 1989.

So when I recently got a message that I would have a chance to interview Lehder, who is now free and back in Colombia after a 33-year stint in prison, I scrambled to get there as quick as I could. The man I discovered was more humble and less boastful than one might expect, but then decades in a cell, including four years in solitary, changes you. He has written a memoir of “Life and Death of the Medellin Cartel,” which you can find here that provides a revealing first-hand account to understand the period.

We spoke for hours in what I believe is Carlos’ first English language interview. He goes into fascinating details about how the Medellin Cartel really functioned, its relationship with guerillas and paramilitaries, and how they owned governments as well as supplying the U.S.-backed Contra rebels. He also gets personal about what years in solitary does to your brain.

I’m proud to say this episode of the CrashOut Podcast showcases an important testimony that helps understand the history of the eighties in the Americas. It’s also very intriguing to see the flesh and blood behind the myth. Get your tea or beer, zap it onto the screen and soak it up.

If you prefer to listen to the pure audio on the go, you can also get the podcast audio track here.

Mexican Soldiers Gun Down "El Perris"

Ioan Grillo — Sat, 24 May 2025 20:18:43 GMT

On Friday, Mexican troops shot dead Jorge Humberto Figueroa, a paramilitary commander of the Chapitos faction of the Sinaloa Cartel. Here is my update video above, or if you prefer pure audio, click below.

Is Canada Really Stopping Fentanyl?

Ioan Grillo — Tue, 25 Mar 2025 20:01:20 GMT

Following the story published last week on CrashOut about the Canada Cartel Connection, which you can read here, I talk to its author Katarina Szulc about the investigation into Mexican traffickers in her homeland of British Columbia. It also shows a clip of the interview with the Sinaloan trafficker working on Canadian soil.

If you prefer pure audio, you can listen to the podcast episode here below, or go to the audio CrashOut podcast website at ioangrillo.buzzsprout.com