Cartel Land Storyville

This programme contains some strong language and some scenes which some viewers may find upsetting

SPANISH RAP MUSIC

There's an imaginary line out there between right and wrong,

good and evil.

I believe what I am doing is good.

And I believe what I am standing up against is evil.

It's the cartels.

They're the ones terrorizing their own country,

and now they're starting to do it over here.

-TV:

-'Gunshots on the US border with Mexico.'

'With our porous border, cartel violence is spreading.'

'Warning visitors to beware of heavily armed drugs smugglers

'and human traffickers.'

'Ranchers finding drug stashes on their property,

'calling the border patrol,

'sometimes getting help, sometimes not.'

'This area has been ceded to the cartels.

'It's no longer really the United States. They own it.'

'Our situation's getting so bad that border patrol

'agents are completely overwhelmed.'

'Concerned citizens are arming themselves,

'tracking into dangerous cartel territory.'

'We're out here alone.

'This situation becomes more violent every day,

'and it concerns us not just for our safety,

'but for the future of this nation.'

Mexico is right around the fucking corner,

and this is the staging area a fucking mile away.

If they come through, they're going to walk right by us.

Stick hard fucking left.

Stay close to the brush.

If anything fucking happens,

they will have no problem fighting it out.

We're so close to the fucking border right now.

They have more guns, they have more people.

It's kind of like a David and Goliath story out here.

We're David, they're Goliath.

And that's where the dirtbags are sitting, on top.

Right up there. That's where we are going to go.

Roger that.

Go!

CRASH Fuck!

The cartel scouts keep getting away.

Damn it.

They have a beautiful set up here.

They just have to sit right here...

and they can see the road for miles and miles and miles.

Mexican cartels control this.

Technically, we're vigilantes upholding the law

where there is no law.

But the phrase, "vigilante",

it's been given a bad name by the media.

'They are heavily armed and claim to be

'protecting our state from foreign threats and from our own government.

'But the state's growing militia movement is causing

'concern among law enforcement.'

Back in the day, "vigilante" wasn't a bad thing.

Say the bandits was riding into your town, the townspeople would

all get together and, you know, defend their town.

Now, when people hear that phrase,

they think of vigilantes as somebody that's got white sheets

over their head and they're going to hang fucking people from trees.

It's bullshit.

This is what I consider to be the Wild, Wild West.

There is nothing down here.

There's no law.

I'm supposed to be able to pick up my telephone and go,

"911, come help us."

But it's an hour and a half out of Tucson.

Fuck am I going to do sitting around for an hour and a half

if I'm being attacked by the cartels?

People scream, "Oh, you're racist."

"Oh, you're a vigilante" and "la, la, la".

Bring your asses down here.

I'll take you out on a nickel tour in the middle of the fricking night.

And you tell me that it's safe and secure.

Those fuckers, over there, the cartels,

they don't care about anybody.

THEY SING

THEY CRY HYSTERICALLY

SHE SOBS

HYSTERICAL CRYING

GUNSHOT

APPLAUSE

CRASH

HELICOPTERS OVERHEAD

WOMEN SHOUTING

BELLS CHIME

CROWD SHOUTS

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

'Thanks to a new report by the Southern Poverty Law Centre,

'we know that anti-government patriot groups

'are now at an all time high in this country.

-'We need to pay attention to this, folks.'

-Bullshit.

So, the Southern Poverty Law Centre has just labelled us as an extremist

hate group, but we're just regular people who are just standing up

and saying, "Enough's enough." We're sick and fricking tired.

Something needs to be done.

I believe that everybody has a purpose.

All roads lead to one spot, and this is where I am now.

I left home when I was 15.

I was tired of the physical and mental, emotional,

whatever you want to call it, abuse by my, uh, father.

So, I tried to drown out feelings and everything out

with alcohol and drugs.

I tried meth for a year or so.

Couldn't even control myself.

And, one day, I stopped at a bar and had a few too many.

And I was passing the semi and somebody was coming head on.

I got in front of the semi and started sliding sideways.

I remember looking up at him.

He just threw his hands up and said, "Can't do anything, sorry."

The truck rolled six times.

And I climbed out, looked down and there was my wallet

and the pictures of my two kids.

And so I said, "OK, I got it."

So, 18 years ago, I quit everything...

and realised that, uh...

I needed to deal with, uh...my issues.

And...so I dealt with them.

Once I got cleaned up, I was working construction.

But back in late '08, when the economy started falling apart,

lost my job overnight. I lost my house. I had to sell everything.

I hit the road for a year, year and a half.

But everywhere I went, there was illegals working on every

construction job.

A lot of them are doing work under the table,

they're not paying taxes, they're sucking into the system.

So, I said, "Well, I got to try and help do something about this,"

so that's how Arizona Border Recon came in existence.

I took the last of my savings,

came down to the border,

lived in my truck for the first two months in the mountains.

I would drive the roads, find the trails

and apprehended illegals coming out that area.

Once I learned how the cartels pretty much control both the human smuggling

and the drug smuggling, we shifted our primary goal

to keep cartel activity out of the country.

Our main priority is going after the bad guys.

These motherfuckers.

GUNSHOT

'For years, Mexican drug cartels

'have been waging a ruthless war over the lucrative drug

'and human smuggling routes into the United States.

'And the effect on our country may be just beginning.

'The federal government is failing the people of this country,

-'and especially people in border states.'

-Uh.

You think that the federal government isn't

complicit in this shit?

It's all lies. It's government propaganda.

It's bullshit.

I mean, it's not rocket science.

There's more people joining survivalist groups,

militias, now than ever before, because they're scared

that the country's collapsing and a stand is going to have to be made.

People that come down here have their own opinions

on why the border needs to be secured.

Nice, you guys!

I don't always agree with everybody's views,

but I'm happy to have the help.

Oh, it's burning.

The reason I come down here is to do something

about having a porous border.

The truth is, tall fences make for better neighbours.

Especially if you have conflicting ideas.

You wouldn't put two pitbulls in the same pen and expect them

to get along and not fight. Why would you put two races

in the same nation and expect them to get along?

When you join the military, you take an oath,

and that oath is to defend the country against all enemies,

foreign and domestic.

And, right now, I see this as an invasion.

The situations in Mexico, specifically, it's insane down there.

The villain is the cartels, the smugglers.

They have no regard for human life.

And I get asked a lot by people, why do I do this.

And my question to them is...

..if not me, then who?

THEY SHOUT

GUNSHOTS

THEY SHOUT

GUNSHOTS

THEY SHOUT

GUNSHOTS

GUNSHOTS

SHOUTING AND GUNFIRE

THEY SHOUT

THEY SHOUT IN SPANISH

GUNSHOTS

HE SHOUTS IN SPANISH

HORNS BLARE

CAMERAS CLICK

CHEERING

APPLAUSE AND WHISTLING

NEWSREADER: 'President Obama heads to Mexico tomorrow.

'But while Mexico's president

'hopes to show off his country's economic successes,

'the ongoing war between violent drug traffickers

'and a growing movement of armed civilians

'threatens to overshadow the gathering.'

RADIO PRESENTER:

FAINT BEEP

GUN SAFETY CATCHES

VOICES TALK OVER EACH OTHER

BELL RINGS IN BACKGROUND

RADIO MUSIC IN BACKGROUND

Ay, ay, ay, ay, ay, ay, ay.

Ah...

Ah...

Bravo!

SHE CHEERS

AIRPLANE ROARS OVERHEAD

FAINT BEEPING

FASTER BEEPING

GUNSHOTS

GUNSHOTS

GUNSHOTS

HE CRIES

Estanislao Beltran Torres,

a member of the Michoacan Self-Defense Group

says Dr Mireles' whereabouts

are not going to be made public for his security.

Si?

OK. OK... CROWD HECKLES

INDISTINCT RADIO VOICE

What's that, Tim?

"Taking matters into their own hands,

"the rise of cartel violence and homicides

"have sparked an emergence of well-armed vigilante groups."

Those guys are deeper down in Mexico, they're...

southern mountains of Michoacan.

They're taking back

what is theirs from the cartel

and it's nice to see that they're standing up and going back at 'em.

But you don't know who's who, who's actually helping them.

Is it just the townspeople?

Is the government involved? Are the cartels involved?

Even if that's true, once they get strong enough

they'll go after the cartels that armed 'em, so...

I hope they kick some ass down there.

It's the way it should be done up here too.

We just spent 400 on a new digital scanner.

The scouts are starting to use encrypted radios.

So we've got to beef up ours.

Holy crap.

I'm wondering if they're now over here.

The scouts up on the mountains

are pretty much like air traffic control,

but I like to call them drug traffic control.

They are the eyes for the guys on the ground.

'If we can take the eyes away from the cartels,

'we can put a little dent in what's happening.'

PANTING

-Do you copy there, Spartan?

-RADIO VOICE:

-Send it.

I sent a couple of guys to loop down and around

in case we flush the scouts off the top.

Roger, 0-258.

This is my third time up this fucking thing

and they get away every time.

So, I got a bone to pick with these guys.

-TIM PANTS

-These motherfuckers.

-RADIO:

-Nailer, Spartan.

Go ahead.

Be advised, Duke has zero-seven bodies, camouflage,

carpet shoes in...person.

Fuck.

Hola!

Sientate.

Sit down.

Habla poquito...

sabe poquito ingles?

-No.

-No?

-Poquito ingles.

-Mexican?

-Si.

-Oh, who does?

-This guy right here.

-You sabe English?

-Yeah.

-Yeah.

He's your Coyote. He's the guy in the front.

He is the one who speaks the English. He's the guide.

-No, I'm not...

-Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah.

I speak the English because I work in Cancun.

You know where is Cancun, Quintana Roo?

I know where Cancun is.

-I work in there, I speak English over there all the time.

-Ah-ha?

Finish up. We're going to go.

I'll be up front.

Anybody touches me...

drop 'em.

Roger that.

Tu sabe?

OK. Let's go.

Tucson, this is Clint, with Arizona Border Recon,

we just want to let you guys know, we need an agent for transport.

We have seven off of Cumero Mountain.

-RADIO:

-Nailer, Spartan.

You think they're the scouts?

They're re-supply for the scouts.

'The more and more I spend time down here,

'I see innocent people

'becoming casualties of a war that they didn't want any part of,

'but they're stuck right in the middle of it.

'I'm not going to close my eyes,

'I'm not going to look the other way.'

JOSE SIGHS

He's a brave man

and, er, you know, times are difficult here in our country

and...and this guy has,

as we say in Mexico,

-"tiene huevos."

-HE LAUGHS

HE SOBS

MARCHING BAND PLAYS

CHEERING

Viva!

Viva!

ALL: Viva!

GROUP SINGS

CHEERING

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

CHEERING

CAR ENGINE STARTS

TASER CRACKLES

SHOUTING

THEY TALK OVER EACH OTHER

GUNFIRE

GUNFIRE SUBSIDES

GUNFIRE RESUMES

MAN SHOUTS

CAR HORN BLARES

CAR HORN BLARES

TYRES SCREECH

GIRL WAILS

THEY TALK OVER EACH OTHER

MUFFLED SCREAMING

TASER CRACKLES

SCREAMING

TASER CRACKLES

SCREAMING

TV NEWS JINGLE

TV SOUNDTRACK:

THEY TALK OVER EACH OTHER

THEY TALK OVER EACH OTHER

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

SHE CHUCKLES

SHE LAUGHS

I've always had concerns that the violence in Mexico

would make it across the border.

And it's already happening.

'There has been a major new development this morning

'in the border battle.'

'Two agents have been shot in southern Arizona,

'eight miles from the border.'

'We've identified 25 murders, 124 kidnaps and extortions

'that are cartel-related.'

'It's bad down here. I think it's going to get a lot worse.'

There's a lot more people waking up to what's actually going on.

And the interest in what we do has gone up tremendously.

This right here is where it starts, man.

It's a group of people coming together,

having the necessary conversations.

I've been doing this for over four fucking years.

And I've been asking, begging and dying

for fucking people to come down.

And...

well, you guys show up.

Took four years, but you're here.

We had run-ins two days in a row with scouts.

We've held them off, so they're dying to get something through.

We're going to deploy in four different spots

on four different hilltops.

We're going to show 'em that we can watch this whole area.

That's it. Let's do it.

Down the road over the right, straight up that fence line

is where you want to be.

Try to stay off the roads as much as possible, use the trees as cover.

See you in a couple of hours.

-RADIO:

-'Be advised that it looks like there's two scouts.'

Tell him to notify as soon as he can confirm.

We got a confirmed visual.

Two scouts.

We got a scout right there in those bushes. Right there.

'Copy.'

Just post up and sit.

Nothing will come through.

Copy that.

You know, we are playing a game of hide and seek,

and we're just trying to play the best we can.

It's a victory even though you don't grab the mules and the dope.

Just by stopping them from bringing it over

is a small win in the battle.

The odds are stacked against us.

And we're sick and freaking tired.

'Did you go to the drop point?'

All com, all com, this is Sierra 01.

There is cartel radio traffic

indicating possible movement due to the storm.

Stay alert at this time.

We won't back down, we won't give up.

We're going to keep pushing against the cartels.

I believe what I'm doing is good.

THUNDER RUMBLES

And I believe what I am standing up against is evil.

THEY CHANT IN UNISON

APPLAUSE

MARCHING DRUMS PLAY

SHE LAUGHS

KISS

KISS

SHE LAUGHS

Aaah...

HE SIGHS

COCKEREL CROWS

COCKEREL CROWS

COCKEREL CROWS

I think that this cycle of violence has to stop.

It's a big dream and everybody can have beautiful dreams.

I think I was a good vigilante for my people, for my town,

for my Michoacan state.

But I...

lost my motive, lost the family.

And the family was the motive to fight against criminals.

I think it's my fault.

I think I'm responsible for this situation.

This is life.

There's people all around the world trying to make a difference.

They're all just like me.

They're tired.

They're tired of sitting, they're tired of waiting.

They're tired of nobody doing anything,

so they take the law into their own hands.

The cycles do stop.

You've just got to want to change 'em.

HE WHISTLES

Let's go, Rocco.

I left home because of the physical and mental abuse by my father.

But at one point, he finally got to meet my daughters.

And he complimented me and says,

"Hey, they're great kids, they're well behaved,

"they're articulate, they're intelligent and everything else..."

And I told him I had him to thank, because...

everything that he did to me...

..I did the exact opposite.

So the cycles can change.

It just takes somebody to change 'em.

But we're stuck in a cycle where nobody wants change.

Where they're spouting they're changing,

but they're not doing anything.

They're doing the same thing, but just with a different look.