Ben Rhodes

They operate like a corporation and they are multinational.

This one was as well.

Mencho operated a massive empire that reached down deep into South America and competed with Sinaloa and other criminal organizations for control of ports as far away as Ecuador.

And they had global relationships.

This guy was – for all the kind of – the image of this guy is –

sort of somebody who hides in the shadows, he had a sprawling network.

And he was very powerful.

These organizations, by the way, earn typically the GDP of a small country per year.

These are not small.

These are in the billions, multi-billion dollar organizations.

Yeah, like Nueva Generacion, the new generation, had a – their approach was – I mean basically their business model was to be more violent than any other organization, to terrorize their competitors and to get immediate attention.

acquiescence by local authorities and civilians alike.

And so absolutely.

And they wanted that broadcast.

They wanted that to be their brand.

That's their model.

And it was effective because certainly if he or his organization was involved,

He would get cooperation because the alternative was pretty bad.

They were also quite showy about trying to put together these armored vehicles with their emblems on them and uniformed people.

And they have an armed wing as if the whole thing weren't sort of an armed organization.