Jack Nicas

understand the importance of the cartels to the economy, but also to the society.

They are a fact of daily life in Mexico.

Well, a lot of Mexicans are wondering that as well.

This certainly was a rise that wasn't just, you know, a single year.

This is something that played out over 15 or more years.

The reality is El Mencho was very elusive.

He basically, you know, according to a senior government official I just spoke to, he really basically just used human messengers.

He was not on the phone.

He did not use radio.

He was extremely disciplined.

And as a result, that allowed him to elude capture for so long.

But it wasn't like they didn't almost catch him a few times.

So in 2012, they did go after him.

But his followers, you know, his gunman basically robbed a bunch of cars and they set them on fire and set up these roadblocks across the city and that allowed El Mencha to escape.

In 2015, they also nearly caught El Mencho, but his gunmen literally shot down a Mexican military helicopter, killing three soldiers, and he got away then as well.

But over the past decade, there really haven't been many close calls.

And I think that raises the question of why not.

I think that is in part because of incompetence by the Mexican authorities, but it is also in part because of complicity.

As we noted, this cartel had tentacles in governments across the nation.

And that complicates that effort when you've got policemen and politicians tipping them off.