Jacob Diaz
👤 SpeakerAppearances Over Time
Podcast Appearances
She was huge.
The Unlikely Narco.
How a struggling American college student ended up a key operative for the Mexican cartels by Matthew B. Cox and Pierre Rossini.
Narrated by Brian Wiggins.
The 22-year-old slipped his U.S.
passport to the female agent at the Orlando International Airport customs desk.
From behind the counter, the stern woman carefully compared the data on the screen before her to Jacob Diaz's travel documents.
Her eyes bounced between the handsome, baby-faced young college student, a Mexican-American with the uncharacteristic features of an Anglo, returning from Acapulco and the monitor.
When the agent inquired if the young man had anything to declare, Diaz politely replied, No, ma'am.
His stomach tightened, however.
He forced himself to smile, revealing a slight dimple on his upper left cheek.
He deliberately adjusted the strap of the book bag slung over his shoulder and added, Just some textbooks.
Unimpressed, she continued to observe his body language.
Where do you go to school?
UCF Jacob Diaz was, in fact, a student at the University of Central Florida.
However, he was also a drug trafficker.
Diaz was part of the Beltran-Leva organization's American-based distribution network, one of the principal factions of the Sinaloa cartel, which, at its peak between 2003 and 2010, was the largest, most powerful drug trafficking syndicate to have ever existed.
The Beltran Leyva organization was based in Sinaloa and led by five brothers, one of whom, Arturo Beltran Leyva, was considered one of the most powerful drug lords in Mexico.
The Sinaloa cartel controlled 2,000 miles of American border stretching from San Diego through El Paso, some 17 ports of entry falling within its sphere of influence.
At that moment, the Sinaloa cartel was embroiled in a full-blown narco war against the Gulf cartel for control of the Texas stretch of the American border.