The World's Most Notorious Drug Lord On Trial

Joaquín Archivaldo Guzmán Loera might sound like a random name, but I'm sure "El Chapo Guzmán" sounds more familiar. He probably is – after Pablo Escobar – the most famous drug lord of all times.

In the past he escaped from high-security prisons twice, but now he's finally on trial in the USA.

"El Chapo", which means "the short one" in Spanish, is accused of trafficking over 440,000 pounds of cocaine and leading the Sinaloa Cartel, a criminal multinational organisation known for committing brutal killings, kidnapping and torturing anyone who dared to meddle with 'the company' business. 

VICE News has prepared a special series on the story, trying to go beyond the flashy headlines and learn as much as possible about the kingpin.

When VICE News set out to make a podcast about El Chapo and his trial, we knew that Culiacán had to be one of our first stops. We arrived in June with a plan to meet up with Miguel Ángel Vega, a journalist for the intrepid local newspaper Ríodoce, which specializes in covering organized crime and corruption. Miguel Ángel also works as a fixer, which means he guides foreign journalists who come to cover the drug trade.

The first episode, called The Fixer, focuses on him, on Miguel Ángel Vega, one of the many brave Mexican journalists covering the drug war and, therefore, risking their lives every single day.

To be honest, Vega is the one doing all the work here. The VICE journalists just follow him around and listen to the people he introduces them to, like a heroin trafficker from Culiacán. Or the passers-by they interview when he takes them to the scene of a murder in order to see "firsthand the impact of cartel violence on daily life in the city".

But there are two very interesting points about the podcast:

Firstly, they have also put together a version in Spanish for the non-English-speaking audience. Secondly, the episode succeeds at giving the listeners a glimpse of the massive scale and brutality of drug trafficking.