News Digest

Hunting ‘El Chapo’: DEA’s No. 2 man Jack Riley is on the trail of his nemesis

Jack Riley, the DEA’s acting deputy administrator, is making the hunt for Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, chief of the murderous Sinaloa Cartel, his highest priority. And, to Riley, it’s personal. “I was going to retire — until this [guy] escaped,” said Riley, 59, who was once the target of an assassination plot by El Chapo’s operatives. In an exclusive interview with Yahoo’s Michael Isikoff, Riley explained why Guzman and the cartel are such threats to the United States — and why, perhaps more than anybody else in the U.S. government, he wants him locked up for good.

There is the Robin Hood theory that [Guzman] builds soccer fields and water purification. I’ve never seen any evidence of that, but he tries to paint himself that way. The only thing I know is he’s a stone-faced killer.

Jack Riley, acting deputy administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration

U.S. officials say that since Guzman escaped from a Mexican prison three months ago, vanishing through a mile-long tunnel, he has reasserted control over the cartel. The organization is opening up new markets on the East Coast of the United States, they say, and by using inner-city street gangs to distribute drugs, is helping to fuel a heroin epidemic that is causing a spike in killings and overdose deaths across the country. In recent testimony to Congress, Riley told lawmakers that the shipments of drugs coming across the borders have increased significantly.

Sinaloa probably has the best financed research and development of any so-called corporation in the world. Whatever they come up with, they’re going to try.

Jack Riley