Though Joaquín Archivaldo Guzmán Loera (a.k.a. El Chapo), the world's most infamously elusive drug lord, was last seen supposedly escaping a hospital after being injured in a minor car accident, the Drug Enforcement Administration's No. 2 guy remains confident that another capture most certainly awaits him. Jack Riley, former head of the DEA in Chicago and current acting deputy administrator with a corner office at the Pentagon, was actually planning to retire until El Chapo bafflingly escaped prison earlier this year.
"One of the reasons he’s been successful is he’s used the media," Riley tells Yahoo Newsin a recent interview. "There are folk songs written about him. There is the Robin Hood theory that he builds soccer fields and water purification. I’ve never seen any evidence of that, but he tries to paint himself that way." Riley considers El Chapo a "stone-faced killer," even going as far as saying his methods easily dwarf those of Al Capone and other legends.
Riley speaks from personal experience, having dedicated much of his life to the pursuit of El Chapo. "Just so you know, I was going to retire until this dick escaped," says Riley. "[But] I'm in it for the long haul." When asked about his history with El Chapo, which dates back to at least 2007 in El Paso, Riley details a possible assassination attempt that still informs his enthusiasm for El Chapo's capture to this day:
Riley confirms that his office still receives similar information of threats from numerous informants, though he remains steadfast in his belief that El Chapo simply can't continue his increasingly cinematic existence forever. As for Riley's thoughts on the equally cinematic experiences depicted on the recently renewedNetflix series Narcos, he considers those Colombia years a "great time for the DEA," though he's not particularly fond of the series' subtitles:
Ready your fat-free popcorn and film criticism expertise, as the saga of El Chapo is still showing little to no signs of entering its final act.
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