Apple TV+ dropped the trailer Tuesday to “Cowboy Cartel,” a new documentary on the horrifying true story behind one of Mexico’s most infamous organized crime syndicates.
“Cowboy Cartel” tells the story of “unlikely hero Scott Lawson, a rookie FBI agent from rural Tennessee, whose investigation took down the Treviño brothers, the leaders of Los Zetas, one of the most powerful cartels in Mexico,” according to the trailer. And the way Lawson managed to do this sounds absolutely freaking ridiculous.
Apparently, Lawson’s actions were based on a hunch: he believed he could track the brothers’ racehorse transactions in the U.S., allowing him to infiltrate the cartel. From here, he could uncover international money laundering operations. The whole thing makes “Yellowstone” sound pretty PG-13, huh?
The creation of the Los Zetas cartel is like something out of a movie too. The cartel evolved from a small group of deserters from the Mexican Special Forces hired as personal security for Osiel Cardenas-Guillen and security for the Gulf Cartel, according to the State Department.
Members of drug gang “Los Zetas” Margarito Mendoza (R) and Carmen Zuniga (L) are shown to the press in Mexico City on October 22, 2010. During their arrest, in the municipality of Cardenas, state of Tabasco, 73 high-powered weapons, 12 grenades, 2275 bullets and 2 kilos of cocaine were seized. (Photo by LUIS ACOSTA/AFP via Getty Images)
The alleged leader of the Zetas drug carteL, Oscar Omar Trevino, aka “Z-42” is taken under custody to be presented to the press at the Attorney General Office’s hangar at the airport in Mexico City, on March 4, 2015. Mexican authorities captured Trevino Wednesday, dealing a blow to the feared gang and giving the embattled government a second major arrest in a week. The suspect known as “Z-42” was detained by federal police and soldiers in San Pedro Garza Garcia, an upper-class suburb of the northern industrial city of Monterrey, Nuevo Leon state, two federal officials said. (Photo: OMAR TORRES/AFP via Getty Images)
One can only imagine what happened next is the type of thing “Narcos” needs to dig into a little deeper. We’re overdue for another dramatization of these stories, but some of the team behind “Narcos” are involved with “Cowboy Cartel.” (RELATED: Don’t Worry About Pelosi’s Taiwan Visit. China Invaded Us Years Ago, Didn’t You Notice?)
I really think this docuseries has the potential to educate people on the reality and the horrors of the drug war and the open southern borders.
It drops Aug. 2 and you can bet I’ll be watching.
