What World’s Most Wanted Leaves Out About El Vicentillo’s El Chapo Betrayal
The Netflix docuseries World's Most Wanted establishes the professional relationship between Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán and fellow narco Vicente Zambada Niebla (a.k.a. El Vicentillo), but doesn't explain their blood ties. Directed by Paul Moreira, the series' first episode primarily focuses on Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada Garcia, the head of the Sinaloa cartel, and chronicles the events that made his son turn on a powerful collaborator.
World's Most Wanted investigates why El Mayo has evaded authorities for nearly four decades. The Netflix docuseries briefly references the subject's sicario background, and features an interview with a lower-level collaborator who refuses to use his boss' real name. According to an interviewee, El Mayo is "at peace with his community" in Sinaloa, primarily because he offers economic stability and financial security. In the late 2000s, however, the DEA pinpointed a "life pattern" and decided to target El Mayo's brother, Jesús “El Rey” Zambada, and son, Vicente, who was arrested by the Mexican military in 2009, just hours after providing the DEA with valuable information on the Sinaloa Cartel's enemies.
In World's Most Wanted, DEA agents recall their experiences with El Vicentillo when he was was transferred to the Metro Correctional Center in Chicago. It's revealed that the Mexican narco lived in "complete isolation" for nearly two years, and that he was steadily reminded that his options were indeed limited. The DEA managed to arrange a phone call between El Mayo and his son, El Vicentillo, which resulted in the latter confessing that he was about to provide information about the Sinaloa cartel and other narcos. El Vicentillo's revelations reportedly led to "hundreds" of arrests, and he ultimately turned on El Chapo rather than his father. World's Most Wanted reveals that El Vicentillo received a 15-year sentence but doesn't acknowledge that El Chapo is his father-in-law.
According to a 2011 report, El Vicentillo has two children with his wife, El Chapo's daughter. Little information is known beyond that, but such information implies that El Vicentillo's jailhouse betrayal is far more complex than how it's presented in the Netflix docuseries. In terms of business, the decision to betray El Chapo made sense for El Mayo and his son, most notably because El Chapo had become an "international problem" due to his problematic behavior in public.
The El Chapo father-in-law revelation provides important context that Netflix doesn't address in World's Most Wanted. For example, one of the focal DEA agents mocks El Chapo for crying after his arrest, but the narco's tears could partially be the result of being given up by his daughter's husband, who just so happens to be the son of an immensely-powerful Mexican narco. In the present, El Chapo is known for his dirty deeds and public persona, whereas El Vicentillo is primarily known for turning on his organization. Meanwhile, El Mayo continues to run his empire in anonymity.