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Drug Kingpin Captured; Philly Police Shooting. Aired 2-2:30p ET

Aired January 08, 2016 - 14:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[14:00:00] WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Breaking news stories.

That's it for me. Thanks for watching. I'll be back 5:00 p.m. Eastern in "The Situation Room." The news continues next on CNN.

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, here we go. Incredibly busy afternoon here. You're watching CNN. I'm Brooke Baldwin.

Listen, as you've been watching, we begin with not just one, two major breaking stories.

The first here, this terror attack in Philadelphia. We just learned here from the police commissioner there that this ISIS-inspired gunman ambushing and shooting an officer 13 times at point-blank range in the name of Islam. We will take you to Philadelphia because we have so much on that.

But first, the capture of one of the world's most wanted men. Mexican drug lord El Chapo is now in custody, again. The drug cartel leader, the most wanted man out there, truly, escaped from this maximum security prison just last summer. And moments ago the tweet from the Mexican president, Enrique Penia Nieto, essentially you see here, "mission accomplished. We have him. I want to inform the Mexican people that Joaquin Guzman Loera has been arrested."

Let's go straight to Rafael Romo with all the details.

What do you know? How did they find him?

RAFAEL ROMO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Brooke, about an hour ago we started hearing reports that Mexican special forces were carrying out an operation in the Mexican state of Sinaloa. This is the home base for Joaquin El Chapo Guzman. And about 10 minutes ago, the president himself, Enrique Penia Nieto, tweeted that he had been captured.

Now, you may remember that Joaquin Guzman Loera escaped from a maximum security prison in Mexico on July 11th in a very spectacular fashion, through an underground tunnel. And authorities both in Mexico and the United States had been looking for him since. The United States has a $5 million reward for his capture. Add to that $3.8 million from Mexico and you can get an idea of what kind of individual this guy is. At one point, Brooke, he was named in the list of the most powerful people in the world by Forbes magazine. His fortune estimated at $1 billion. So the fact that he was captured today is indeed a huge victory for the Mexican government.

BALDWIN: U.S. government had put out a $5 million bounty. Mexican government, $4 million bounty. This is huge. I know you're getting new details. Rafael Romo, don't go too far.

Martin Savidge, let me bring you in right now, as I know you were just recently down in Mexico. When you think of Sinaloa, you think of the Sinaloa Cartel, you know, and there are obviously issues with drug cartel influence, issues of corruption within sort of the prison system. Are they going to be able to keep him this time?

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Right, that's the huge question, isn't it, Brooke? I mean is he going to be transported to the United States?

BALDWIN: Right.

SAVIDGE: Is that all going to take place and how quickly would that happen? You know, the last time that he was captured it was in Sinaloa state and they immediately transported him to Mazetlam (ph). That's a city on the coast there. it's actually a very popular place with many Americans. And they held him there for a couple of days in this hotel room. And it was very nondescript because they didn't believe they had the security in place to transport him to Mexico City. They were actually very concerned that someone might try to rescue him.

So we don't know what the circumstances are right now, but we believe that, of course, the first place he's going to go is Mexico City. But you're right, the questions here about, how can he be held, how do we know that he hasn't already bribed any people? That's been one of the great concerns as they've been looking for him.

Rafael mentioned that there were special forces involved. There's a reason for that because the local police, they fear, have already been bought and corrupted when we were there. That was our concern. We feared the local police most of all. And then on top of that, there are so many people that in that area, either treat him as a hero or financially are beholden to him or are just scared to death of him, and all of them will work in his favor.

So the question now is, can he be kept or will he get away again? Now, it is believed that if the Mexican president is going to say we got him, you can bet they are going to hang on to him until they can get him either into some sort of federal prison there or transport him to the United States. We'll have to see.

BALDWIN: We will indeed.

Martin, thank you.

Art Roderick, let me bring you voice into this fold here as we cover this breaking news about Joaquin El Chapo Guzman re-arrested in Mexico in Sinaloa state. You're former ATF. I mean you know - how - how does this work? I have to imagine, you know, Mexico wants to keep him, wants to prosecute him, but at the same time I have a feeling if he were to be in a U.S. maximum security prison, he's not going anywhere. ART RODERICK, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Yes, Brooke, I - I think at

this particular point, as you recall after his escape about a month and a half afterwards there was 11 individuals that were extradited back to the U.S. for various charges here in the U.S.. My understanding was the extradition paperwork for El Chapo was also signed. So I think now it's a question of, how long is he going to stay in Mexico and when does the U.S. get him back.

[14:05:15] BALDWIN: Forgive me, I misspoke, former U.S. Marshal. I should know better, Art Roderick, we've talked so many times on TV.

Let's play through and say he, you know, does, in fact, come to the United States. What about that entire, you know, prison transfer process from, you know, the state level in Mexico, across the border and here to the United States? I mean what guarantee is there, to Martin Savidge's point, that somebody isn't paid off, that they'll - like he flew away in, you know, with a pilot the last time in July outside of that tunnel. Who's to say that he won't this time?

RODERICK: Well, I think at this particular point, you know, if the extradition process goes through the formal way it goes, we will bring him back. The U.S. Marshals will bring him back to whatever district is going to have him first. He's wanted in eight or nine federal judicial districts. New York, Illinois, Chicago, Texas, so it's going to be a matter of which case he's going to go to first. But we'll bring him back here to the U.S. and I'm fairly sure that once he's convicted, he'll end up in a facility like Florence in Colorado, which is the U.S. max facility joint. And once you go into Florence, you're never going to see the light of day at that particular point.

BALDWIN: Art Roderick, thank you.

Zeke Unger is joining me now. Zeke, former bounty hunter, very familiar with this process in Mexico and beyond.

Zeke, so as we just heard, El Chapo was caught in Sinaloa state. This is a Mexican special, you know, forces involved in this massive arrest.

ZEKE UNGER, BOUNTY HUNTER: Correct.

BALDWIN: What - where would he be held right now? What does that look like?

UNGER: Right now I would assume he's being held by the United States Marshal Service in a special holding area so that the corruption that's going on in Mexico, like it did the last time, will not affect the transfer of him back to the United States on the provisional warrant.

BALDWIN: Is he cuffed in a room alone? Are they communicating with him? Are they trying to get any information out of him? Are they feeding him? I mean give me those details.

UNGER: Well, at this point, I'm sure that the marshal service, who has been working hand in hand with the Mexican marines for years on high profile fugitive cases, they most likely have him at a military installation right now versus a local jail facility.

BALDWIN: What's the biggest challenge in this process, bringing him to the United States?

UNGER: Well, at this point, you know, because of what transpired the last time, I can tell you that the United States Marshal Service will keep basically him in a specific area where they can monitor everything. I would assume the provisional warrant will allow them to transport him quickly. He will go, of course, in front of a magistrate for extradition, the impada (ph). And I would assume at this point that the extradition will be granted. He can't - because he is a Mexican national, he can fight extradition, which could take up to three years. But in this case, because I believe he's such a high profile fugitive, that extradition will be granted fairly quickly.

BALDWIN: I think it's worth getting into the details, as we're sort of blanketing over - people are hearing El Chapo and they know that's that big, you know, Mexican kingpin who escaped through tunnels. Let's go back. Not only did he escape from maximum security prison back in 2001, apparently hiding out in a laundry cart, just recently it was just last July he was in this maximum security prison in Mexico. It was the Altipolono (ph) federal prison. So he goes in. We actually have some video. He goes in to take a shower. Somehow slips into this hole in the shower stall. That leads into a tunnel leading out of this prison. The opening is connected to a vertical passageway complete with a ladder. That then leads to another tunnel that had apparently tracks for some sort of makeshift motorcycle. He gets out of that. Authorities don't even know exactly how he left, but authorities had indicated that a pilot then who was then later arrested in connection with his escape, you know, helped him get away from the prison. Have you ever heard of anything like that?

UNGER: Well, you have to remember, the cartels have unlimited amounts of money. And when it comes to doing what they have to do, they have plenty of soldiers, they have plenty of workers and they have plenty of money. Money to pay off officials. Money to do the construction. They have pilots on staff. The cartel is actually their own entity that has unlimited funds to do whatever they want, whenever they want. And basically, you know, right now he's in the hands of the United States Marshal Service and I promise you he will not be getting away. He will be coming back to the United States. He will be going to trial. And he will be going to federal prison for the rest of his life. And I guarantee you he won't escape from our prison.

[14:10:17] BALDWIN: Zeke Unger, thank you so much.

He is charged, Guzman, by the way, charged with drug trafficking, related crimes in multiple federal courts including Arizona, California, Illinois, New York, Florida, the list goes on.

Joey Jackson is sitting next to me. He is one of our wonderful legal minds. One of our legal analysts.

And so as we're talking about El Chapo and, you know, what are - talk to me about some of the extradition laws between Mexico and the U.S. JOEY JACKSON, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Well, we do have very good relations

between Mexico. In fact, there's a treaty as of - it went into effect in 1980. And as a result of that, Brooke, and as a result of those good relations, what you really have to establish is that there's an indictable offense that has been committed, that there's probable cause to believe that he committed that offense and that we would otherwise have jurisdiction over them. Once that's satisfied, he's ultimately returned.

However, there are other people who have an interest in El Chapo based upon the deeds he has done elsewhere. And so -

BALDWIN: Right. Everyone wants a piece of him.

JACKSON: Exactly. And so the issue will be who gets the first piece of him. And I think that will be a matter of some State Department concern. And so, you know, I think as it moves forward, though, there's no question that there's a valid claim that the United States has when the United States ultimately moves him forward is another matter.

BALDWIN: Stay with me. Rafael Romo, let me bring you back in, as you're breaking this for us initially here on CNN that El Chapo has been arrested. Can you talk to me a little bit - speaking of everyone wants a piece of him, what are the different U.S. based cases or charges levied against El Chapo?

ROMO: Yes, there's an amazingly big number of cases against him here in the United States, all related to drug trafficking, all related to his vast criminal enterprise that traffics cocaine and heroin to the United States. And just listen to the states that want him in their jurisdictions, Brooke. We're talking about Arizona, California, Texas, Illinois, New York and Florida. In fact, there's been reports that there was a direct connection between the Mexican state of Sinaloa, where he's from, and Chicago, where the Sinaloa Cartel used Chicago as a hub from which to transport drugs to different parts of the country.

Now, we were talking about the resources that he has. And at one point, I was saying before, his fortune was estimated by Forbes magazine at $1 million. And that's the reason why he was able to pay to build this sophisticated tunnel, underground tunnel -

BALDWIN: Unreal.

ROMO: Fitted with tracks, fitted with a motorcycle, payoff a pilot and be able to escape. Now, I don't know any other criminal in history that has been able to escape so many times in such a spectacular way.

He was first captured in 1993 in Guatemala, was taken to Mexico. He spent eight years in prison. Escaped in 2001. He was on the lam for 13 years. He was recaptured in 2014. He escaped again in July of last year. What I was just describing to you before. And he had been on the loose for 182 days until today, Brooke, when he was recaptured again.

And, by the way, the fact that a president of a nation feels like he needs to tweet that a criminal has been arrested, that by itself tells you how big the arrest of El Chapo is at this point, Brooke.

BALDWIN: Mission complete according to the Mexican president, mission complete.

Rafael Romo, thank you so much.

Martin Savidge, back to you. You were recently in Mexico. Tell me more about Sinaloa state and what you saw.

SAVIDGE: Well, you know, it's an extremely rugged area. You almost have to think of the way military operations are conducted in Afghanistan. In fact, a lot of this is being done by air. They simply have to be able to fly and drop in. They make these makeshift kind of landing zones, drop out of the sky into very narrow kind of openings on a mountainside and then they quickly go search.

It should be pointed out, there are some reports now that the Mexican marines were involved with some kind of fire fight.

BALDWIN: Yes.

SAVIDGE: Even when we were down there, the Mexican authorities, when they were flying over the area with helicopters, sometimes said that they were engaged by ground fire coming from what they said were El Chapo's bodyguards and things like that. And back in October, remember, there was another very close call. They said they saw El Chapo, the marines moved in on him, there was an exchange of heavy gunfire. El Chapo apparently got away by essentially falling off of a steep incline and the Mexican authorities said he was injured and then he just vanished.

So the question now, one, you have to make sure that medically, was he wounded in any way or what happened on this kind of an arrest. And then also, two, was he suffering any long-term effect as a result of the injury back in October. So medically he may have to be checked out on top of all of these sort of legal things that we're talking about, Brooke.

BALDWIN: Martin Savidge, thank you so much. We'll talk about El Chapo, this major breaking news here. Mexico's most notorious drug lord arrested and he's not going anywhere, at least that is what the United States is saying this time. Much more on that breaking story.

[14:15:12] Also breaking today, a police officer in Philadelphia shot at point blank range 13 times. They have the man who shot him. And just in the last hour we heard from the police commissioner in Philadelphia saying not only did he confess, he said he did it in the name of Islam. He did it for ISIS. More on that.

You're watching CNN. I'm Brooke Baldwin.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

BALDWIN: We are back with more breaking news on this Friday afternoon. Thank you for being with me. I'm Brooke Baldwin. Here's what we have for you out of Philadelphia right now. This ISIS--inspired gunman ambushing and shooting a police officer 13 times at point-blank range all in the name of Islam. The horror of the failed assassination captured on video surveillance. The would-be killer running up to the driver's side firing round after round after round. And you can see in these images here, the shooter, with his hands, his pistol, look at this. Basically elbow deep inside of this patrol car. A scene the Philly police commissioner calls the scariest thing he has ever seen. The terror unfolding in a frantic police dispatch call.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OFFICER: Shots (INAUDIBLE) - shots fired. (INAUDIBLE). I'm shot. I'm bleeding heavily. (EXPLETIVE DELETED)

DISPATCH: All cars standby. We have an officer shot, 6-0 and Spruce. Repeating in the 18th district, assisting officer 6-0 and Spruce. We have an officer down.

[14:20:00] OFFICER: (INAUDIBLE) I'm bleeding. (INAUDIBLE). 6-0 and Spruce. Please send me some units to 6-0 and Irving. (INAUDIBLE) weapon out here.

DISPATCH: Sir, we have officers in route to you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: It is chilling. And as the police commissioner said, clearly this officer had the will to live. Incredibly, just three bullets hit the officer, 33-year-old Jesse Hartnett, expected to make a full recovery.

Miguel Marquez is in Philadelphia for us. He was inside of that news conference with the police commissioner.

You know, this gunman, Miguel, tried to run, caught by police. Not only that, hours later he is talking. What exactly did he say?

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, he was caught by police because he was shot in the butt by Officer Hartnett, amazingly enough. But we have to be very, very clear about what police are saying about this supposed tie to ISIS and the Islamic State. This is something that they say this individual had said after questioning after he was arrested at the scene. And it is not clear whether or not he truly has any connection or if he is just saying this to mess or play with police as they try to question him and get an understanding of why he did this.

I can tell you the actions of that officer, that five-year veteran of the Philadelphia police force, Jesse Hartnett, are unbelievable, heroic in the way that he was able to do this. West Philadelphia, last night, driving along. Somebody flags him down. He rolls up, rolls down his window, and then those pictures that you mentioned. Eleven times, at least 11 times, maybe 13 times, 30-year-old Edward Archer (ph) fired at that police officer. At one point his hand is all the way in the car shooting that police officer. He was hit three times in the arm. Very, very bad injuries to that officer.

He got out of the car after that, chased the suspect down the road and you can hear him speaking to the dispatcher all through this, his left arm now useless, firing with his right arm, somehow keying his mike to get help. The police commission is saying by the time they got there, he had lost a lot of blood and was in bad shape, but is in surgery and will probably go through many more surgeries before he can get fully back to recovery. It's not clear that he will ever fully regain use of his arm.

Here's what the police captain, who was at a press conference shortly ago, the homicide captain, had to say about that claim about the Islamic State.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CAPTAIN JAMES CLARK, PHILADELPHIA POLICE HOMICIDE UNIT: He stated that he pledges his allegiance to Islamic State. He follows Allah. And that is the reason he was called upon to do this.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MARQUEZ: Now police and FBI and others are now looking through everything that Mr. Edward Archer and trying to figure out whether or not there is anything to back up that claim, that he did this in the name of Allah and that he pledged allegiance to ISIS and whether or not he has any communications with him and if there's anything beyond him just making that statement. They are searching several locations. They say that they hope to have much more information in the hours and days ahead.

Another critical piece of all of this, the gun used to shoot that officer -

BALDWIN: Yes.

MARQUEZ: Was stolen by a - from a Philadelphia police officer a couple of years ago. So the police force here reeling from that - that realization. It's not clear who stole it and how Mr. Archer ended up with it.

Brooke.

BALDWIN: Miguel Marquez, thank you so much.

And, Art Roderick, let me just bring you back in and kick off precisely what Miguel was just talking about with regard to this. The firearm he used was a stolen police firearm. You know to the police commissioner's point, who knows how many, you know, hands in exchange before landing in this, you know, would-be killer's hands. But what - what do you make of that?

RODERICK: Well, unfortunately, that does occur. I mean police officer's weapons are stolen out of vehicles, our of their homes, not on a regular basis, but it does occur. Now, obviously, the key to this investigation right now is going to be, OK, where - where did he get that firearm and, again, how many hands did it actually go through? Was he the person that actually stole the weapon or did it pass through how many hands?

Now, the whole thing about the Islamic State, I agree with Miguel, that they've got to go back and - this individual has a long criminal history. So is he just a plain up thug, criminal thug, or is he - has he been radicalized either online or through prison contacts or whatever. And that's going to be the key part of this investigation that I know the Joint Terrorism Task Force in Philadelphia is looking at right now.

BALDWIN: Well, all of this takes me back to the hatchet attack here in New York a little while ago.

RODERICK: Yes. That's right.

BALDWIN: And this sort of directive from ISIS to go after, you know, police officers. And it's a great point, I mean who knows if this is something he just said, you know, tip of his tongue when he was being questioned.

RODERICK: Right.

BALDWIN: Or if this is something he truly thought about. But, you know, depending on that answer, this is something though that, I mean, we saw reaction also from New York PD and I'm sure other, you know, police around the country are sort of mindful of this because this would be - this would be one's worst fear.

[14:25:02] RODERICK: Yes, exactly. I mean law enforcement officers are targets in and of themselves. They're in a cruiser, they're in a uniform. But this, obviously, heightens it. And I know the alert went out to NYPD and I'm sure it's going out to a lot of other major police departments around the country. So law enforcement's got to be on - on their absolute alert in this particular time. We've had the incident just a couple days ago in Paris at the police station. So this is - this is like covering the world now at this point.

BALDWIN: That's right. That's exactly right. Art Roderick, thank you so much.

We'll talk more about Philadelphia, but we're getting some breaking news. An update to this El Chapo arrest in Mexico. We are now hearing that it was a deadly standoff, a deadly standoff that finally led to the arrest of this Mexican drug kingpin, most notorious drug lord in all of Mexico, has been wanted, multimillion dollars on this man's head. A news conference happening at any moment. We'll take it live. Don't go anywhere.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

BALDWIN: Just about the bottom of the hour here on this Friday. You're watching CNN. I'm Brooke Baldwin. New information here on this breaking story that Joaquin El Chapo

Guzman has been arrested in the Mexican state so Sinaloa. This is the western part of Mexico. This is home turf for El Chapo, Mexico's most notorious drug lord, who, as you remember, you know, escaped from this maximum security Mexico prison last July through a series of tunnels and with a pilot and the help of a motorcycle.

[14:30:02] So here is the new information we have. We know now that he was caught - this is around 4:30 in the morning - that he was caught by the Mexican navy, again in the Sinaloa state. There were several deaths involved in this --