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Mexico: Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman Recaptured; Philadelphia Police Officer Survives Horrific Ambush; 2 Arrested in U.S. on Terror- Related Charges. Aired 2:30-3p ET

Aired January 08, 2016 - 14:30   ET

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

[14:30:00] BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: So here's the new information we have. We know he was caught around 4:30 in the morning that he was caught by the Mexican navy. There were several deaths involved in this shootout. The deaths were on the El Chapo side. This was a coordinated takedown and arrest effort involving multiple intelligence agencies and we are awaiting a news conference in Mexico any moment now hopefully on more details as far as how exactly they grabbed him.

But I have with me now, live from Mexico City, Ioan Grillo, author of "El Narco: Inside Mexico's Criminal Insurgency." He's also the author of the forthcoming book, "Gangster Warlords," releasing this month.

Ioan, thank you so much for joining me.

IOAN GRILLO, AUTHOR: Great to be here.

BALDWIN: What a day. You have been in Mexico City covering drug cartels for more than a decade. You know El Chapo. You know the details of his life and hiss capes. Here you have this news there was this deadly standoff and he's been caught. Your reaction?

GRILLO: It's a drama I have been covering for 15 years. I remember when he first escaped in 2001. I was running around border towns near Texas carving these paths of bodies with. Then when he was arrested in 2014 he escaped six months ago. There's some real drama that carries on.

I'm not surprised in many ways. We expected it. It's really where they are from. That's where he has most support from people. We expected he would go there. We expected the Mexican Marines would be the one who is go after him. They are an elite force trained by the United States, trained by the Northern Command. Heavily armed, used to many fire fights. They will go in there very hard and in some ways it's lucky for Chapo that he's still alive. Maybe five people died. He's lucky he survived that shootout.

BALDWIN: Are you surprised that after this massive escape that made headlines last summer that he would go right back home?

GRILLO: I'm not surprised because these drug lords, time after time, they are always captured in their homelands. You'd think some of these guys are billionaires. They could go anywhere in the world. They might go to the Caribbean on a beach somewhere or Australia or Italy or somewhere far away. Their instinct is always to go back to their base where they have their friends around them, their family around them. To be caught in the homeland, that wasn't a big surprise to me.

BALDWIN: I want to know more about his personality. I don't know how close you have come to him or his underlings to interview and get the essence of who this most wanted man is. How did he live so large?

GRILLO: From people who have been close to him and been up to where he's from and spoken to the people there and he is somebody who is extremely intelligent. He's somebody who comes from a very humble background. This is a town where many people walk around in sandals with dirt roads. Very poor area. But it's been involved in the drug trade for almost a century now. So drug traffickers are seen as the people who really give to those communities. He is somebody who is extremely smart who they can come from these areas, but they can move billion dollar operations. They can outsmart the Mexican government, the Mexican army. So they are seen as these heroes. People in these areas sing these songs about him and this incredible admiration and the time they saw him in this town and came close to him. He's a real icon. He's a holy status that he's seen as.

But somebody who is very smart and could use violence all the time. I have been to more crime scenes than I can count with piles of dead bodies. Very brutal scenes. But use violence more selectively, use violence and use massive bribery. Basically, buy off anyone you can. Buy off politicians, governors, generals, anyone you can, to stay at large. That's part of the mix of violence and bribery and heroic status. It's part of how he survived so long and reached this status.

[14:35:25] BALDWIN: I'm wondering if anyone within his inner circle would have dared turned on him.

Ioan, stay with me.

Let me bring Zeke Unger back in, former bounty hunter.

We're hearing some of the details of this to this deadly capture. We also know this was a coordinated frt. This is the top of the top in Mexico who all work together to take him down. What would that have looked like, that sort of operation in the middle of the night to get him.

ZEKE UNGER, BOUNTY HUNTER & OWNER, LIL ZEKE BAIL BONDS: The different agencies have been planning this for a long time using the different means to find him. We spoke about often that these fugitives go back to where they are comfortable next to their home and around people that basically know and trust. So when the law enforcement teams and the military get. Together in these joint operations, it's a long process. Last night, in the middle of the night, they were discussing tactics and how they were going to go about making the arrests. I know for my sources there were some ballistic resistant vehicles involved on the other side. There were some grenade launchers. When you go into these things and planning to do it, you have to take into consideration everything you're going into your advanced plan.

BALDWIN: Zeke Unger, stay with me. Ioan Grillo, thank you so much. Author of "El Narco: Inside Mexico's

Criminal Insurgency," thank you.

We are getting more breaking news. This is what we have. Three gunmen have stormed a hotel at a popular beach resort. Tourists have been hurt. We have those details, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:40:34] BALDWIN: We're going back and forth this afternoon on two breaking stories, one, the arrest of El Chapo in Mexico and, two, an assassination attempt on a police officer in Philadelphia.

Let me bring you up to speed on that. Authorities are confirming the shooter who ambushed this Philadelphia police officer says he did it in the name of the Islamic State. 33-year-old Officer Jesse Hartnett was shot while sitting in his patrol control. The suspect tried to execute him in cold blood, firing 13 rounds using a stolen police weapon.

Chief national security correspondent, Jim Sciutto, joins me from the Pentagon.

Jim Sciutto, when you see these images, you see the shooter, essentially almost all the way reaching inside of this patrol car 13 times. Talk about heroic actions from this police officer. Also the man confessed.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: He did confess. His words, according to police is, "I follow Allah. I pledge my allegiance to the Islamic State and that's why I did what I did." That's what he said to police immediately following this shooting.

This is really, Brooke, the kind of lone-wolf plot that U.S. law enforcement has been most concerned about, seemingly a random attack. He clearly wanted to hit a police officer, but with no planning, no warning. He picks a police officer on patrol and goes up and shoots him, sticking his hand inside the window of the car. Later saying he did it in the name of Allah. The difficulty is there's no planning required in advance. You don't have to talk to someone in Iraq or Syria. Getting guns is easy. This is a stolen police weapon, which adds to the irony. That's why law enforcement is so concerned about lone-wolf attacks. Assuming that's how this plays out to be, you don't have the sort of trigger points in advance to learn about the attack and stop it before it happens. When a man took an ax -- we're seeing it again here -- it really is alarming to watch it play out in those pictures. We're lucky that police officer is alive.

BALDWIN: Tell me more about the officer.

SCIUTTO: He's 33 years old. What police have been saying it's remarkable what combination of luck and skill and bravery has him alive today. He took several in his arm apparently. As you watch the video, Brooke, he got up and left his vehicle and chased this gunman away and managed to hit him in the buttocks, which helped apprehend him, one reason the cops have their hands on him today. Remarkable to do that with several bullet wounds in you as it happened. It's a truly remarkable event.

BALDWIN: He was able to radio for help, incredible.

Jim Sciutto, thank you.

SCIUTTO: Thank you.

BALDWIN: Coming up next, we're getting video of the operation that captured El Chapo, the drug kingpin, one of the world's most-wanted men. Video, coming up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

[14:47:03] BALDWIN: As promised, want to roll you some video. You won't see El Chapo, just let you know that. But these are some images we are just getting out of Mexico. This is the aftermath of this El Chapo takedown. This was a deadly standoff, multiple deaths. This happened in the Mexican state of Sinaloa. This is El Chapo's home turf. Clearly, after he had that elaborate escape of the maximum security prison in Mexico, he went back home and they caught him. It was a multiple agency takedown. It was the Mexican navy who nabbed him.

I have multiple voices to talk about this, Zeke Unger, Art Roderick, a former U.S. Marshall. Zeke is a former bounty hunter.

So how about, Art, to you first. What I'm looking at, here are more pictures and looks to be a manhole cover removed. Are you seeing what I'm seeing, Art?

ART RODERICK, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: I see it, Brooke.

BALDWIN: What is this?

RODERICK: We know that El Chapo is a tunnel king. I'm not surprised they are looking at manhole covers and any escape routes he could take. We're talking about the Mexican Marines. They are the cream of the crop. That's who U.S. law enforcement, federal law enforcement go to the FBI, U.S. Marshals, that's who they work with in these takedowns.

BALDWIN: We should be crystal clear. We don't know where they got him. We're looking at street scenes here. But who knows where.

I think Zeke you were telling a producer during break, before an operation, before a take-down, because this happened at 4:30 in the morning, would they have gone in knowing they were looking for him and gone through any tunnels or opened up any manholes just to prevent any further escape?

UNGER: Well, a lot of times manholes are used for two purposes. One is to plant explosives in them and also can be used for people to come out of them and use them for shooting purposes. So a lot of times in these operations, especially when the tactical agencies know where they are going, they definitely look at the manhole covers and lift them out and basically the Secret Service used to do it when the president would come to town, they would weld them shut. They are known for being a problem location.

BALDWIN: And the fact that they did this in the middle of the night, cover of darkness, element of surprise, all of that makes sense.

UNGER: Yeah, Special Ops. When you're going after fugitives, the main thing on your side is the element of surprise. If you can catch them off guard, you're going to catch a little less resistance. But they were ready and there was a pretty substantial fire fight.

BALDWIN: We know it was a substantial fire fight, a deadly fire fight. Several people on the El Chapo side were killed.

Art, so now what? They've got him and he comes to the U.S.

[14:50:12] RODERICK: Yeah, I mean, when you look at this particular operation, this was more of a military operation as opposed to a law enforcement operation. We knew from the beginning when he escaped that was really going to be the only way he was going to be captured was through a military operation. Now that he's in custody, my understanding is the paperwork has already been signed for his extradition. Probably a month or so after his escape, we got. 11 individuals wanted in the U.S. were extradited back to the U.S. based on extradition. I think his paperwork was signed at that particular time. So it's just going to be a matter of how long he's going to stay in Mexican custody before he's transferred to the U.S. Marshals to come back to face the charges in eight or nine different districts here in the U.S.

BALDWIN: Now that we're seeing some of the images in Mexico, the aftermath, I have a feeling Mexico will want us to see the man himself. We'll all stay tuned for more images of the most-wanted man here, this drug kingpin, Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman.

Gentlemen, thank you.

More breaking news. Three gunmen have stormed a tourist hotel in Egypt, stabbing two Swedish tourists. According to Egypt's state-run news agency, it happened in Hurghada a popular beach resort town along Egypt's Red Sea coast. Security forces have intervened and stopped the attack. As soon as we have more information on what's happening, we'll bring it to you.

Next, brand new information on the history of the gunman in Philadelphia, the one who tried to assassinate this five-year veteran police officer in the name of ISIS. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:55:09] BALDWIN: Breaking news on what's happened in Philadelphia. We know there was an assassination attempt of a five- year veteran police officer. The officer is recovering from serious injuries after this gunman has confessed to wanting to shoot and ultimately kill this police officer in the name of Allah. Did it for the Islamic State. They caught him. They shot him in the butt and that's how they caught this guy that confessed.

New details in the criminal history of the gunman in Philadelphia, which, by the way, the hearing of the police commissioner a little while ago saying his criminal history would -- not call it extensive prior gun charges face terrorist threat charge, involve some domestic dispute as well with a woman. She said he had threatened her and that terroristic threat charge was dropped. But he did plead guilty last year for carrying a gun without a license and simple assault. And he was sentence for nine to 23 months and probation.

I have Steve Rogers and Joey Jackson joining me to talk more through this.

By the way, can we begin with this police officer? He's sitting in his patrol car. You see the video. Arm's length inside, shoots at him point-blank 13 times, somehow he's able to radio in for help and they catch the guy.

STEVE ROGERS, FORMER MEMBER, FBI JOINT TERRORISM TASK FORCE: You know how contained it is in the police car. You're really tight. It's a miracle this officer survived. We said time and again ISIS is taking a war to the United States. The battlefield is going to be here. It remains to be seen if he was directed by ISIS or just one of those disgruntled Americans who is taking on the ISIS image. And the police department in Philadelphia's commissioner did an extraordinary job in bringing to the public what was necessary. Now the investigation is continuing and we're going to find out. How wide ranging is that.

JOEY JACKSON, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: On that point, that's huge. The reason it's huge is moving forward you want to preserve and protect the police officers in that community, in addition to civilians. It's going to be very important to know is this the lone-wolf attack as you can call it where someone just indiscriminately attempted in the name of ISIS or Allah, whatever he did to harm someone, or is it a lot more involved than that? Was it plotted and planned? Were other people potentially involved? I think it's going to be very important for investigators.

ROGERS: Joey brings up a good point. If this was an ISIS-directed attack, this was an attack on the United States of America, our first line of defense, the police on our streets. The police departments across the country, not just in Philadelphia, now have to look at their manpower allocations. I noticed one thing that was a little chilling is the officer was riding alone. They are going to have to team up, put two officers in police cars. New York City, we have two or three police officers walking the streets together. This is going to cause police departments to rethink how they are going to dispatch their roles.

BALDWIN: This was last year, the attack in New York City. This has been a directive from ISIS specifically. But let's be clear. We don't know if this came from ISIS.

ROGERS: We don't. We don't.

BALDWIN: This could have been someone who has a criminal history who decided after the fact to try to shoot and kill a police officer, is saying it was ISIS. I did this for ISIS. We don't know.

JACKSON: But you want to find out. The essence of finding out goes to the issue of protecting and ensuring that the public is OK. If it's him, he's in custody, we're fine. Who, if anyone, else participated --

(CROSSTALK)

ROGERS: That's why the FBI and Department of Homeland Security and intelligence agencies are involved because they are going to look at the electronic footprints.

BALDWIN: What about the fact that this was a stolen police firearm?

ROGERS: These things happen. He could have stolen a firearm from anywhere. It's hard to track these weapons once they are stolen. They've got it now. It's off the streets. But the question is, how many more are out there, if any?

JACKSON: Yeah.

BALDWIN: Steve Rogers and Joey Jackson, stay with me. We have more from you all.

Let's start hour two.

ANNOUNCER: This CNN breaking news.

[14:59:50] BALDWIN: We continue on. You're watching CNN. I'm Brooke Baldwin.

Wow, what a Friday. I've got a lot of breaking news stories that we're pivoting back and forth between. We talked about Philadelphia.

But now to this. The man the FBI has called the most-influential drug trafficker in the world has been caught. We are now learning from a Mexican law enforcement official that several people died as authorities captured the Sinaloa cartel leader --