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Mexico’s infamously powerful Los Zetas cartel finds stealthy ways of doing business in the first trailer for Apple TV+‘s Cowboy Cartel. Streaming Aug. 2, the docuseries explores the takedown of cartel leaders Omar Treviño Morales and Miguel Treviño Morales, who built a violent money laundering empire under the guise of race-horsing transactions.
“When you think of the drug cartels, you think of the drugs, you think of the violence, and you think of money,” Joe Tone, the author of “Bones: Brothers, Horses, Cartels, and the Borderland Dream,” says in the trailer. “But you do not think of horses.” He continues: “It’s ranchers and wealthy businessmen who usually populate the winner’s circle. But all of a sudden, there’s this new owner who keeps winning named Jose Treviño.”
When it was first suspected that the Treviño brothers were using Los Zetas to launder money through racehorse operations, the peculiarity of the situation created a conundrum: how do you prove that their business is illegal? Scott Lawson, a rookie FBI agent at the time, broke the case that led to a high-stakes mission to topple the cartel. “12,000 law enforcement personnel had to target the Zetas on the same day,” he says in the clip. “My biggest fear was that every target was gonna go to Mexico and be untouchable.”
Cowboy Cartel captures the suspenseful infiltration of the cartel, which uncovered their money laundering operation and led to the dismantling of the deadly organization. Tone published “Bones: Brothers, Horses, Cartels, and the Borderland Dream” in 2017, four years after Miguel was captured and two years after Omar was captured.
The docuseries features first-time interviews with Tone, Lawson, IRS agent Steve Pennington, Assistant United States Attorney Doug Gardner, journalist Ginger Thompson, Irving police officers Steve Junker, Brian Schutt, and Kim Williams, and more.
