Michael Vigil spent 31 years as a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agent. He was in Mexico and Colombia much of that time, going after major Latin American drug traffickers. On occasions, he sat just feet from the biggest drug boss of them all, Colombia’s Pablo Escobar.

Vigil recently published his memoirs in a book titled “Deal,” which is available here  on amazon.com. His story in many reveals aspects of the  U.S. fight to take on drug cartels. He did so from the jungles of Colombia to the streets of the United States, and takes readers along the way.

Vigil retired from the DEA a decade ago as the chief of international operations and still keeps his hand in matters as an international consultant. He is regularly consulted and quoted by news media as an expert.

He discusses his book below by answering 13 questions on a range of topics, from his book, to what should be done better to take on drug cartels to his thoughts on pot legalization.

1. What is the greatest thing you hope to offer with this book? What do you want people to understand now that they might not have understood before?

I wrote the book to leave a legacy behind to those silent warriors who have operated in the shadows at great risk to their lives and secondly to educate U.S. citizens as to the insidious nature of these transnational drug organizations that generate so much violence not only in their countries but here in the United States.

2. What was the toughest aspect of writing this?

The most difficult thing about writing the book was just getting started. Once I did that, the pages continued to pile up and before I knew it, I had about 200 type-written pages. I would only work on the book on the weekend because I have a full-time job.

3. I am sure you have gotten some thank yous for what you have written and a few people who were less than happy. What has been the reaction? Any surprises?

The feedback on the book has all been positive.  Everyone who has read the book has stated that they could not put it down because it was so interesting. I received a lot of phone calls from old friends that I had not seen in maybe 20 or 30 years who purchased the book and said they were fascinated.  They had no idea of the magnitude of global drug trafficking and the ramifications it has in the United States. There were a lot of DEA agents who called me and they were ecstatic I had written the book and talked about the exploits of DEA agents working not only here in the United States, but abroad. I got a call from General Leonardo Gallego, who was a general with the Colombian National Police. He said (the book) needed to be done given my extensive experience in combating international drug trafficking.

4. The biggest and certainly most famous drug lord of all time was Colombia’s Pablo  Escobar. What do you personally recall of him?

 Pablo Escobar was a psychopathic killer who had absolutely no regard for human life.  It was his mission to eliminate anyone who stood in his way.  I sat very close to him at soccer matches and he and his hit men looked like a regular street gang.  He always wore blue jeans, immaculate white tennis shoes and cheap shirts.  He was a horrific scourge to his country and also to the U.S. He left a legacy of horrific violence in Colombia becasue he actually paid the now defunct subversive organization known as the M-19 to attack the Palace of Justice where they ended up killing most of the supreme court judges. He is also the one who paid to have Carlos Galan killed. He was going to be the next president of Colombia . He also had Rodrigo Lara Bonilla killed. He was a minister of justice, equivalent to our attorney general. He had  him killed because Lara Bonilla denounced him during a parliament meeting and said he was  drug trafficker. He also put a bounty of $700 for each police officer killed in Medellin. He played the Robin Hood, but the fact of the matter is that he was probably the most violent and treacherous drug lord that the world has ever seen. This guy took it took to a higher level than any other trafficker around the globe.

5.  You have put a lot of people in prison. Who is one that you will never forget? What became of him?

That trafficker had to be Juan Ramon Matta Ballesteros, the Honduran source of supply to the infamous Guadalajara Cartel.  He was involved in the killing of DEA Special Agent Enrique “Kiki” Camarena.  I captured him in Cartagena, Colombia.  He is in a maximum security prison in the U.S.  He actually congratulated me for capturing him. That evening we put him on an Avianca flight from Cartagena to Bogota. I was sitting across the aisle from him on the plane. He reached over to shake my hand and said, I want to congratulate you, you are the only one who was able to capture me and they have been after me for 20 years.

6. Who is the biggest drug trafficker in the world right now?

One of the biggest drug traffickers in the world has to be Ismael “Mayo” Zambada who assumed command of the Sinaloa Cartel after the capture of (Joaquin) Guzman.  He is the sole remaining old guard capo in Mexico. Most of the major capos in Mexico have either been imprisoned or killed, so Mayo Zambada is the only major drug trafficker who remains at large. I would say he is probably up in the mountains in Sinaloa. Chapo Guzman would still be free if he has stayed up in the mountains. It is very hard to launch an operation out there because they give money to the local towns people in the area, so they get protection from them. Anybody who comes in and is not from there, they pass the word. If you do a helicopter assault, they will have at least 15 minutes to get away because they will hear the choppers. I would say 95 percent of the most significant drug traffickers Mexico has spawned have come from Sinaloa.

7. Among the most famous DEA agents is Enrique “Kiki” Camarena? What do you see as his legacy? How did his death change everything? Some say that is when the U.S. decided to take the gloves off?

Kiki Camarena left a legacy of commitment, courage and sacrifice.  After he was kidnapped and killed, the DEA began a worldwide manhunt and all of those responsible were arrested and sent to prison. Basically we put a lot of pressure on Mexico and we received a lot of assistance from the head of customs.  What he did was basically close down the border and forced the Mexican government to move forward diligently in terms of trying to capture the people who were responsible and recovering the body of Kiki Camarena. It got very nasty because there were some Mexican federal police that were involved. The found out Rafael Caro Quintero was going to leave from the Guadalajara airport in a Lear jet. Some of the DEA agents went there with the federal police. They observed Rafael Caro Quintero speaking with a Mexican police comandante. Some phone calls were made and he was released. We found out later that he wrote a check for quite a lot of money to the federal police and was allowed to escape. He fled Mexico and went to Costa Rica, but we captured him. It was very difficult because Camarena was one of our own. We will hunt criminals who kill our agents. We will chase them through heaven and hell.

8. What simple advice would you have for whoever next takes over as the head of the DEA? I assume there will be a new one with the coming change at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue?

I would tell the new administrator to be decisive and promote the” best of the best” to command positions.  We cannot be risk averse and be unwilling to wade into controversy.  It is pure unadulterated leadership. Apart from that, we need to expand our working relationships with foreign governments and share information so that we can have a broader and more significant impact on these international drug cartels. In my day, you developed personal relationships with foreign security forces. This resulted them giving you a lot more resources and work with you much closer. I think that for some agents it is an 8 to 5 job. It can’t be that way.

We need to continue to work closely with our Latin American partners in the exchange of information.  Intelligence driven operations are critical.  We also need to provide them with training, equipment, and ensure that they have adequate laws to address transnational criminals.

9. With the latest national elections, recreational marijuana will be legal in four states and Washington, D.C. How does that impact you? What do you think of this? You have spent a lot of time in the nation’s capital. 

The legalization of marijuana is a tragic decision for the U.S.  It is not a harmless drug and is highly addictive.  Legalization of drugs in other countries has had a very negative impact. The legalization taking place across the United States is a very well funded endeavor. They take advantage of the  people who don’t that understand marijuana is a potent drug.  When I came on with the DEA in the early 1970s the THC levels were like .08 to 1.3 at that time. Now the marijuana is being genetically engineered so those THC levels now exceed 30 percent. The thing is that marijuana is a hallucinogenic drug. A marijuana cigarette has four times the carcinogens of a regular tobacco cigarette. It has proven to be a gateway drug for use of other harder drugs such as cocaine, methamphetamine and heroin.

10. What do you expect it will feel like the first time you cross paths with someone legally smoking a joint?

I would be disgusted because we are setting a poor example to our youth.  We also send a conflicting message to our international partners who lose hundreds of security personnel to eliminate drugs and we in turn are legalizing them.

11. What role do you see the U.S. drug user as having in the narco chaos in Mexico? Many people consider swaths of country to have no rule of law. Do you agree?

Money used to purchase drugs fund the violence in Mexico and the U.S. Drug profits are used to purchase weapons and corrupt the very fabric of the country.  There are large areas in Mexico that are under the control of cartel leaders.  The rule of law has eroded in those geographic areas. When you take a look at some of the areas there, the only authorities that exist are the state and local police which are highly corrupt and work closely with the drug traffickers. I think it is driven by greed. They are paying them much more money than state governments. They are easily corrupted and take the money.

12. We have all heard many horrifying stories out of Mexico in the last several years. Perhaps none is as brutal as the 43 missing students? What do you think happened to them?

Unfortunately, I am of the opinion that the 43 students were killed by drug traffickers and corrupt police in the area of Iguala, Guerrero.  This is a major black eye to the government of Mexico.  As a as a result of the disappearance of those 43 students, they have dug up mass graves in the area, but DNA analysis indicates these were other individuals who were killed and not the students. They are still not able to locate the bodies of the 43 students. I think eventually they will find them in another mass grave. These criminals are very brutal.

13. What is it going to take for Mexico to return to the times of old, when things were generally peaceful and the drug traffickers kept a lower profile?

Mexico needs to do a top to bottom dismantling of the cartels operating on their soil.  They also need to extradite the leaders to the U.S., which effectively removes them from their criminal infrastructure. They have to do a better job of ensuring those operations are (intelligence) driven rather than haphazard. They have to expand the sharing of information with federal Mexican authorities. Obviously that would be with individuals who are vetted, that can be trusted. You don’t want it to be done with everybody. You don’t want them to compromise the investigations.

source: http://blog.chron.com/narcoconfidential/2014/11/in-the-trenches-with-a-dea-agent-13-questions-for-retired-drug-fighter-turned-author/#28230101=0

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