Shortly before his arrest, Piedrahita was on the radar of Argentine authorities for his involvement in a network of money laundering schemes in the south of the country. Authorities said he may have laundered as much as $15 million through various businesses, including a cafe in Buenos Aires and a government railroad construction project. Apparently, well-known criminals participated in the network, including Victoria Henao and Juan Pablo Escobar — the widow and son of Pablo Escobar — now known as María Isabel Santos and Sebastián Marroquín.
In the TV department: I finally watched the pilot episode of Dietland and was pleasantly surprised. It wasn't about what I thought it was going to be about -- in fact, I'm not sure what it's about, but it's good. The only character I'm not crazy about is Julianna Margulies -- she vamps it up too much and while Plum seems real, she seems like a caricature.
In the Narcodrama department, the five episode "El Desconocido: La Historia del Cholo Adrián” (The Unknown Hitman: The Story of El Cholo Adrián”) about "El Cholo Ivan" (Orso Ivan Gastelum Cruz) El Chapo's security guard and one-time alleged chief hitman, on Netflix is really good. A review is here. More here. It has English subtitles.
It definitely tells the story from the trafficker' point of view. The actor who plays him, Guillermo Ivan Dueñas, does a really good job. The actor who plays El Chapo also is well cast (much more credible than the one who plays him in the Univision series, which I didn't like). By the third episode, I forgot he wans't "El Chapo" in real life. The series includes both of El Chapo's last escapes (the tunnel at the prison and the sewer run in Los Mochis, where both were captured). But happily, it doesn't dwell on them.
The main story is about El Cholo and his father, how he became a trafficker, and his love story with a young beauty queen, who was killed in a shootout with police. (It's still debated in Mexico whether she was a victim or she came out of the vehicle shooting at police.]
While El Cholo does bad things, the series shows why he does them -- not in justification, but in a way that shows the bad acts aren't random acts of violence, there's always a reason. The sub-arcs about the beauty queen and her protective mother, and El Cholo's first love, a girl who loved him back but rejected him because his father was a drug trafficker, are very well done. From a press release quoting the executive producer, Carolina Bilbao:
“The fictional series, inspired by real headlines, goes beyond basic storytelling and examines the human side of the war—the story delves into the characters and their personal experiences, choices, dilemmas and conflicts, as well as what it means to be born into a narco family and have no other realistic alternatives. Viewers will be able to identify with the themes of friendship, parenthood, youth, love and loss. We are honored to tell this never-before-told story, we’re confident audiences will love it.”
This is an open thread, all topics welcome.
