From Dallas to Grand Prairie to Ruidoso to Laredo to Austin to Oklahoma, dogged investigators pursue a brutal Mexican drug cartel. Debuting on Apple TV+.
Was a bricklayer from Dallas just ‘lucky’ when he bought a “cheap” quarter horse that won nearly two million dollars at the All-American Futurity in Ruidoso, New Mexico? Or was something more sinister involved?
Directed by Dan Johnstone and Castor Fernandez, the four-part documentary series clearly lays out an incredibly complicated case that started with a hunch by rookie FBI Special Agent Scott Lawson. Originally from Tennessee, Lawson was assigned to Laredo, Texas, for his first posting in 2009, a common assignment for rookie agents.
Once in Laredo, Lawson became acquainted with his duties and the ongoing battles by multiple law-enforcement agencies — DEA, FBI, Homeland Security, all housed in the same building — against Mexican drug cartels, specifically Los Zetas, notorious for their ruthless brutality and readiness to commit extreme violence against informers, law enforcement personnel, and innocent bystanders.
Their reign of terror ensured their absolute control in northern Mexico. It also loomed large over the border, stoking fear that stretched far into Texas and neighboring states.
Looking into an unrelated matter, Special Agent Lawson eventually came to horse racing and learned that, after winning several races at Lone Star Park at Grand Prairie and earning a good sum of money, the quarterhorse in question sold for a greatly reduced price to Jose Trevino, a bricklayer from Dallas, who professed shock and surprise that he had the good fortune to fall into ownership of the horse shortly before it won the big prize.
Jose’s two brothers, Miguel and Omar, controlled Los Zetas. At that point, it’s not clear if Jose was fully involved in his brothers’ ever more diabolical criminal activities or if he was simply a hapless ally, roped into their nefarious affairs as a means of washing their ill-gotten gains.
Each of the four parts are skillfully assembled, tied together with an extensive use of recreations and interviews, mostly with law-enforcement personnel, extending to IRS criminal investigators working out of Austin, and stretching to New York, where an experienced, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist was carrying out her own independent investigation into the crimes of Los Zetas that extended into the United States.
A couple of people interviewed bring a measure of levity into the series, which feels like an odd decision by the filmmakers, in view of the deadly toll of devastation that Los Zetas left in their wake. For the most part, though, the series feels like a sledgehammer as it lays bare the criminal activity of the cartel and an investigation that got progressively more complicated and involved more and more people on both sides of the law and border.
Impressive in scope and in the depth of the details presented, Cowboy Cartel is instantly absorbing and quickly transforms into an urgent and gripping true story. It feels like a campfire tale told at dusk, gaining power as the darkness falls and the fire burns brighter.
The four-part docu-series premieres globally Friday, August 2, exclusively on Apple TV+.
Dallas Film Now. 