Surviving El Chapo: The Twins Who Brought Down A Drug Lord

Hi Surviving El Chapo Fans! Take a listen to the trailer of our newest show, Chess Piece: The Elián González Story. 

About the show: At the turn of the millennium, a five-year-old boy from Cuba found off the Florida coast on Thanksgiving became the most talked about child in America. Elián González had left Cuba with his mom and a dozen other migrants, trying to make it to the U.S. but on the way, the boat capsized. Elián’s mother drowned. Before she did, she tied her child to an inner tube, saving his life.

Relatives in Miami — Cuban exiles — took the boy in. His father in Cuba wanted him back. The ensuing international custody battle over Elián González became its own mini Cold War, pitting Cuban exiles in Miami against supporters of Castro’s regime on an island just 90 miles away. 

The fight over Elián’s future came down to neighbor against neighbor, family against family. Now, 25 years later — we revisit his story through the voices of people who lived it firsthand.

Listen here and subscribe to Chess Piece: The Elián González Story on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts!

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Charlie finds out what information the feds used to indict Val and Viv, how they tried to fight their charges and their reaction to being sentenced to prison. Former DEA agent Michael Ferrara who worked the El Chapo case gives his take on the wives’ prosecution and the broader impact the twins’ cooperation had on the war on drugs. 

With his wife now going to prison, Charlie poses the question to Jay: Has it all been worth it?

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Charlie sits down with the children to get their perspective. Jay discusses adjusting to life on the outside. Within months of the twins being released, their wives, Val and Viv, are arrested on money laundering charges. 

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COVID hits the prisons so the twins can’t see their families for months. Jay spends 56 days in hospital. Finally, after 12 years in prison, the twins are released on the November 5th, 2020.

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Pete takes to the witness stand to lay out the case against El Chapo. He explains to the jury the details of the recorded call and his relationship with El Chapo before being turned over to the Drug Lord’s defense team for questioning.

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After an intense manhunt, Mexican authorities recapture El Chapo and extradite him to the US. Pete holds the key piece of evidence and spends 18 months prepping with prosecutors to go face-to-face against El Chapo in the courtroom. 

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With El Chapo finally captured, the Flores twins can now be sentenced. They are brought together for the first time in five years to discover their fate. 

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Jay and Pete adjust to their separate realities in prison. Jay ends up in a prison with better conditions, while the opposite happens for Pete. Jay puts on a spectacle for Val in the visiting room. Pete’s family visit gets canceled, and the prison is put on lockdown when El Chapo is arrested.

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Inside prison, the twins are separated for the first time in their lives. On the outside, their wives are forced to adjust to a life living under the radar. Jay is taken to MCC New York, known as the ‘Guantanamo Bay’ of New York. 

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Pete and Jay continue cooperating from prison. With a few special privileges they are allowed to see their families. Pete takes advantage of some downtime in the bathroom. This is the start of the infamous three B’s: The Baby, the Bentley and the Billboards.

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