“It’s all STAGED!” - Top Cartel Journalist EXPOSES El Mencho’s Assassination | Kat Szulc • 392
Julian Dorey · 6 Mar 2026 · 3h 0m
Guest: Kat Szulc · Host: Joey Def, Julian Dorey
A cartel journalist recounts firsthand reporting from the compound where Mexican authorities say CJNG leader El Mencho was cornered and killed, describing physical inconsistencies she found on site — shell casings without corresponding bullet holes, undamaged vehicles parked amid supposed crossfire, and an eerie absence of security or forensic presence days after a supposedly major operation. She lays out competing theories: that the raid happened but was staged for cameras, that El Mencho was already dead or dying and a deal was struck to hand his body over for political credit, or that he faked his death as he allegedly had before. Alongside this, she and the host trace CJNG's origins through El Mencho's marriage into the wealthy Valencia/Los Cuinis family, its financial and paramilitary structure, its infiltration of politicians and police, and the murky succession battle among potential heirs after his death. The conversation widens into the arrest and surrender of Canadian trafficker Ryan Wedding, the fake AI social posts that fooled even Mexico's president, and a separate investigation into Colombian mercenaries shuttling between the Ukraine war and Mexican cartel front lines. Throughout, the guest describes the physical and ethical hazards of reporting inside cartel territory and a Russian prisoner-of-war camp, and both speakers question official narratives around cartel violence, U.S.-Mexico cooperation, and geopolitical messaging around Ukraine and Venezuela policy.
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What comes up
Timestamps link into the episode on YouTube.
- Visiting El Mencho's compound in Tapalpa
- CJNG origins and the Valencia/Los Cuinis alliance
- Cartel payroll spreadsheets and narcocorridos
- CJNG's expansion and possible successors
- Physical evidence contradicting the official raid story
- Theories on what really happened to El Mencho
- U.S.-Mexico political dynamics and sovereignty
- Ryan Wedding's rise, capture, and surrender
- Cocaine lawyer and murder-for-hire plot
- Colombian mercenaries linking Ukraine war to cartel warfare
Said on this episode
Quoted from the auto-generated transcript, which mishears names and technical terms. podcite.com reports what a show said; it does not endorse or fact-check it.
“There's absolutely no damage to this house. But there are .50 caliber shell casings everywhere. And yet all of the walls, the windows, the vehicles are completely intact.”
“If you kill the witness the case will be dismissed.”