Eric Balliet, a retired US Homeland Security Investigations agent, has described how he helped capture Mexican drug lord Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán by intercepting the Sinaloa Cartel leader's phone messages, which ultimately led investigators to his hideout. Balliet's account, published to coincide with the release of his memoir *Kingpins & Coyotes* and the Netflix drama *Facing El Chapo*, offers a rare insider view of the kingpin's daily life gleaned from years of monitoring his communications with associates.

Balliet's team began intercepting BlackBerry Messenger exchanges between Guzmán's inner circle of bodyguards and couriers around 2012, building a picture of his travel patterns and routines that eventually contributed to his capture. The messages, which sometimes numbered nearly 100 a day, revealed a man ordering contract killings, arranging multimillion-dollar drug deals and soliciting prostitutes, alongside more unexpected moments of affection towards his children and grandchildren. Guzmán, whose criminal career is estimated to have earned him around $14 billion, was eventually extradited to the US and appeared in a New York court in 2017, an occasion Balliet recalls as a career highlight.