American Greed returns to CNBC on Monday for the second half of season 14, which opens with another high-profile story. The episode is about the empire of drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman Loera, but the show takes a different angle on it—focusing not so much on the man himself but on two American residents who worked as his lieutenants.
This is important, because the El Chapo story has been covered thoroughly on major media outlets, and even in a scripted TV series on Netflix. As American Greed tackles these more well-known stories, it has to provide the viewer with something they haven’t seen before, and it does that this week by showcasing an exclusive interview with the wives of the Flores twins.
So in layman’s terms, that’s two degrees removed—the spouses of two men who worked for El Chapo. That could feel like a reach, but Olivia and Mia Flores have a lot to say about what Jay and Peter Flores did for this infamous kingpin. CNBC has released the first ten minutes of the episode here:
“Inside El Chapo’s Empire” talks about the business of drug dealing by pointing out how the Flores brothers were different in their approach to the trade, and how that attracted El Chapo. In true American Greed style, there’s also some time spent on the excess that they enjoy as a result of their illegal activity, but not nearly as much as seen in other episodes.
That’s because the second half of the hour is centered on how the twins finally decided to exit the drug trade, the deal that they made with the American government to get themselves out, and the hurdles they had to jump through to betray the Sinaloa Cartel. Having originally relocated to Mexico in order to evade prison time in the United States, the duo are now desperate to get back across the border. So rather than talk about their downfall, as is the case in many installments, this episode’s story arc is about their role helping to convict El Chapo.
The only thing that will raise an eyebrow for savvy true crime TV viewers is that Jay and Peter Flores are said to still be in hiding because of continued danger to their lives—yet their wives are talking openly on national television. It creates a certain amount of skepticism in the audience. But the episode is certainly entertaining, and offers up additional information about this story that many viewers won’t have known before.
American Greed airs Mondays at 10:00 p.m. ET/PT on CNBC.
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