The OG Mexican Narco: Pablo Acosta

The Underworld Podcast

True Crime, Documentary, Society & Culture, History

4.6 • 871 Ratings

🗓️ 7 October 2025

⏱️ 66 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Pablo Acosta ruled Mexico's drug trade from a dusty border town, turning Ojinaga into a narco-empire that funneled billions in cocaine, weed and heroin into America during the 1980s. Known as the Fox of Ojinaga, he was a ruthless trafficker who taught the narco-world that it was better to buy the authorities than fight them. His dealings with the Colombian cartels changed the Mexican underworld as we know it...until a coke problem and a bloody FBI-backed raid in 1987 turned a remote Mexican village into a war zone. This is the story of the man who pioneered the border drug corridor, leaving a legacy that still shapes the cartel wars today. https://quince.com/underworld for all your clothing needs, use code Underworld at checkout! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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1:03.5	In Texas, the countdown has begun. Robert Robertson is scheduled to die.
1:12.0	When the clock hits zero, it's over.
1:15.0	But a growing chorus insists Robert is innocent.
1:18.2	We didn't hear Robert.
1:19.7	We chose to disbelieve him.
1:22.1	And if the system gets it wrong, there's no going back.
1:26.8	I'm Lester Holt, and this is The Last Appeal. My new
1:31.2	podcast from Dateline, listen now. It's the summer of 1983 in Chihuahua State, Mexico, just an hour
1:39.4	or two from the border of Texas. And there's a cartel war that's been raging in the scrublands and canyons that dot the area,
	...

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