There’s a new horse-focused TV show in town, or at least on Apple+, that is grabbing attention and headlines. The four-part docuseries Cowboy Cartel, which began streaming in August, has been picking up steam.
The series follows a rookie FBI agent who cracked the case of one of Mexico’s most ruthless cartels, Los Zetas, and the multimillion-dollar money laundering operation they ran through the heart of the American Quarter Horse racing industry.
“The first thing I said when I heard the story was, ‘Is this real?’” co-director and co-executive producer Dan Johnstone told My San Antonio. “It was such a sprawling story. For us, it was about getting people to … really see the emotion of these communities being damaged by these nefarious activities. Once we understood that, it was, no pun intended, off to the races.”
Cowboy Cartel features first-time interviews with the FBI agent and unlikely hero Scott Lawson from rural Tennessee whose investigation took down the Treviño brothers, the leaders of the Los Zetas cartel.
As you will see from the series, the Treviños terrorized people in their pursuit of power, money and influence, while Agent Lawson risked his life on a hunch: tracking their brother’s Quarter Horse racehorse transactions in the United States, infiltrating the deadly cartel and uncovering their international money laundering operations.
It’s riveting true crime at its best, with plenty of gorgeous horses as eye candy.
Watch the trailer here:
