‘Narcosatanism’: The dark faith driving cartel horrors — ex-fed agent gives bone-chilling testimony

Everyone knows the deep-seated corruption and evil that characterize the Mexican drug cartels. But how many know just how sinister these narco syndicates truly get?

Dave Franke does. As a former Mexican federal agent who spent years conducting high-risk investigations into the country's most violent drug cartels, he’s experienced firsthand the level of evil some of these criminal networks stoop to.

On a recent episode of “The Glenn Beck Podcast,” Franke exposed a brand of cartel so dark and nefarious that it warrants its own name: “narcosatanism.”

When Franke first started investigating cartels, he saw the typical brutality — beheadings, gunfights, torched vehicles, and targeted assassinations. But the longer he was in the field, the more exposure he got to the cartel’s dark religious underbelly.

Once he started raiding prisons and cartel lairs, Franke realized that the Santa Muerte cult — syncretic folk devotion to a female skeletal "Saint Death" figure that blends Catholic saints with indigenous death worship to justify ritualistic brutality — fuels the spiritual core of many cartels.

“We'd go in [prisons], and we'd inspect all of [the cartels’] blocks for contraband and come out with Santa Muerte carvings on clothing, drawings, on shirts, on paper, etched into wood tables — just everywhere,” says Franke, calling Santa Muerte worship “100% evil,” as the “saint” supposedly gives people permission to torture and kill in the most barbaric ways imaginable.

For example, Franke knew of a case where a cartel gang had a defibrillator, used to bring victims back to life for the explicit purpose of torturing and killing them again. In another case, a cartel recorded itself removing a victim’s face while he was still alive.

“There's evil that exists in every country, but in Mexico it's just over the top,” Franke tells Glenn.

It’s a place where “everyone's trying to one-up each other because they want to impress or send a message, not just to the government and the normal people, but to their enemies. … So you always get someone trying to invent something.”

How does someone not only stomach such unmitigated barbarity but willingly continue to enter the fray?

Franke says it’s his faith that keeps him grounded.

“I have a strong faith in Jesus, but I also have a strong faith that no one's going to send me anywhere one minute before my maker wants me there,” he says.

To hear more, including his warning about what the Mexican cartels are doing here in the United States, watch the full interview above.

Want more from Glenn Beck?

To enjoy more of Glenn’s masterful storytelling, thought-provoking analysis, and uncanny ability to make sense of the chaos, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.