Topic: El Jefe

During their kidnapping, Rubin and his brother were held at gunpoint and interrogated by seven cartel members who suspected them of being intelligence agents. The captors were particularly agitated by Rubin's drone and camera equipment, leading to a tense standoff where a pistol was held to Rubin's head. The brothers were blindfolded and driven deeper into Mexico while they secretly loosened their restraints in case they had to fight for their lives.

Anthony Rubin and his brother Joshua Rubin were kidnapped by the Gulf Cartel while attempting to document illegal crossings near the SpaceX facility in Boca Chica, Texas. The encounter began on Playa Baghdad when men in a truck with Texas plates intercepted them and forced them into a vehicle at gunpoint. Cartel members blindfolded the pair and transported them to an abandoned field, where they smashed the journalists' electronic equipment with crowbars. Rubin managed to preserve critical footage of the ordeal using a GoPro hidden in a secret compartment and tracked the movement via an Apple AirTag.

Rubin provides a granular account of his kidnapping near the SpaceX facility, noting that the cartel members suspected him of being military or intelligence due to his drone. The captors forced the brothers to their knees for "hostage-type photos" and threatened them with pistols. After a tense period of negotiation and transport, the cartel used crowbars to destroy their cameras and memory cards before releasing them at a port of entry.