Bounty Hunter ‘Dog’ Chapman: El Chapo is ‘out of my league’
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}TV bounty hunter Duane “Dog” Chapman knows there are some fugitives even he can’t bring to justice.
The star of CMT’s “Dog and Beth: On The Hunt” admits he probably would not be able to capture escaped Mexican drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán — and doesn’t even plan to try.
“He probably would be out of my league,” Chapman tells FOX411.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}“In order to take him down, number one, you better have a fully automatic weapon. With my weapon, you have to get really close to him — and you couldn’t get that close to him because he probably has five or six guys with him at all times.
“[Also], there would have to be two or three of you to take him down because he is going to shoot it out next time. Last time, I heard they surrounded him and gave him a chance to come out.”
Chapman is convinced that Mexico’s most wanted criminal is hunkered down south of the border, where bounty hunting is illegal.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The reality star, 62, learned that the hard way when he was arrested by Mexican authorities and nearly faced a jail sentence of his own in 2003 after capturing a convicted American rapist in Puerto Vallarta.
“I have learned to stay in my own country,” he says, looking back. “You can’t even talk about arresting a guying Mexico.”
Chapman boasts of capturing “thousands” of bail-hoppers on American soil — but he does not believe many of them belong behind bars.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}“Prison is for the violent [criminals] — not for the non-violent or someone who is maybe not educated enough and won’t commit the crime again,” he says.
“If it is non-violent, it means that people made mistakes. We are spending so much money on them and we have no room for the killers!”
Chapman believes many drug-related offenses would be better addressed with education and rehabilitation.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}“I have arrested so many drug addicts that have come to me said, ‘Dog, I don’t want to do it. It is something inside me,’” he argues.
“Now what if his parents were addicts and it is in his DNA? Well it is. I have arrested third generation drug addicts.”
“The guy that gave dope to a little girl, keep him there. But [the non-violent drug users], you gotta get them out. We don’t need to be spending $360 a day. It costs more to keep a man in jail than it does to put that same man through a cheap college.”
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Chapman is no stranger to the prison system.
He spent 18 months in lock-up for his part in the 1976 murder of an alleged pimp and drug dealer. (His friend accidentally pulled the trigger.)
“I remember times when I sat in prison praying to God, ‘Why am I here? I cannot handle this,’” he reveals on Saturday night’s episode of "Dog and Beth," which marks his first return to the Lone Star State in more than 35 years.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}For the show’s third season, Chapman gets a hand from his 22 year-old daughter, Cecily.
“[Bounty hunting] is in her blood,” he says. “Some of these guys I try to train, I tell them, ‘You need to try to apply for a job at K-mart. But to see her…she is really good.”
"Dog and Beth" On the Hunt" airs Saturdays on CMT.
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