Medellin, Colombia: Steve Murphy and Javier Pena, retired DEA agents, sit down with HD Magazine to give the inside scoop…
Medellin, Colombia: Steve Murphy and Javier Pena, retired DEA agents, sit down with HD Magazine to give the inside scoop of what the harrowing experience of hunting down the world’s first narcotrafficker, Pablo Escobar, was like.
And it was mind-blowing.
The real-world experience, which was recreated in the Netflix hit series Narcos, which included several seasons and inspired a final, fictitious season and a spin off series, Narcos: Mexico, is a riveting tale of what is was like chasing down one of the world’s richest, dangerous, and most notorious drug dealers, Pablo Escobar.
Murphy’s role was played by the popular Boyd Holbrook and his real life partner, Javier Pena, was played by Pedro Pascal.
The Narcos series highlights the brutal underworld of cartel life. But, according to Murphy, the show pulled some punches.
“As bad as it was in the Narcos series, in real life, it was much, much worse,” Murphy told HDM in an exclusive interview.
“We attribute 15, maybe 20 thousand murders to Escobar. Popeye, Escobar’s main sicario, says that number is more like 50 thousand people,” he added.
Escobar was known in the cartel world as being ruthless and cruel, lacking any type of moral compass. One of his most notorious acts of violence, which was highlighted in an episode of Narcos, was the downing of a commercial Colombian airliner that killed over 100 innocent people. The tragedy stemmed from a failed attempt to assassinate a presidential candidate.
Another extreme example of Escobar’s violence included blowing up a bus packed with 500 pounds of explosives.
“The chassis of the bus was found on a building a couple of blocks away. A perfect example of Escobar’s viciousness. If Pablo wanted to kill you, he would not only come after you, he’d come up to your wife, your children, your parents, anybody that he could find associated with you!” Steve, who highlighted Escobar’s evil, said.
In fact, they were on their guard at all times. Experience taught them that cartels are more than brutal, they’re crafty.
“You had to travel with your gun to your chest ready to engage targets because two riders on a motorcycle was one of their favorite ways to assassinate people,” according to Steve.
And no one is safe, including cops.
“Escobar put a bounty on police officers and another 15-year-old thug nonchalantly said to me, ‘I’ve already killed 10 police officers, at a hundred bucks a head, I get paid at the end of the day.’ That’s the attitude the sicarios had … multiply that by 500 sicarios!”
Murphy and Pena both feel Escobar and his associates could have been captured or killed much sooner than they actually were. But as always, political sensitivity played a role in tactical decision making.
“If Delta and SEALs have been allowed to do the job and go out of base, we firmly believe that we would have had Escobar captured or dead in less than three months, but politics got in the way. The bureaucracy cost thousands of people their lives,” Murphy said.
But the methods they used got them very close to capturing Escobar on several occasions.
“We had him located several times, and we’d go in helicopters- the only way in jungles- but people would warn him. He heard the noise. We would get there and his coffee was still warm. We barely missed him so many times,” Pena said.
Luck eventually ran out for Escobar.
Murphy and Pena, along with the Colombian National Police, a formidable force, eventually caught up with Escobar, and dramatically concluded with a shoot out on a residential rooftop that left a shoeless and unkempt Escobar dead.
It was a fitting end to a brutal narcotrafficker. And we have Steve Murphy and Javier Pena to thank for it.
Want to hear more from Steve Murphy? Check out his podcast, Game of Crimes where he interviews fascinating men and women from the military and law enforcement community by visiting https://gameofcrimespodcast.com/
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References:
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