1 00:01:23,525 --> 00:01:28,525 2 00:01:31,885 --> 00:01:33,720 By the time I left Miami, 3 00:01:33,803 --> 00:01:37,182 Americans were doing a couple hundred tons of cocaine every year. 4 00:01:38,683 --> 00:01:42,812 To satisfy American noses, the narcos ramped up their operations. 5 00:01:45,023 --> 00:01:47,317 - Here, honey. - Ah, thank you. 6 00:01:48,610 --> 00:01:51,405 - Hey, is that the Bahamas? - Hm? 7 00:01:52,739 --> 00:01:55,451 Oh... Yeah. 8 00:01:55,658 --> 00:01:57,411 That's beautiful. 9 00:01:59,246 --> 00:02:00,830 They were flying so many planes, 10 00:02:00,914 --> 00:02:04,251 they needed a refueling stop between Colombia and Miami. 11 00:02:04,460 --> 00:02:07,337 So Carlos Lehder bought an island in the Bahamas 12 00:02:07,421 --> 00:02:10,090 as a transshipment point for the drugs and money. 13 00:02:11,300 --> 00:02:14,928 Turns out... it was a damn good place to party. 14 00:02:16,888 --> 00:02:21,518 It was modern day Sodom and Gomorrah, with the three things Carlos liked most: 15 00:02:21,601 --> 00:02:26,106 - sex, drugs, and Nazi sympathizers. - Whoo-hoo-hoo! 16 00:02:32,279 --> 00:02:36,032 The problem was no longer demand... it was supply. 17 00:02:43,206 --> 00:02:45,625 We should be over the Amazon by now. 18 00:02:47,836 --> 00:02:52,424 From 10,000 feet, Colombia was a paradise of untouched rainforest. 19 00:02:53,800 --> 00:02:55,969 But things were different on the ground. 20 00:02:57,929 --> 00:03:01,766 Pablo and his partners built superlabs the size of small cities. 21 00:03:03,893 --> 00:03:10,066 From leaf to paste to powder, they produced 10,000 kilos a week. 22 00:03:10,275 --> 00:03:15,197 At 50 grand a kilo, that's five billion dollars a year. 23 00:03:15,280 --> 00:03:17,533 These guys weren't fuckin' around. 24 00:03:21,411 --> 00:03:26,458 Pablo's cousin Gustavo flew chemists in from Germany to liquefy the cocaine. 25 00:03:26,542 --> 00:03:31,463 They added it to liquor, to coffee, and just to be funny... 26 00:03:31,547 --> 00:03:33,089 they put it back in Coca-Cola. 27 00:03:33,173 --> 00:03:34,466 Patrón? 28 00:03:34,550 --> 00:03:35,551 Looks good? 29 00:03:35,633 --> 00:03:38,053 Cocaine was no longer hidden alongside products. 30 00:03:40,556 --> 00:03:42,015 It was the product. 31 00:03:45,435 --> 00:03:48,897 The narcos even had their own drug-sniffing dogs. 32 00:03:48,980 --> 00:03:52,859 Gacha bet Pablo that not even a German scientist could fool his dog. 33 00:05:59,486 --> 00:06:01,154 And that's what they tried first. 34 00:06:03,031 --> 00:06:07,202 On paper, Pablo had the most profitable taxi company ever. 35 00:06:07,285 --> 00:06:08,453 He only had three cars, 36 00:06:08,537 --> 00:06:11,873 but he was pulling in more than five million dollars a week. 37 00:06:13,041 --> 00:06:16,419 And Gacha had the most successful emerald mine of all time. 38 00:06:16,670 --> 00:06:20,256 He would inject bad stones with oil to make them shiny, 39 00:06:20,340 --> 00:06:23,009 then have his friends in Miami buy the emeralds with drug money 40 00:06:23,092 --> 00:06:25,345 and give them as gifts to hookers in town. 41 00:06:26,596 --> 00:06:28,348 Everybody was happy. 42 00:06:31,434 --> 00:06:34,771 But no matter what they did, they couldn't hide all that money. 43 00:06:35,731 --> 00:06:37,815 It just kept coming in. 44 00:07:18,022 --> 00:07:20,609 And that's what they did. 45 00:07:20,692 --> 00:07:22,860 They buried it in fields... 46 00:07:24,446 --> 00:07:28,408 they hid it in caletas, hiding places in walls and ceilings. 47 00:07:30,118 --> 00:07:33,413 They even stuck a million dollars in Pablo's mother's couch. 48 00:08:10,867 --> 00:08:13,035 Pablo called this accountant "Blackbeard," 49 00:08:13,119 --> 00:08:14,954 not because he looked like a pirate, 50 00:08:15,037 --> 00:08:18,249 but because his job was to map out where the treasure was hidden. 51 00:08:21,002 --> 00:08:23,421 But not even the pirate did the trick. 52 00:08:23,505 --> 00:08:25,674 The problem was Colombia itself. 53 00:08:25,757 --> 00:08:28,802 It was too small a country for a fortune that big. 54 00:08:28,885 --> 00:08:33,973 It was inevitable... someone, somewhere would try to snatch the narcos' treasure. 55 00:09:29,404 --> 00:09:31,280 I know what you're thinking. 56 00:09:31,364 --> 00:09:34,158 No one's crazy enough to kidnap drug dealers, right? 57 00:09:34,992 --> 00:09:38,872 But if you're thinking that, it's because you're not familiar with M-19. 58 00:09:39,080 --> 00:09:42,709 M-19 was a communist guerrilla group 59 00:09:42,792 --> 00:09:45,086 made up of college students and intellectuals 60 00:09:45,169 --> 00:09:47,630 who read too much Karl Marx for their own good. 61 00:09:49,340 --> 00:09:52,552 Their leader was Ivan "the Terrible" Torres... 62 00:09:52,635 --> 00:09:55,346 a history professor who knew nothing about guerilla warfare, 63 00:09:55,430 --> 00:09:57,724 but understood the power of symbols. 64 00:09:58,808 --> 00:10:00,894 He broke into the Quinta de Bolívar Museum 65 00:10:00,977 --> 00:10:04,981 with his buddy Alejandro and Alejandro's girlfriend, Elisa, 66 00:10:05,064 --> 00:10:09,444 and stole a national treasure... the sword of Simón Bolívar, 67 00:10:09,527 --> 00:10:13,406 the mythic general who led Colombia to independence from the Spanish empire. 68 00:10:29,839 --> 00:10:31,925 These jokers even left a note: 69 00:10:33,092 --> 00:10:36,053 "Bolívar, your sword returns to the battlefield." 70 00:10:37,764 --> 00:10:42,393 It was a stroke of genius... a marketing stunt way ahead of its time. 71 00:10:42,477 --> 00:10:44,479 And it made them famous overnight. 72 00:10:46,815 --> 00:10:48,817 And I guess it went to their heads. 73 00:11:30,775 --> 00:11:35,571 March 13th, 1981, the day they kidnapped Marta Ochoa, 74 00:11:35,655 --> 00:11:39,200 was also the day the Lion completed 100 trips to Miami. 75 00:11:43,579 --> 00:11:44,956 Hola. 76 00:11:53,798 --> 00:11:55,591 Does the cat have any papers? 77 00:11:55,800 --> 00:11:57,802 - Sí. - Please. 78 00:12:00,930 --> 00:12:02,473 Thank you. 79 00:12:06,686 --> 00:12:07,854 Mm. 80 00:12:11,107 --> 00:12:12,859 Excuse me a second, please. 81 00:12:29,876 --> 00:12:31,920 Well, I guess he's talking about Puff. 82 00:12:59,530 --> 00:13:01,699 My boss is not having a good day. 83 00:13:01,783 --> 00:13:03,785 I think his wife left him. 84 00:13:06,412 --> 00:13:12,001 Yeah, well, he's a little bit cranky, so... how important is this cat to you? 85 00:13:12,251 --> 00:13:13,544 Excuse me? 86 00:13:13,753 --> 00:13:15,337 OK. 87 00:13:15,421 --> 00:13:16,422 Come with me, please. 88 00:13:37,652 --> 00:13:39,862 So... wait here, please. 89 00:13:41,114 --> 00:13:43,783 And my boss will ask you for this paper later. 90 00:13:44,742 --> 00:13:46,494 How long is it gonna be? 91 00:13:46,577 --> 00:13:47,745 I don't know. 92 00:13:51,332 --> 00:13:53,250 Pablo! Pablo! 93 00:13:53,334 --> 00:13:55,419 While I was trying to get into Bogotá, 94 00:13:55,503 --> 00:13:58,047 Pablo was trying to get into politics. 95 00:13:58,131 --> 00:14:02,177 When he said he was going to be president of Colombia, he meant it. 96 00:14:41,423 --> 00:14:43,759 Where is this guy? We've been waiting for hours now. 97 00:14:45,511 --> 00:14:48,681 Maybe he's at "terapia de pareja." 98 00:14:48,764 --> 00:14:50,225 What's that? 99 00:14:50,307 --> 00:14:51,726 Couples counseling. 100 00:14:53,310 --> 00:14:54,311 Right. 101 00:14:55,271 --> 00:14:56,689 What're you doing? 102 00:14:56,772 --> 00:14:58,774 Oh, I'm practicing my Spanish. 103 00:15:07,491 --> 00:15:09,618 Yeah, you heard that right. 104 00:15:09,702 --> 00:15:13,455 She just compared Pablo Escobar to fucking Robin Hood. 105 00:15:13,664 --> 00:15:16,292 And in a way, she was right. 106 00:15:16,375 --> 00:15:18,169 When you've run out of ways to hide your money, 107 00:15:18,253 --> 00:15:20,671 that's when you give it to the poor. 108 00:15:20,755 --> 00:15:22,798 But I don't want to get ahead of myself. 109 00:16:09,386 --> 00:16:11,764 Connie, you know who that is? 110 00:16:11,847 --> 00:16:14,350 Bet he could get our cat into the country. 111 00:16:15,559 --> 00:16:17,061 I can't believe it. 112 00:16:17,937 --> 00:16:20,315 They don't even know he's a fucking drug dealer. 113 00:16:24,860 --> 00:16:28,072 At the time, Pablo was just a blip on my radar. 114 00:16:28,823 --> 00:16:31,492 I didn't know I was about to be a blip on his. 115 00:16:39,041 --> 00:16:41,502 Well, we've been waiting for hours. Thanks for coming out. 116 00:16:41,627 --> 00:16:45,798 Uh, my wife's a little exhausted, so here is the cat's vaccination-- 117 00:16:45,881 --> 00:16:47,383 Your passport. 118 00:16:48,343 --> 00:16:49,344 I'm sorry? 119 00:16:50,303 --> 00:16:52,221 Your passport, please. 120 00:17:10,906 --> 00:17:14,994 What do you do at the United States Embassy, Mr. Murphy? 121 00:17:15,077 --> 00:17:17,330 I am in, uh, janitorial services. 122 00:17:18,289 --> 00:17:20,624 Janitorial services. 123 00:17:20,708 --> 00:17:22,251 Another one. 124 00:17:23,544 --> 00:17:25,838 Your embassy must be very clean. 125 00:17:26,047 --> 00:17:29,675 Oh, yeah. You bet your ass it is. 126 00:17:31,177 --> 00:17:32,428 Your cat's cleared. 127 00:17:34,972 --> 00:17:36,557 Enjoy Colombia. 128 00:17:42,604 --> 00:17:46,692 And just like that, the narcos had me on file the very first day. 129 00:18:06,421 --> 00:18:08,339 As for Valeria Velez, 130 00:18:08,423 --> 00:18:12,551 the journalist who first interviewed Pablo... watch out. 131 00:18:12,634 --> 00:18:15,054 She was as dangerous as M-19. 132 00:19:36,635 --> 00:19:38,220 You gotta give it to her. 133 00:19:38,304 --> 00:19:41,390 She saw Pablo coming a mile away. 134 00:19:41,474 --> 00:19:45,644 And she got herself in just the right place to take full advantage of him. 135 00:19:47,104 --> 00:19:49,690 Not unlike my partner Javier Peña, 136 00:19:49,773 --> 00:19:52,568 who figured the best way to get inside narco information 137 00:19:52,651 --> 00:19:54,862 was to hang out with the same women they did. 138 00:23:08,096 --> 00:23:10,974 Oh, God! What was that? 139 00:23:11,058 --> 00:23:12,184 That was like a .38. 140 00:23:12,267 --> 00:23:14,228 - About four blocks away. - Oh... 141 00:23:29,868 --> 00:23:33,872 Welcome to Bogotá. 142 00:23:33,955 --> 00:23:36,751 Should we do it under the bed? 143 00:24:46,821 --> 00:24:49,615 First day at the American Embassy. 144 00:24:49,698 --> 00:24:52,242 - I met my partner... - Javier? 145 00:24:52,326 --> 00:24:54,536 ...who introduced me to the DEA. 146 00:24:54,620 --> 00:24:56,330 Murphy, this is Weaver and Wisnicki. 147 00:24:56,413 --> 00:24:58,373 These guys are R.I.P. "Retired in Place." 148 00:24:58,457 --> 00:25:00,375 - Eat me, Peña. - Paid vacation's over, fellas. 149 00:25:00,459 --> 00:25:01,710 Murphy and I are going to Medellín. 150 00:25:01,918 --> 00:25:04,797 We'll telex the T-3 reports. They go straight to Washington. 151 00:25:06,507 --> 00:25:08,342 We are going to Medellín? 152 00:25:09,301 --> 00:25:12,554 - Then the Mil Group. - Jarheads... this is Murphy. 153 00:25:12,638 --> 00:25:14,014 Murphy, this is Mil Group. 154 00:25:14,097 --> 00:25:17,601 They advise Colombian military on communist threats in the countryside. 155 00:25:17,685 --> 00:25:19,060 Hey, those are classified. 156 00:25:19,269 --> 00:25:22,272 - Now they're declassified. - That's the ambassador's call. 157 00:25:22,356 --> 00:25:23,858 No problem. 158 00:25:27,277 --> 00:25:30,823 And the last stop... the ambassador's office. 159 00:25:30,906 --> 00:25:32,199 Why do you need this intel? 160 00:25:33,325 --> 00:25:36,244 There's an unusual number of prostitutes headed to Medellín this weekend. 161 00:25:36,453 --> 00:25:37,996 Every high-end girl in Bogotá. 162 00:25:38,079 --> 00:25:40,248 First class airfare, five-star hotels. 163 00:25:40,457 --> 00:25:42,501 The narcos are having a meeting and then a party. 164 00:25:42,710 --> 00:25:44,961 What does the M-19 have to do with this? 165 00:25:45,170 --> 00:25:47,923 Somebody kidnapped Marta Ochoa. Intel suggests it was M-19. 166 00:25:48,006 --> 00:25:50,926 I need access to the M-19 files to confirm. 167 00:25:51,677 --> 00:25:55,305 If I find out one single dollar of American taxpayer money 168 00:25:55,389 --> 00:25:58,809 went to any of those hookers, it'll be your ass. 169 00:25:59,017 --> 00:26:01,019 OK, thank you. One last thing, Ambassador. 170 00:26:01,102 --> 00:26:02,312 Yes, Agent Peña? 171 00:26:02,521 --> 00:26:05,106 I'm filing a visa request for my informant. I need your signature. 172 00:26:05,315 --> 00:26:06,859 You're bothering me. 173 00:26:08,985 --> 00:26:10,905 She sure likes you. 174 00:26:10,987 --> 00:26:12,740 Is your informant really a prostitute? 175 00:26:12,823 --> 00:26:14,616 Everybody works for somebody. 176 00:26:22,249 --> 00:26:25,460 The very next day, I was flying with Peña to Medellín, 177 00:26:25,544 --> 00:26:27,295 Pablo's home turf. 178 00:26:34,302 --> 00:26:39,683 First stop: Carlos Holguín School, Colonel Carrillo's base of operations. 179 00:26:58,869 --> 00:27:01,872 I want you to meet our new DEA, Steve Murphy. 180 00:27:06,752 --> 00:27:10,965 Then we went straight to a fancy hotel where the narcos were about to meet. 181 00:27:13,884 --> 00:27:17,679 The pictures I took that day helped to ID guys for months to come. 182 00:27:20,682 --> 00:27:23,143 There was Carlos Lehder... 183 00:27:26,354 --> 00:27:28,774 ...the Ochoa brothers... 184 00:27:34,362 --> 00:27:36,740 Fernando Galeano, "the Wolfman"... 185 00:27:48,335 --> 00:27:49,962 Is that Gacha? 186 00:27:50,879 --> 00:27:53,423 I've never seen him with other traffickers. 187 00:27:55,634 --> 00:28:00,096 And last but not least... Gustavo and Pablo. 188 00:28:01,932 --> 00:28:04,018 Get pictures of that fucker. 189 00:28:08,730 --> 00:28:12,776 They were all under one roof and Peña got us there to document it all. 190 00:28:18,490 --> 00:28:21,076 What we didn't know was that we were witnessing the formation 191 00:28:21,159 --> 00:28:23,244 of the famed Medellín cartel. 192 00:28:24,245 --> 00:28:27,123 Pablo took advantage of the kidnapping of Marta Ochoa 193 00:28:27,207 --> 00:28:30,585 to bring all the narcos together for the very first time. 194 00:28:32,170 --> 00:28:34,715 And then he proclaimed himself their leader. 195 00:29:40,697 --> 00:29:43,491 We knew the meeting was over when the hookers came to play. 196 00:29:44,743 --> 00:29:46,912 Peña had finally gotten one of his informants 197 00:29:46,995 --> 00:29:48,914 right into the heart of the action. 198 00:30:27,035 --> 00:30:28,829 She should be here by now. 199 00:30:29,788 --> 00:30:31,331 You think she slipped? 200 00:30:31,539 --> 00:30:33,500 Nah, she's no dummy. 201 00:30:37,671 --> 00:30:39,923 Maybe she's getting pretty for you. 202 00:30:40,007 --> 00:30:41,216 Yeah. 203 00:30:54,354 --> 00:30:57,649 Aah... 204 00:30:59,193 --> 00:31:01,153 Helena wanted a US visa so bad, 205 00:31:01,236 --> 00:31:04,072 she was willing to do anything to help our cause. 206 00:31:05,115 --> 00:31:06,992 And that was a problem. 207 00:31:39,774 --> 00:31:42,652 They're telling me the girl left a long time ago. 208 00:31:43,945 --> 00:31:47,115 - She's already dead. - No, they wouldn't kill her at the hotel. 209 00:31:47,199 --> 00:31:48,909 Then they killed her somewhere else. 210 00:31:48,992 --> 00:31:50,785 She knew the risks. 211 00:31:50,869 --> 00:31:52,829 If we're going back, we go back now. 212 00:32:03,590 --> 00:32:05,926 Gonna stick around here and see if she shows up, OK? 213 00:32:06,009 --> 00:32:08,845 - Yeah, and where are you going? - We're gonna go look for her. 214 00:34:04,419 --> 00:34:05,962 Any news on the radio? 215 00:36:00,327 --> 00:36:02,745 Hey, gringo. Carrillo is calling. Come on. 216 00:36:04,289 --> 00:36:06,541 No habla inglés, huh? 217 00:36:07,417 --> 00:36:08,293 ¡Vamos! 218 00:36:16,592 --> 00:36:18,386 Where the fuck's Peña? ¿Dónde está Peña? 219 00:36:36,363 --> 00:36:39,657 - How is she? - Sedated. 220 00:36:41,326 --> 00:36:44,329 - Is she gonna be OK? - Physically, yeah. 221 00:36:44,412 --> 00:36:46,581 Mentally, I haven't got a fucking clue. 222 00:36:47,790 --> 00:36:50,251 - You left me behind on purpose. - Look, man-- 223 00:36:50,335 --> 00:36:52,628 If we're gonna be partners, I don't get left behind. 224 00:36:52,712 --> 00:36:56,299 I didn't come all the way down here, Peña, to sit on the fucking sidelines. 225 00:36:59,719 --> 00:37:05,141 Whatever's going on here... I'm in all the way. 226 00:37:05,225 --> 00:37:06,851 Is that understood? 227 00:37:11,939 --> 00:37:13,191 Understood. 228 00:37:17,445 --> 00:37:19,239 I hope you know what that means. 229 00:37:27,872 --> 00:37:31,000 Pablo's message to the kidnappers was simple. 230 00:37:31,084 --> 00:37:36,047 He was going to kill them, one by one, until he got Marta Ochoa back. 231 00:37:36,130 --> 00:37:40,051 Ivan "the Terrible" thought he could hide in the jungle and wait it out. 232 00:37:40,134 --> 00:37:43,137 Sooner or later, he figured the narcos would cave in. 233 00:37:43,971 --> 00:37:45,681 Big mistake. 234 00:37:45,765 --> 00:37:48,142 M-19 didn't stand a chance. 235 00:38:16,588 --> 00:38:20,467 Needless to say, Marta Ochoa was released unharmed. 236 00:38:28,600 --> 00:38:30,393 And the killing didn't stop. 237 00:38:31,311 --> 00:38:34,897 Pablo had tasted blood, and he liked it. 238 00:40:18,834 --> 00:40:22,296 Sending the photos of the hanging M-19 to the newspapers 239 00:40:22,380 --> 00:40:25,132 gave Pablo an image of invincibility. 240 00:40:25,883 --> 00:40:28,428 If he could do this to the feared communists, 241 00:40:28,511 --> 00:40:30,137 he could do it to anyone. 242 00:40:31,598 --> 00:40:34,308 Ivan "the Terrible" was quick to realize... 243 00:40:34,392 --> 00:40:36,477 there was only one thing he could do. 244 00:42:56,659 --> 00:42:58,994 Welcome to the Medellín cartel. 245 00:43:15,803 --> 00:43:19,891 The narcos had their army, but me and Peña had ours, too. 246 00:43:20,099 --> 00:43:22,685 Many Colombians like Major Horacio Carrillo 247 00:43:22,769 --> 00:43:25,772 were so invested in the future of their country 248 00:43:25,855 --> 00:43:28,858 that they were ready to do whatever it took to fix it. 249 00:43:31,068 --> 00:43:35,740 This was a war that would shake an entire country to its foundations. 250 00:43:35,823 --> 00:43:39,535 And in the carnage... mine would be shaken as well. 251 00:43:42,079 --> 00:43:43,957 Even my wife, Connie, wanted to help. 252 00:43:44,164 --> 00:43:47,460 She got a job as a nurse in a local comuna. 253 00:43:47,543 --> 00:43:50,212 She wanted to make a difference. 254 00:43:50,296 --> 00:43:52,924 I guess she forgot we were in Colombia. 255 00:43:53,007 --> 00:43:56,176 Look, our escolta will drive me there and back every day. 256 00:43:56,260 --> 00:43:58,763 - Yeah. - He'll wait outside all day. 257 00:43:58,846 --> 00:44:01,975 You know the last time you were in church is when we got married. 258 00:44:02,057 --> 00:44:04,226 Well, I'm letting the Lord back into my life. 259 00:44:04,310 --> 00:44:05,394 Hey, stop right here. 260 00:44:14,361 --> 00:44:16,071 Praise God. 261 00:44:25,247 --> 00:44:26,624 Perdón. 262 00:44:29,961 --> 00:44:33,464 I want that escolta watching every inch of you at that comuna now. 263 00:44:35,090 --> 00:44:36,884 Hey, did we leave the door open? 264 00:44:39,470 --> 00:44:41,555 Oh, my God, Steve! 265 00:44:41,639 --> 00:44:43,641 Get back. 266 00:44:53,651 --> 00:44:55,319 You stay right there and don't move.