Jungle Manhunt: Tracking the Cocaine Kingpin (Full Episode) | Drug Lords: The Takedown

foreign [Music] the crazy one was one of the fiercest and most feared Narco traffickers in the world he had been engaged in massive amounts of violence when a local Barrera was being transported to face Justice he felt a need to warn his Colombian compatriots I was telling them listen if you think I'm bad there's another guy out there from the north that guy is really dangerous he's an absolute animal a local boy is referring to daido Antonio usuga David otherwise known by his Alias is otoniel [Music] foreign [Music] Brothers didio Antonio now known as otoniel and Juan De Jesus known as Giovanni come from the incredibly impoverished region of uraba a very remote part of antiochia near the Panama border they were born into a household that lacked basic resources [Music] it was very difficult to get three Square meals on the table they did not have any educational or employment opportunities whatsoever it's a place that's very isolated in the mountains where cocaine is produced notoriously violent has long had the presence of insurgent groups paramilitary death squad and Drug traffickers you essentially grow up thinking that you're going to be born poor and you're going to die poor but you know what when those insurgents come through town and they're carrying an AK-47 old men and women tip their hat they've got respect you pick up a gun you can be somebody this is the world that otoniel grows up in [Music] stand the amount of violence that was going on in Colombia starting at about the early 1960s you had the revolutionarios the left-wing farc they were fighting the state the government and then on the right you had the far-right paramilitaries they were fighting the revolutionarios on behalf of landowners and land Barons then you get to the 80s and there's the injection of cocaine into this [Music] and that is like an injection of steroids into the Colombian Civil War while ostensibly the AUC is a pro-government anti-gorrilla grew the castanos their Founders were members of the Medellin cartel as the AUC expanded it turned into a VIP Club a Colombian drug traffickers and much of the fight with the farm is over drug trafficking real estate the farc and AUC became the largest pure Narco trafficking organizations in Colombia they were fighting for territory they were fighting for ownership of the drug trade and it was Carnage as members of the AUC ibani learn not only the tricks of the war trade they learned the skills necessary to trade in cocaine we go toe-to-toe with the far they would also go after any communities that they thought were supporting the park they saw them as aiding and abetting the enemy okay in 1997 heavily armed troops with the AUC including the usuga brothers flew into the small airport of San Jose De guaviare and they entered the town of mapierepan Giovanni were amongst the leadership they were trying to establish themselves as fearless and cruel and individuals to be reckoned with and they tragically did not fail Julio is [Music] as soon as the sun went down the AUC members shut the power off Antonio and Giovanni along with their co-combatants went house to house looking for communist sympathizers supporters of the farc and would remove one or two members from each house and take them to the town slaughterhouse [Music] nowhere on titos Sierra [Music] squirt this oven is [Music] [Music] the reports I've seen talk about 30 to 40 villagers murdered my intelligence sources told me that it is a number far larger than that Antonio and Giovanni led the AUC troops in five days and five nights of Relentless vicious nauseating raping and killing those five days remain firmly planted in the Colombian Collective psyche as one of the darkest periods in their history together [Music] and Giovanni created a horrific Mystique about themselves they were willing to engage in horrific violence in order to obtain their goals they very much proved their mental to the upper echelons the highest ranks of the AUC leadership [Music] [Applause] giovanniello I just patted on the back given a one-off payment and said go home and good luck but these men knew nothing except how to kill and traffic cocaine what were they supposed to do go home and become mechanics foreign [Music] the demobilization of the AUC is a watershed in the cocaine history of Colombia we begin to see a breakup of the drug trafficking world as various people begin to carve up the cocaine pie that the paramilitaries had controlled we see the birth of 30 bakrim pandas criminales criminal groups I had oversight of all DEA counter-narcotics operations working hand in hand with the government of Colombia the criminal bans were essentially the individuals from the former AUC including Giovanni and otnl that opted not to demobilize I have limited resources and I have all of these sparkling targets out there right it's hard to discern and decide what's my priority Target so we were split it's a free fall Giovanni suddenly see the criminal field clear and they Sprint across it they join this new outfit known as the golf Clan they Embrace this opportunity the golf Clan controlled the Northwestern region of Colombia and it was a significant route for drug trafficking for drug production Giovanni and otoniel had the criminal experience and the reputation for brutality that nobody else could really compete with so before long the usuga brothers are in charge Giovanni and otinel take over the organization and looking back on the Intel Giovanni was the leader by that time he was definitely on our radar he was one of the more elusive characters that we had to chase down Giovanni was the brains of the operation otoniel represented the muscle the brawn what was different and revolutionary about the bankrim led by Giovanni was that it was more of a horizontal organization and operated with franchises this franchise model made the organization more Nimble and quick so different franchises might get shut down but then they'd open another franchise under another leader Giovanni overseas the extraordinarily rapid expansion of the golf plan to create a network that stretches through Colombia and abroad [Music] Clair de golf emerged as the only criminal band that had National reach they were sending enormous amounts of cocaine to the United States and we wanted to make sure it was a clan day golf could not project a national presence any longer foreign I worked in the British Counter Narcotics Team based in Bogota Colombia and in glove with the Colombian law enforcement agencies the DEA and particularly Jay Bergman featuring kingpins is difficult wherever you are in the world but Columbia is almost five times the size of the UK 50 covered in trees so it's hard were extremely difficult to track down operating under the radar they would never spend the same night in the same place ever so phenomenally difficult to find what the UK brought to the table was some trade craft technique intelligence gathering capability that the Americans may not have had [Music] we identified their location through a human intelligence sources and tracking devices that allowed us to pinpoint where they would be on New Year's Eve we were launching an operation by New Year's Day of 2012. David being May was you may be a drug trafficker you may have unlimited resources but you don't have the opportunity to enjoy yourself during the holidays it's going to be the ultimate party crash we became a very good catering service we were there to make sure that the traffickers had the party they so richly deserved this New Year's Day operation against giovanio he had to be completely Surgical [Music] we knew exactly where he was it was a snatch and grab operation they were heading for a farmhouse in a village called akandi which is in the north west of Columbia by the shore of the Gulf of urawa [Music] Jay and I were coordinating the capture operation with my Columbia national college police colleagues from Bogota the operation was conducted by The Specialist jungle Commandos we sent the guys in Blackhawk helicopters the operation was shrouded in secrecy neither they nor indeed the pilot until he was in the air knew where they were going bravery is second to none because they know that they are going up against heavily armed organized Fighters and they almost know for sure they're going to take losses thank you [Music] Blackhawks flew out at night under goggles December 31st feet wet over the water it comes swooping in at first light on New Year's Day the idea was that they would fast rope out of a helicopter suddenly they were met with a hail of gunfire automatic gunfire from the ground as they started to descend one of the troops was shot and killed there was a Chase of one of the targets turned out to be Elias Giovanni he was heading for a boat by the water there was a fire fight that lasted about 20 minutes foreign body was found behind a tree a hundred yards away from the shoreline so although the operation was considered to be a successful one it was very much overshadowed by the death of one of our most promising cops his widow gave me this which I haven't taken off since which was what he was wearing at the time he was killed Giovanni was killed in action his uh his brother otinel got away there are disputes where the OTL was actually even there that night needless to say OTL was not captured we were all sort of lured into a false sense of security with the death of Giovanni we didn't really worry about Tony L his younger somewhat slower offish brother we thought that when Giovanni was taken down that the gulf Clan would collapse on itself the exact opposite happened otoniel reacts with Fury and rage they lashed out at Colombian law enforcement shutting down all Commerce or activity all transportation and regions throughout Colombia sending his troops out to the streets with kalashnikovs this was otoniel sending a message to the authorities you took out my brother now I'm going to humiliate you and this is the beginning of our war s I've been in one of these armed strikes and it's a surreal thing to look out of the window and you don't see anything on the street not one person and anyone who does venture out is shot is murdered [Music] and that's a way of them demonstrating to the central government you don't run this place we run this region Tony L also initiated the so-called plan pistola where he put a bounty of 1 000 US Dollars on the head of every Colombian police officer he made everyone aware that the golf Clan would pay for each Colombian police officer killed the police just seemed in a State of Shock man this just like the time of Pablo Escobar dozens of policemen die at the hands of otonia the armed strikes called by otoniel established him as a force to be reckoned with he was much more Innovative much smarter than we thought Tony L stepped up made quick decisions and he was able to take the golf Clan to new heights that none of us frankly if we're going to be honest with one another saw thank you foreign we had plenty of other balls that we were juggling we were refocused on all of the other key bot greens that were the rivals to the gulf Clan the combas restrojos the officina the machos and local Barrera and in quick succession after 2012 we took all of those organizations down unintentionally we opened up the playing field to the clan they golf because that was room for them to expand with the arrest of Loco Barrera otoniel is one of the Last Man Standing he looks to establish a hegemony over Colombia's cocaine trade and he's perfectly equipped to execute it the golf Clan becomes the principal drug trafficking organization in Colombia I knew who's my number one target at that point Antonio is now Enemy Number One when they were put on the top 10 list most kingpins basically got the heck out of Dodge right okinl is entrenched in the Northwestern region of Colombia he's not leaving there he's a mountain man right I'm not moving from this area right come and get me to hammer and take down off oniel was baptized Agamemnon operation Agamemnon was established by the government of Colombia to near the search block it had established to pursue Pablo Escobar highly skilled Colombian military and police forces working very closely with us and British law enforcement agencies and it's headquarters was in the municipality of nekokly which was the definition of the paramilitary stronghold this was otoniel's Undisputed Heartland we threw everything we could at capturing otnl I mean they set up an entire photo operating baseball think of Apocalypse Now coming over the horizon book every technique every capability was thrust at this problem set name otino [Music] Tony L is hiding in the mountains and jungles riding on the back of donkeys avoiding satellite detection and staying off the phone lines and he was extraordinarily disciplined in that way he went completely off the grid [Music] he was moving from a safe house to safe house every night out of these rings of security five or six rings of man in the jungle just making sure no one can get through the rings of security served as tripwires to warn them that danger was on the way and that enabled otoniel to stay on the move and avoid detection we were so close so often the proverbial hot coffee on the kitchen table food on the stove that that's still warm and we just missed it [Music] it's very difficult to run a multi-billion dollar multinational Narco trafficking Corporation from Jungle hideouts but that is exactly what otoniel did he's able to leverage his franchise model in a way that enables him to continue to grow the golf Clan by Outsourcing he didn't have to have day-to-day control so he could pass messages by snailmen all of his communication was Word of Mouth and he never slept in the same bed twice [Music] we had knocked him back to the age of the Flintstones and he was still bringing in incredible just incredible amounts of money to run his organization [Music] otoniel was an extraordinarily elusive prey and the Colombian police very smartly decided to squeeze everyone around him can't track the individual down and you go after the senior members of his organization right [Music] Marshall s is [Music] they go on a series of operations throughout Colombia and made over 150 arrests in order to really put the pressure put the screws to Antonio is success was obvious and immediate they began taking out senior leaders interdicting drugs Port structure has been taken out piece by piece yes as the senior structure was hammered Antonio had to turn to people he could trust to fill these positions and he had to rely increasingly on his family and he put them in the firing line [Music] this is America foreign we got the word out that we would dismiss the charges on his wife if he came in and surrendered [Music] in surrender [Music] you get on a Kingpin list through most of my tenure you had six to 18 months of shelf life and you were either in handcuffs or you were being buried who's the outlier he was the exception to the rule it was inconceivable to me that we wouldn't eventually capture it just was inconceivable I would have meetings with the minister of defense and said don't worry about we're gonna get this guy it's the only promise I think I broke during my tenure in Colombia the last thing I did in Colombia was a condolence letter um the horrific loss of 17 police officers when a Blackhawk crashed in August of 2015 going after OTL [Music] I felt for my Columbian colleagues that were really sacrificing so much how much they were giving thank you [Music] the Colombian government announces operation Agamemnon II in which it will use all of the security forces be it the Air Force the Coast Guard the Navy the army police the plan to tape down otoniel now involved a search block 10 times the size of the search block that hunted for Pablo Escobar otoniel had been on the run for years in the mountains of Columbia he's got health problems with diabetes he has a bad back cocaine has a sense of humor but this could be one of the richest drug lords on the planet but he's living the life of most miserable peasant on the back of a donkey he started to seek the assistance of black magic a voodoo that seems becoming almost psychotic in his fear of being captured the government kept promising that otoniel's capture was imminent and it just never actually happened started to wonder does he truly exist or is this a figment of law enforcement imagination then suddenly out of nowhere there is autoniel Colombiano speaks directly to the Colombian people where he offers himself up foreign the conditions are right these are criminals right you do not negotiate Your Surrender with the presidency because that gives you political legitimacy and that was a key reason Colombian said we got to up our game we finally got to take otnl off foreign Vargas takes over as the chief of police general Vargas has given a pretty clear Mission you've been promising us the head of Orton yell for years and it hasn't been delivered get the job done they follow an intelligence-led strategy instead of just simply saturating areas with troops they began to design intelligence-led operations operations noches [Music] they decided to push him out of these mountains because access even with helicopters is so difficult they push him into the lowlands towards the frontier with Panama still densely jungled but it's much more accessible than the high parts of the Andes these Security Forces aren't terribly close suddenly these photos emerge of otoniel shared by the police showing the Colombian public how close they are to catching him they want him to know that they are on his heel then they got some signals intelligence some say it was from British intelligence some say it was from The Americans was not on yet using the phones it was somebody close to him that they had managed to pinpoint they managed to find the needle in the jungle Haystack foreign [Music] [Music] the final push starts Friday 5 A.M foreign but the stars were aligned they had X number of locations and they were going to do a simultaneous op and say he's in one of these spots the troops came in 20 helicopters filled with specially trained Colombian law enforcement Colombian Navy and Coast Guard boats [Music] they completely surrounded the area and they pounced they were able to do a lightning fast helicopter insert up and hit a particular house at a particular location as a helicopter just came in he told his Security Forces drop your arms and walk away [Music] and the radio call came in we got him accommodation and that ended the horrific rain of one of the worst most vicious psychotic Narco traffickers in the world I reached out to minister of defense at the time I said I've been Vindicated my word has been restored foreign [Music] ER Los Angeles organization is a massive moment [Music] otoniel was a drug trafficker an extremely violent gorilla governing from the ground ruling through fear violence was part of his identity that kind of criminal pedigree doesn't exist anymore we may never see his life again [Music] [Music] thank you

Channel: National Geographic

Views: 142,714

Keywords: national geographic, nat geo, natgeo, animals, wildlife, science, explore, discover, survival, nature, culture, documentary, perpetual planet nat geo, photography, full episode, Jungle Manhunt, Tracking the Cocaine Kingpin, Drug Lords: The Takedown, Colombian Otoniel, Drug Lords, Cocaine Kingpin Otoniel, Colombian History, Take him Down, Cocaine, Manhunt, Tracking, Kingpins, Jungles, Otoniel, Cocaine Kingpin, Drugs Smuggling, The Takedown

Id: umISiKYT0l8

Length: 44min 17sec (2657 seconds)

Published: Sun Aug 06 2023