Who Killed Pablo Escobar? Truth Told by DEA Agents

you're looking at the biggest narco-trafficker in the world [Music] he didn't do what he asked you to do you jerk Pablo's plan was to weaken Colombia did you want him alive where you wanted him dead I wanted to be happy to everywhere was a revenge of course it was for millions of you who have watched narcos I'm talking the story of a criminal the most powerful criminal of all time the biggest drug dealer if you want to call of all time Pablo Escobar and this serious became a phenomenon because of these two gentlemen here sitting next to me that we're gonna get into here in a minute steve murphey and have your penny I want to give you some stats if you do not know who Pablo Escobar was and what he did here's some stats this is in the 80s and the 90s in the 80s and the 90s Pablo Escobar was responsible for 80% of the cocaine traffic world wide according to Forbes magazine that they came out in the early 90s they said his net worth was somewhere around thirty billion dollars well when when they announced his net worth was thirty billion dollars his son contacted Forbes and laughed and said you're out of your mind it was much more than that at that time it was a seventh richest man in the world the man sold so much cocaine and had so much cash that he spent twenty five hundred dollars a month buying rubber bands just to hold up the cash there is still billions of dollars of cash still till today still till today stashed all over Colombia rats ate a half a billion dollars of his fortune every year he once burned two million dollars to keep his daughter warm he was offered to pay off the national debt of Colombia of ten billion dollars again I Pablo Escobar I'm offering the government to pay off your national debt of ten billion dollars and they obviously declined when Pablo dated his wife he was 24 years old first time and his daughter his wife was 13 years old in total he owned roughly eight hundred homes and villas 15 tons of cocaine was sold a day that's 30,000 pounds per day in his house he built 20 lakes according to 60 minutes he was making 420 million dollars a week and there was eventually a ten million dollar hit on Pablo Escobar and having said that this character we just talked about Pablo Escobar these gentlemen were responsible for leading the DEA team to finally take him down Pablo Escobar on December 2nd 1993 gentlemen thank you so much for joining us thank you appreciate it appreciate it being here so when they told you guys this is your project you're gonna be going your responsibilities to go catch this crazy here and you got to take him down what was your initial reaction when you were told Pablo's your project well my initial reaction was how do we attack this how do we go after him I mean you're looking at the biggest narco-trafficker in the world and you know what we tell people we never realized we knew he was a drug trafficker but we never realized that violence that he had behind him puts made it very difficult the sicarios the assassin scene you know you had I had never even heard of water Sicario was and then all of a sudden here's Pablo Escobar who has hundreds we calculate five 600 see Carlos working for him in the violence he did not care his message was killed anybody who gets in my way and if they don't comply with me like I said you know wipe them out wasn't really that brutal the brutality the barbaric side of him is something that I can I will never understand my main question is why innocent people why kill all this innocent people if you look at the Avianca commercial airline it was all innocent people on that plane if you look at the famous das building which was like the local FBI office in in Bogota you know a lot of innocent people and he was just trying to kill one person he's the bounty some police officers so it's something that I could never comprehend and then the famous car bombs you know and that's why we call Paulo squirrel the inventor of narco-terrorism he's the inventor of narco-terrorism you say the inventor he's the one who created that concept and we had never seen we had seen all right turf wars hey go kill this people but you know like I said it was just why all the innocent people that he went after in just people that were at the wrong place at the wrong time that he was killing so let me ask you when you took the job when you said okay are you directed to take it with no options or do you have a choice to say yea or nay when you're taking this respond because that's somebody in the military they tell you what to do you have to take the orders you can really do you have a choice to say no to it or it was a challenge for us of course we're not gonna say no I never realized the magnitude what I love the empire that public war controlled I don't think he's in one of us no a DEA agent they would have ever said no to a challenge and I read about you saying that I read about you saying the fact that the level of a commitment that DEA agents have to each other and how it went from where it was that at that time and today the numbers and ninety offices in 71 different countries DEA which is much bigger than FBI so just kind of shows the level of development that the leaders that develop in the leaders within the departments go back to when did Pablo become Pablo I mean you have to study this character so Pablo was Pablo way before we found out about Pablo because apparently became a millionaire at 23 years old or some number like that so as you're doing your investigation into this guy what are some things you're finding out about this guy that's making you want to take him down that I got there in 1988 to me it was the drug distribution network that he had all of a sudden we're seeing I remember people who tell knows there'd be about five six airplanes on a clandestine runway in the jungles you know five to six airplanes a daily basis they would say about 500 kilos of cocaine and you would have airplanes going into Mexico Central America then the Caribbean islands you know their goal was to try to get it into the South Florida area so the the level of distribution the people working for him the guys who owned the planes one of the main hours remember is they loved their planes they wanted to buy as many airplanes as possible so you had black market dealers in the Florida area buying airplanes to send back that was a hot hot commodity but then also your cocaine labs 10 to 15 in the jungles and this labs are making a thousand kilos of cocaine on a daily basis so the the the labs working you they press the kilos I remember in steel boxes the labyrinth or Easwar just enormous you know about a hundred people used to work for her to her laboratory they had rules and one thing I always tell people I'll never forget he had science in his laboratory said we catch you using the product we will kill you so he didn't want his workers to using the product right but then it was like I said the coordinates it would send coordinates to Mexico the famous general Noriega in Panama the Caribbean islands it was just something how do you get that organized and we we always say Pablo was the CEO he was not the one working the distribution it was his first cousin Mustafa Gaviria Rivero and they grew up together they grew up poor but they were they were they were like brothers they loved each other but most I will develop that knack for the distribution network sending it all over the world so who was the businessman was it Gustavo or was it Pablo Gustavo was the businessman Pablo was the CEO Gustavo I'm sorry Gustavo was the hands-on director chief operating officer and as you know look that's a great operation so he ran operations yea he ran the operations because we used to intercept the phone calls got in there was he would the directions he was the guy who was getting his hands dirty Pablo was not Pablo wasn't top Pablo was the one who was given orders what made people want to follow Pablo because when you study this Pablo character you mean people who tell they're not not the way was in Arcis you will see that they say Pablo wasn't the best speaker he wanted to be a speaker like some of these other politicians but he wasn't so what made Pablo such a great persuader where other people wanted to follow this guy and take orders from him there's there's a couple things and honestly we hesitate to give him credit for anything but he did have somewhat of a charismatic personality you know he was able to persuade people but now you look at his business model and this is the other thing if you didn't do what he asked you to do he killed you so you know that reputation gets out there and so if he comes to you face to face and ask you to do something chances are you're probably going to do it because you fear for your life right you know I mean we were talk a little bit earlier just even in the insurance business how how much quicker could you have risen to the top if you had killed your competitors and I'm I was we're saying that tongue-in-cheek it's ridiculous to say something like that but that was his business model he introduced a level of drug trafficking to the United States and eventually to the entire world that we had never seen before and it was you know if he wants to show narcos that the end of that first trailer of season 1 Boyd Holbrook who plays me in the show makes a statement we didn't know what we were in for that's absolutely true the United States was not prepared for what Pablo entered the serious country you had you had no idea what you were going up against at one point that you realize this guy's gonna go cross the line no matter what it is like if we think about going here he's gonna go here so if you're gonna match this guy you kind of got to go here to face him at what point did you realize how powerful this guy is one thing I think originally by the time we were involved in it we all knew who probably was because I'm you got to Colombia 1988 I got there in 1991 the cases that I'd been working on in Miami I think all were eventually tied into the Medellin Cartel and Pablo so we were already familiar when we got down there but the fact that you know when you get there we I didn't know I was going to be working against Pablo Escobar in the midian cartel you know I was hyper had a partner in Gary Gary Sheridan at the time that you guys have been working it for three years well Gary and I had some mutual friends and got to be friends and that's how I got to be friends with Javier and then Gary gets promoted transferred and it just made you know sense that that hybrid I would partner up full-time partners it's been like that since 1991 POW will remember his forte was South Florida Miami especially he had a lot of people working for him and in the South Florida area that was his home base he concentrated you know I remember they called it I used to quote name it Las Palmas palm trees everybody was Miami he doesn't remember we're sending 100 head of white cattle to Las Palmas you know 100 keys of cold koi yeah it was just it was that simple you learn the language eventually you yeah yeah I mean everything had a code name they tried to hide it but New York was less daughters the towers you know Mexico was slow song there darkness big hats like I will go to Oh somebody rollers everybody to you so it but I like you said his for TEI was always Miami that's where he had a lot of people working for him the distributors the guy who were receiving the loads you know but like you said they had their contacts in Mexico also I mean they would send out coordinates where the airplanes were led in Mexico it was just you know unbelievable but the amount of coke that was coming out so I noticed you guys give a lot of credit to Kiki right you kept giving credit to Kiki what was this last time I Miranda come out or not yeah and he was on the cover of what was a time magazine that it was on the cover of Time and he worked with the Guadalajara cartel that he was working on why why was Kiki such a big almost like a face a hero to you guys in your world what did he paved the way for you what was the story behind him this was before we came on the job so we're talking the early 1980s Makiki was trying to do basically what we eventually were trying to do in Colombia and that's go up against these violent cartels Kiki paid the ultimate price you know he was kidnapped by the police he was tortured repeatedly the reports that we heard were there was that he was killed several times and they had a doctor that would inject adrenaline into his heart to bring him back to life so they could continue his torturing we all know eventually he was murdered and so then we saw the reaction the United States government about Kiki's death and at that time our administrator was able to go to Capitol Hill and it put the pressure at the White House so that for a very short period of time the border between the United States and Mexico was closed because the Mexican authorities didn't want to cooperate with the United States investigation unless I think it was less than an hour you know they got a call from the Mexican government saying okay okay we're back in the investigation we'll continue our investigation now when we're involved with narcos and the making of narcos and working with Eric Newman and the writers one of the things that Harvey and I requested is they put a reference in there at Kiki Camarena because he's a true American Hero you know the whole Red Ribbon Campaign in the United States is an honor of Kiki Camarena so in our book he's a true hero Wow right enlighten Lexi fed Kiki Camarena is it's an idol we've always idolized him look up to him I was a brand new agent and I was involved in that search so I will always remember I got a call from our boss Joe toxis over here you know I spoke Spanish I was in Austin and I was involved for a couple of months in the search of Cameron and like Steve said they they tortured the poor guy they let him die in peace they did not they tortured him and then one of the things that da did was we never gave up on finding the people and I think we found pretty much everybody who was involved here's my question for you when you go up against a guy like Pablo okay and like I was saying earlier if this is the threshold he's willing to go here right and you as a DDA you're confined into certain things that you have to follow like you can't go past certain things they tell you now at least this is what we see as a citizen from the outside I'm not on the insect because you're both negative and positive there's stuff that says don't even trust a government official you know about FBI CIA DEA you hear all this stuff right if you're going up against a guy that's gonna cross the line he's gonna cheat no matter what how do you beat a guy like that that's willing to cheat that you're confining some of the rules that you have to follow that's a really good question and not to get on our soap boxes here but in our lives there are a few things that we actually control you have three children three small children right you make your plans but then your child comes home and says dad I've got a project due in the morning your whole evenings plans just changed so there's a lot of things in our lives that we really don't control we think we do but we don't because there's a lot of outside interferences but there's absolutely one thing in every one of our lives that we control individually and that is our integrity now we'll tell you right up front we broke rules policies and procedures on a regular basis in Columbia we have never never never broken the law we never stepped across that line how do you control that because let me explain to what I see from my standpoint right you crossed the line with me on my family side I'm sorry you know it's just you know this is this is blood right this guy's willing to go at all cost how do you go up against that to match it you know it's very tough to match it like I remember one time what did Reagan say Reagan said I don't negotiate with terrorists remember I had that line I don't negotiate with terrorists of course you're not gonna negotiate with terrorists cuz like are you either do this I'm gonna kill he's gonna kill you no matter what so this is not a regular guy you're facing how does how does an organization like you match up against and I'm not talking integrity wise because you know how in the end in the series it shows a kernel carry Uriah it's not a real character it's really Hugo Martinez in the series it shows the fact that there was one guy he was afraid of and he was intimidated up because he could match his terror at that level and a guy like that is always afraid of somebody that's willing to match that how do you put the fear in a guy like him was the strategy to go after the cousin to see oh oh Gustavo so it kind of cripples him that that's the part I really want to know because what you guys thought oh yeah one of the best things that ever happened is that Steve and I lived at the search bloc base the school was called the Carlos Holguin school and it was in the middle of a neighborhood so we slept there we ate with our and we had a specialized group of cops working with him like he's Steve said we wouldn't had our operations pretty much every day so we knew what was going on we were trusted by our group they trusted us and this is a Colombian the Colombia yeah it's called the the Dene group of the Colombian national police the Dene di9 and their DEA or is that there is no it's their specialized unit sort of investigative plainclothes unit they're not caught in it and we knew this guy's working with them in Bogota so they knew us so um different projects from different projects different projects so one Kabul Escobar you know they hand-picked this guys because they had pick some guys from Medellin but you know probably would get to their families you know they started they were corrupt so they would tell Pablo you know when they were coming for him so this guys were all came from different areas it was very interesting at the beginning there was a lot of phone calls being made we created Colonel Martinez came in and pretty much did not tell anybody you know where the operations were just kept it at a select for you know phone calls from anywhere load up at night we're going here you know so we would have the con royal trucks we hadn't seen the base was made up of uniformed police officers also hand-picked in the investigative unit so it was great because the investigative unit would come back boss we think we got probably located all right uniformed officers mount up and they were from a group called I would love which was their specialized it was jungle operation type dice the concept which is what I think da did right was a more of a world type concept where they said Columbia you go after Pablo Escobar in Colombia a United States DEA we're gonna go after Pablo Escobar wherever he's at all over the world Europe Miami New York yeah the ei so our offices which was a brand new concept were instructed you go after anybody that's associated with Pablo Escobar which was great so we were attacking him in the United States and the Colombians were attacking him in Colombia so this is the first time that we see a structure of an organization that you're gonna attack it it at both at both sites I guess my question is the following question when you take down a guy like that that has to leave a certain playbook for the next person that possibly decides to be like that here's the process we first do this then we do this then we do this there's a system behind it right like right now we have El Chapo you're dealing with Joaquin el chapo I think it's Guzman is like this one so when you're going through someone does that leave a playbook and if it is what is step number one two three do you have a protocol for it I'm just thinking from the outside of myself if I'm an innocent if I'm a guy that I wasn't out in your world step number one study everybody that he's close to him step number two who's his number one customer step number three who's his number one ally step number four is that the approaches that that orthotic or not really either what you hit it right on the head you go after you just don't go after all right I'm gonna go after public what you target the money launderers you target the guys who are buying the airplanes you target the guys for work in the labs in the United States there's distribution heads all over the place that receive it so it's a joint effort you just don't say I'm going after chop on going after Pablo Escobar you got to go after everybody that's involved in the organization for it to finally work and I think the great was at the end of the betting cartel pretty much everybody was taken off everybody was killed there's some hundreds thousands of people that went to jail that were working for Pablo Escobar so it was a different concept you know one of the things to just to clarify a point but also to give credit where credit's due I mean I get all the credit for Pablo Escobar it wasn't just us I mean when DEA just didn't take two guys and say that's your case go work on it we had agents analysts support personnel all around the world and that's one of the beauties of DEA having this huge footprint around the world how big was it at that time Steve how big was a d8 I'm agent wise there was only thirty five hundred agents where's it right now comparable it's supposed to be a five thousand I think they're they're got classes ongoing now trying to get to the level back up and admit five thousands but I've heard though and you know what we we we had the best analysts in in the world I mean I remember they used to give us packages hey here's this guy here are the associates the analysts from the states yes coming to state your target package yeah yeah yeah to you at that like how are they communicating that to you was it we had people assigned in Bogota and then from headquarters they would send it over you know I mean obviously electronically secure methods so so here's a question so was there ever a time where Pablo's military was stronger than Colombia's military like was there every time where because that's the scary part if somebody if a citizens military stronger than yours what they you desperately need some help right did it ever get to that point well at that first manhunt you saw what happened he negotiated a surrender to a self built prison basically he'd beat the government at that point so he was as strong if not stronger than the government at that point and when that happened you were pretty disappointed one yeah right and that was there an awful limit there's a lot of killings going on during the for the first time because of the sicarios or a lot of like said though the bombs the killings in basically Pablo's planned was to weaken Colombia by weakening I'm talking about I'm gonna kill as many people as I can that way I will negotiate that's what he all he wanted to negotiate his surrender and one thing a lot of people miss or does not get brought up in our I mean I'm just not sure why but it's extradition the art you know that his number one fight on Columbia his number one fight for the in the start of terrorism was he did not want to get extradited to the United States that was he knew would be over at that time that's when he offered the ten billion dollars to the government say we'll pay off your debt just don't extradite me right leave me around right yeah and he wanted to be I mean you know he wanted to be pressed I don't know Columbia he wanted to pay off their debt and we've always said you know if Pablo Escobar was a good person he would have been a great president so I want to finish up this start here so we can transition into the next part go back to being in high school okay you're in high school it helps you to have a cousin that's everybody's afraid of it helps you to have a cousin or a friend or an older brother or somebody that you just listen you mess with javi you know Joey's coming did you guys have also somebody where you're like okay listen we broke some rules all the time we didn't we've always had our integrity but we broke the rules but there was somebody that he was very scared of where this guy could cross the line in the movie is Colonel you know career but in real life was there somebody that he was afraid of that could match his madness I think he's scared of Colonel Martinez and I agree Colonel Marti was so Martinez is really some of the stories of Martinez Ascari oh we're not saying Colonel Martinez by any means would have broken the law like Pablo he was just incorruptible and Pablo knew that I mean there was one instance that Colonel Martinez's apartment building that all the other residents in that apartment building signed a letter asking Colonel Martinez and his family to move out because they thought they were afraid Pablo was gonna blow up the building and they would be killed simply because Carl Martinez lived there so the man was incorruptible and he didn't move out he stayed no yeah he said and I saw him once break down I saw him were at her meeting and emotion like Oh more emotionally when he he he wanted out I mean he wanted out because Pablo was threatening his family and basically said hey this is getting just way out of hand it's too personal my family and at a weak moment he wanted out at a weak moment he thought about it it was brought him back came back and did not give up I've always admired that about him I mean here's Pablo Escobar trying to kill your family and you know imagine being Pablo Escobar's worst enemy which was Colonel Martinez so how do we didn't do anything to him he know there's a lot of protection Colonel Martinez obviously you know he hit his family but I think it's strengthened he moved out and he hit him he hit him I'm obviously know because Pablo was trying to kill him there's a letter where he threatens Martinez you know what I think it just read strengthened Martinez resolved to be shot I bet yeah the strategy from the police and it was I think it's what really won the war against public bar was used to tell us that we're not here to seize money we're not here to see stoke we're here to get Pablo Escobar so it was a different resolve it was it was personal impersonal because of all the police officers that Pablo killed I mean if you look at the numbers of police officers that he killed when he started bounties we went to a funeral where the church who were they eight coffins of police officers and in every day the the car bombs you know the hiring people the bounties on police officers a search became a war because he got personal he announces that he wants to run for office not announces but you can very much ignore him this is before bang so let me ask you it got personal before he ran and if it got it did not know that person beforehand right personal afterwards it was afterwards he got personal afterwards because of the people that he started killed and he saw the famous justice minister Rodrigo a lot of Bonilla but he killed him after what he said about him right so what's on so I want to know what was the parkus here's fort for longest time he was saying sell flowers I have a flower business right and I'm an entrepreneur you have this an abscess people were kind of leaving him alone right right and this was at the beginning right he used to go to Midian they loved him you know people you should see him it wasn't until I think really the mid eighties that we started finding out that Pablo Suarez responsible did somebody like you know how you study a guy like Hitler maybe you know let's just say guy like hip let me see what is wrong with a person to wake up one day to decide that he wants to go out there and you know get rid of an entire you know a society community now what is wrong with you to do that and then when you read the book of mine called or if you study his stories and all this other stuff you realize there was a time that somebody hurt his ego and it was more it was not necessarily anything extravagant that you would think that somebody did something to his wife family kids someone crossed the line and hit his ego and he says I want to make this a life determination to go after it who hurt his ego publicly because in the movie it's that one scene where you guys are sitting in the back and after kind of doing a little due diligence you guys weren't in there when he got up and he said we've all taken money for him I've taking money from him and I'm telling you right now Pablo Escobar and Pablo sitting there the scene where he's getting the tie from the security guy and then he walks out was that the scene where he said you're gonna play with me and publicly humiliate me watch what I'm gonna do to you was that kind of what happened it's sort of but the like you said the TV series I mean there's some artistic licenses I I think what drove Pablo was first of all he did not want to get extradited to the United States and second he wanted to show Colombia that he was the boss that he was going to negotiate he was going to instruct Colombia on what his terms would be now and if you I'm glad you talked about cuz we studied oh we were used to it the the motivation was that greed I mean because if you you know if you look at the sentence that he got five years in person billion right you're gonna have billions and you're only doing five years but if you look back to what that when Lara Bonilla unveiled that mugshot of Pablo that Barristan he was embarrassing understand Congress that's so that's what it was so that embarrassing what here is that by the way those are the mid-eighties yeah so it's a very iconic the photo you see that photo and you see that smile yeah yeah yeah we always see that smile yeah you and we say yeah he was in jail for five minutes you know five minutes he he gets out do you know you see sometimes you know somebody is making their money and they want power they want fame and then if you if they really go through the tipping point humiliate them publicly now you see a different side of them and sometimes the ego for some people is so big that you cross that line you're gonna get it pretty bad enemy coming after you for a while right you got to be prepared for that right you got you got to be prepared and this is why I think he started with the violence with killing as many people as possible I listened to him on the phone one day and he's talking to his wife I'll never forget that conversation telling her how much he loves her so we're intercepting the phone and he's I love you I miss you this was during the surge in the background you hear a guy yell it's a shriek he covers the phone just cover his mouth in other words they're torturing a guy while he's on the phone with his wife while he's on the phone and telling her how much he loves her and how much he misses her that was like wow I mean how do you change you know your emotions that fast it was two or three seconds I love you baby I miss you and then there's a guy who's yelling they're torturing the guy and he's witnessing it and you know it's just how does that happen there are some studies that say that this guy said he's gonna be a president a long time ago like yet aspirations are wanting so it's not like it happened once he started making money where does this motivation come from for this ambitious guy you study his parents one was a teacher it's not like you know one was a farmer like what you know what is the fire where is that fire coming from did you see some stuff that maybe we don't know about the famous photo and I think - he was shunned by the Colombian government because he was an associate that columns up lentes Richmond and I think it was Galan who's Carlos galán who found out he was a trafficker so he was ousted so I mean he is publicly embarrassed by the Colombian government so you're asking me I'll show you in my opinion that's all it was I'm gonna show you you disgrace me when you go back to Alexander you study that he had a father that kind of was a drunk you know drunkard and he was in Iran and his mother would feed a lot of stuff into his mind one day you're gonna be this one day you're gonna conquer the world one day gonna do this pardon he had a very interesting combination between his mom and his dad right on who he became right there was an Aristotle that was feeding into his mind on how to be a leader so there was a perfect combination of three different characters in his life do you know of people that were in his ear that were because I know his wife would always say you can one day be a president you can one day be a president but who else wasn't his mother was the main his father really wasn't involved it was a farmer kept to his you know cows it was the mother who always kept telling him what to do the wife was also I mean she knew about the business of course but I think it was more of his mother telling him the directions of what he needed to do I was thinking just earlier before that as he's just coming up as he's a fledgling criminal you know I think he realized how much money there was to be made in the drug business and how simple it was his first reported drug deal was four I think of 17 kilos and the person and when he saw how quickly he could move that how much money could make he went and killed that person so that stepped him up one ladder you know one rung on that ladder towards the top of the ladders which is where you want to go now what helped him is he had no remorse he had no compunction he had no guilt feelings whatsoever about killing people was just doing business and so when you've got that type of that psyche and that mentality I think that had a lot to do and then as you get more powerful and more wealthy you think you're important now you know and that's where he decided okay now I want to move into Congress now I want to be president now I want that I want that the only the only reason I ask is because sometimes you see you know you look at Frank Lucas Frank Lucas from American grocery didn't really he had his boss that was putting a lot of inspiration into him he had somebody to watch who was Pablo's example like who was Pablo following to say I'm following this guy's footsteps was there anybody yeah in the history of the cartel I mean you had Jose Gonzaga Rodriguez gotcha who was more powerful than Pablo Escobar was richer because gotcha had taken over the mo business there's a famous massacre in Colombia everybody knows about it where he killed off the competition Alberto Molina so he took over that and how gotcha came up with the concept of the cocaine labs in Colombia so after gotcha gets killed Pablo takes over that organization but my question has always been how does Pablo rise to that CEO when you're dealing with the most major traffickers in Colombia right I mean you got the most ruthless you got the biggest baddest traffickers how do you become boss is that still a question it's it's still a question until today for you or no yes because no I mean that has always been my question how did he write it so you have other major traffickers all those it into publicity that's what I'm that's what I'm not because you know just if you look at the Cali brothers you knew they were just driven by money they were business guys so to demo was a different story right and and sometimes sometimes for people it's just money famous all it is very few people have that big of an aspiration like a Pablo does it has to be something deeper by the way what happens if Pablo doesn't have the aspirations running for office that's his legacy continue or would it eventually still stop let's just say Pablo says you know what I don't want to run for office I want to be a low-key guy I just want to take these 15 facilities that I have that were producing cocaine a ton of cocaine a day let's make it dirty let's make it 40 let's make it 50 maybe let's go to other countries let's make it in different places how much bigger would he have gotten if he had zero aspirations of being a political leader I think he would never have been capable of doing what you're suggesting says let me do low key because that that ego he had that personality when you study him when you listen there inside his custom-built prison he had a hint of Salvador Dali original probably worth a couple million dollars hang in the wall there's a famous artist in Colombia Fernando Botero who was extremely well known he has a blue taro original hanging don't know what's worth about 1.5 million dollars and this was in 1991 1995 see Fletcher before that charisma he had that is very active he'd go down and he would recruit his own sicarios a lot of people do not know that yeah they were so famous territory right he would come here yep he would or famous Catholic Church and million one of the poorest neighborhood church --iz and he would have meetings and he would come in and all those young thugs 14 15 year-olds they'd hug him you know he'd kiss them would give him money and that was the allegiance you know that was you know you're the biggest trafficker and you're going down yourself interesting which I mean that just shows that personal what you're talking about that Eagle that here's the scenario so he goes into this neighborhood where people are literally living on the edge of a trash dump that's where their food comes from that's where their clothes comes from their cardboard and pieces of wood that they create a little living shelter he comes in he builds low-cost housing and lets people live there for free he provides him with food he holds medical clinics soccer fields he gives him money gives them food so think about it now for your mom if you come from a situation like that now sudden your mom's got a roof over her head she's got a lock on her door so you get little bit of secure you got running water you've got electricity what are you gonna think about the guy but I mean this isn't anything new right if you want to get the vote go get all the poor people and give them free food give them free place to live and you're gonna get their votes and so here's the point that's not a Robin Hood which kind of that's the persona everybody seems to want to portray oh yeah he wasn't a Rama hurt these people he manipulated those people because when he needed a new sicarios yeah where did he go back to there is a part of it where this whole Robin Hood Theory came about because I think when Pablo died 25,000 people showed up and they just wanted to touch it all they wanted to he was like glorifying that's the way awful not all the more their parade on the streets that make you upset when you see that like do you don't you know because I mean it's this is history it happened it does it now well I mean at that time that emotionally or emotionally we lost a lot of friends that were killed by Pablo Escobar you know in the innocent people I hated Pablo Escobar but people love him you know what it's it's a way of life Colombia's a safe country it says it's a beautiful place maybe more some beautiful people and you know what we've got to say 99.9% of Colombians are great innocent hard-working people it's that little 1% of the traffickers that ruin it you know but there's a lot of yeah today or now it is we don't tell too many people but we you know visit Madine the only thing you cannot do in Madine do not bat mouth Pablo squawking ready till today he still has a lot of loyal files today till today Wow you still love him so I've seen you say this that what we saw narcos the jail was nice but you're saying that Jill was so what was this jail like that he chose to build what was the light it was it was very much like a country club so Pablo what probably calls a jail cell is a two-room suite the bathroom has a jacuzzi tub walk-in closet a safe hidden behind the drawers and his walk-in closet on the back side we hang your long clothes there was a wall there was a collector back there a hidden space and so you've pushed the button and the back wall pops open there's a place to jump in there and hide in the main in the main room which was a kitchen and living room combination he had a microwave oven a full-size refrigerator bernetta nice banana bar with the barstools he had color-coordinated draperies and upholstery which is you look at it now it's a little bit gaudy but you know that's not what you'd expect to see in a prison cell he had the million dollar pieces of art hanging on the wall candles on the tables you go into the bedroom a custom-built bit bigger than any king-size beds you've ever seen his audio-visual Center didn't have they didn't have cable TV and satellite TV and Netflix and things like that back then but he did have all the latest releases of TV shows and movies from all around the world he had a fireplace in behind his desk in his office area he had pictures hanging on the wall one of the things you know if he's this devoted family man when you when you came into the living report he took his wanted poster had that frame hanging on the wall not pictures of his family and then when you get behind his desk he took all of his mug shots had those matted and framed in a collection because I can see him being like that I can see he had a collection of letters folders letters from people that would write him saying he was a great guy there was one letter and we talked about it it was from a lady who's offering her daughter to come to the prison and entertain Pablo Escobar that ain't that sickening to have his love child yeah she was thirteen years he was saved and I was 24 when he first started dating his wife and white I was 13 so that right that's but it just goes back to what you're talking about about Pablo's persona he kept all the letters that people would write to him so was he a woman oh there's parties you know and we make a little joke there was a lot of war geez at at the person now that insult doesn't make him a bad guy right but that's that's a joke that's a joke guys yeah but from you because because the way now let me say this though the way the way narcosis is presented you know have your it's a whole different ball game with you you you look like you were a step away from being a porn star let me ask you when you were watching some of those girls that play those roles were you like I don't know if she look like today even though with da guys a lot of time here man not my wife thinks up sleeping with out there that's all Hollywood you also were never married no I was single at the time I was saying go but that's you know that's Hollywood but that's kind of funny so you were having a good time in Colombia I was saying but I didn't date you know communism for months you know I mean it's and you know what it was hey listen you made time to have your extracurricular this is my partner I'm gonna take that for him he was not dating Connors so would you ask the girl what is your political beliefs do you believe in capitalism or confidence I can't have sex with you if you believe in common okay so in somebody was a woman as he was a party I remember a lot of negligees that was your big user himself was your big user it's not one like Marilyn okay yeah we never heard people do her but you know a lot of marijuana use and then how do you get the Colombian soccer team to come play at the prison the national soccer team we found photos there's a famous goalie about people remember the guy with a dreadlock Renee Gaeta together kicked it from there that's the guy that good that's another that sort of the outer goal that that guy was killed later you're talking about the World Cup when Colombia scored against the cell I'm planet by the way that does that killing have anything tied to Pablo or no yes yes we matter of fact the guy wait I got killed the guy it was a guy by the name of hassles guy yawn and we a lot of documents I think he was finally arrested he worked for Pablo Escobar this guy was one of the distributors the death was all acts not accidental the death was just at a bar one of the traffickers I lost a lot of money because of you and that and that was it it wasn't a planned it wasn't premeditated yeah I wasn't premature were at a bar because of you were out to a bull but linked back to pop yeah because this guy used to work for pop guy walk so the one of my was in essence yes yes indirectly directly interesting so now his compound where he lived you know this whole story about zoos he built 20 legs some astronomical number of cars yeah oh there's a in the same that is that very thing kanopolis was his pride and joy and we have a lot of photos Steve talks about it but that was his headquarters before he was on our radar that's when they had the parties people would fly in we had a lot of I remember talking to traffickers in the States pirates they fly in meet with Pablo you know they loaded up the airplanes in that that was his love and he had a bullfighting ring there he had a zoo all the exotic animals he had a playground with giant dinosaur statutes for the kids and it was a phenomenal remember you got the money of the world in all of those traffickers what are they trying to do to other traffickers they're trying to tell them I have more than you do that's why they will display it see though though like a competition between constantly let me ask you well you know how sometimes you see names like this and you see Hollywood celebrities people like that who want to party with some names like this was there any of that going on in Colombia where celebrities from us were coming down to Colombia to party with him where that wasn't really the case with you guys when you were out there I don't remember hearing about us celebrities coming down but it wasn't unusual for him to have like former Colombian beauty queen he's coming for parties and things like that beauty queen yeah politicians their emotions a lot of politicians came into the ranch we never saw celebrities so let me ask you going back to the powerplay with what happened with Gustavo do you think like pre Gustavo post Gustavo getting killed who was problem-free who was Pablo post meaning that he lose a lot of his confidence after Gustavo was gone Gustavo Gaviria was surrounded come out with your hands up comes up with a machine gun we wanted him alive because we wanted him in the United States because of all the this guy had the connections all over the world but he chose to come out fighting it was difficult for Pablo to get but you know he got organized but one thing like and he never forgave for the killing of his cousin remember they were brothers there were more than brothers they were always together in Gustavo was I think more of the calm the common sense type guy Pablo what's the famous line you're spending too much money or you're making him what's funny and he's just a laundry moment this isn't narco detail there's a lot more money he said you know we can't they said yeah he said Edward L Capone did difficult I was a great light Capone you ever had this was a great light you know but it was that type Gustavo was always the common the the grounding Pablo Pablo you know calm down calm down and I remember stories where the other traffickers or troll was will and you know and you're chosen to the interesting phenomena they were different they were already rich but they like you know selling dope but basically don't kill you know important people you know they would try to tell them this is gonna cost us you know for them to come after us and and they were right that's what caused them to come after Pablo Escobar you know what and you're talking about you know Pablo Escobar's ego that power I remember and this is wow this is a great example we took one ordering one of the rates we took one of the cars and he belonged to his sister so we took the sister the car in the dashboard and I have a copy of that note it basically there was a note that says if you're thinking of stealing this car do not this is Pablo Escobar and this car belongs to my sister avoid Provos hate that great life it's really have it on yeah I saw it it's it's real and signed by Pablo Escobar avoid problem you know that's the best insurers a car could ever have you see that name right there people probably felt safer if they had him as a backing so if you saw name there nobody wanted to mess with him acknowledged ah so so the numbers I read about are the following numbers is it more or less than this it's he killed the presidential candidate that's one whose car was cologne he kissed killed the Minister of Justice Lara Bonilla he killed the Attorney General kind he killed some numbers say a thousand cops some numbers say three thousand cops I think his son Sebastian Maru King aka juan pablo escobar said my dad in one week killed five hundred cops this is his son saying this that in one week he killed five hundred cops and then thousands of people and we were talking about earlier where you hear the number and some say he killed five thousand people some killed ten thousand people and in popeye who was his number one hit man who's got a mother he's got a YouTube channel so strange this guy's got a YouTube channel with six seven hundred thousand subscribers and he claims that that Pablo he himself killed three hundred people for Popeye that he was a scientist but he said Pablo killed in a fifty thousand people so as vicious as narcos series made it to us was it even more vicious than that like I know you hear you watch the show and you sit there and say this is not close or was it pretty close to it narcos did not get that right and you always said that Steve says that and I believe it that right it there was more violence it was more vicious there was more assassinations you know when you're talking about people you've missed one of the also newspaper editor Guillermo Kondo if you do the research he's the one who writes a knob bad peace fellow Colombians we need to bring back extradition Escobar kills him for writing that are bad peace on extradition yeah so the violence that's shown in narco is like my sister when when she started watching that she couldn't watch it passed I think the second episode originally because of the language and the violence but I think eventually she did watch the whole thing but as bad as narcos portrays the violence in colombia under a Pablo Escobar's reign it was a lot lot worse than that and that's what do you mean by that don't like you what do you say that give us an idea how much worse because it's but I mean doesn't get any worse than some of the stuff is known and if you go back look at the car bumps that that's where I always tell people the car bombs and and you know what we had never what's car bomb I've never heard you know I mean you see it you know used to see it up you know in other parts of the world but then you know when you were putting him on on a daily basis you know ten fifteen car bombs on a daily basis you know shopping centers that to me was an all-out I don't care who dies this is my war on Colombian really the rest of the world on us to um the United States I'm going to basically bring you down to your knees and when he wouldn't even kill people it wasn't just you know shoot him in the head move on he had him tortured when he was going after somebody especially a political figure he now he killed them just like Lara Bonilla he was going after the entire family very common this was very common when it was happening it was common it's like everyday practice yeah what's it every day you're seeing somebody get killed everybody there was something you and you would say what else can he do that you know your imagination you could not even fathom you know the famous commercial airline the kidnappings were a lot of people were being kidnapped and there's a famous lady by the name of Jana her by her dad used to be the president of Columbia she was a journalist he kidnapped a lot of journalists that way they could write and say Pablo Escobar's a good person he's looking you know please Columbia let him have whatever he wants yeah that's not the reporter right that's not the Valerie or Kazan that's by the way that's a real character in a bright virtue Virginia you know are you who which looks like her twin and she's drop-dead gorgeous in real life based on some of the pictures you see she looks like they're related and so what was she really having a relationship with he was one of his girlfriends and remember he liked press people so he could convince him to write good about him that's why he wanted all that much as Ken today today business people buy press companies so they can write good things about him so not much has changed so if Pablo if Pablo didn't cross the line with that and he was in business and his style have been doing business wasn't to kill people except put competition out of business how good would have Pablo done in business as a CEO I just don't want to give a guy I know you don't I know you don't so you tend to think that he probably would have done a good job in a legal business but his business model was based on violence you can't employ that in a legal business and be successful so I don't know I just don't want to give him credit and say yes he would have been successful so I will say it if I if he was he would have been the guy so litigious he'd be suing everybody to find us we're getting to the top I can say that must be taking place so about well as you guys are going through were there any stories related to presidents you know Bush Reagan Clinton was anything happening that maybe didn't it wasn't covered in the series of narcos was there anything outside of them yeah it was really I remember President Bush when he was the vice president and when we started seeing the violence in Miami where all the wide and said you know Scarface the scarf movie IV that was pretty a great loving a lot of but anyway a lot of a lot of people or getting killed in South Florida a lot of bodies the famous Dadeland Mall Massacre remember the one o'clock we started seeing Colombians killing Colombians in the middle of the day it's like what is going on then in South Florida bodies started coming up all over the place and it was Colombians and basically I think under President Bush he was the vice person he says man and we have a problem here in South Florida then they started looking at all the money that was being invested in Miami the the famous buildings the famous banks that were taking all the money and since we needed to do something about it so he created a task force a floor attachment South Florida Task Force which was the beginning and from there it led on to and and then from there the pressure was being put on Colombia to bring back extradition that was about to a succession yeah and that's how we that's why he was so concerned yeah yeah yeah extradition and bring it back and then you see in Colombia you have certain people that are saying wow maybe we need to bring back extradition because we cannot handle public square so what happened to those people public's were killed Hatchin Lara Bonilla the newspaper editor so this was this whole war from Pablo Escobar was based on extradition so the one question that I think even till today is not fully answered no one there isn't really anyone that has a hundred percent answer this is what happened right anybody a lot of people say different stories and we have to almost take their word for it it's like faith you know you haven't seen God but you believe there is a God right so and and based on what I've read I see three different stories one of the stories is that Pablo was killed by the Colombian police okay because that's who killed him at the end somebody put a bullet through his head because you know he was shot three times one in the torso one in the leg and one through the ear that went to form one ear came out of the other ear right when you see the picture you kind of see the autopsy you see how that looks okay so number one Colombian police is who killed Pablo and obviously as a nation you want that to be number one because Colombia needs that victory the second scenario you hear about he was killed by a Delta Force you know Navy SEAL you know team from the top you know I have friends from Delta Force and they know what they're doing a sniper can be up there knowing exactly where he's at and take him out and they're pretty sharp I would they do so for somebody to get him straight through the head is not a difficult thing to do but then that would be the victory of America if Americans killed them number three years what a Sebastian Moroccan talks about when he says I know my dad was committing suicide because my dad always told me you know if they come to you no one's gonna kill me if you have a gun with 15 bullets 14 are used to kill the enemy one is used to kill yourself because no one should be able to kill yourself no one should be able to kill you and that's why he says my dad called me seven times that's the story call me once I wouldn't pick up cuz I knew if I picked up they're gonna know my dad's that second time I didn't pick up third time I didn't pick up four time I didn't pick up he said I finally picked up on the seventh time my dad dragged out the conversation with he and I and that's when all of a sudden this thing happened so I know for a fact my dad committed suicide so it's not the Colombian victory it's not the US victory so now you've been asked this question a million times you've spoken in front of Y P o EO government organizations here in the states outside of the states you've spoken to DEA agents keeps poking all over the world and you probably get this ass all the time what's your version of the answer okay for the let's address the second one first whether it was a u.s. special operator where there's Delta Force or SEAL Team six I know that it wasn't because when the operation went down as is the operations taking place I'm standing in the room with all the us operators and I'm certainly not taking anything away from Harvey I love these guys to death these are the guys they were not there they were at the base with me and the reason I knows because I was there with them not taking anything away from because these are the best guys in the world if we're ever kid man one of them was with you Steve yep right there in that room and let me just interject the orders was that they could not leave the base and this is for coming from the Pentagon to the embassy and this guy's obey they were at the base and Steve was there but I just want to put a caveat they they helped us I mean after Escobar gets in they they help us in a lot of the electronic messages a lot of training was done by them but they could not leave the base and that would upset them but I mean in like Steve said this guys are great great heroes so to you your hundred percent there it's not a Delta Force or SEAL Team six no doubt in my mind no doubt in your mind that's and I and believe me we love these guys yeah we're not taking anything away so you are set that you think the Colombian police is who killed him absolutely now let's look at that third theory about the suicide yeah it's absolutely not true I'm here and I were local police officers before we became federal agents I went through the Academy I was trained on murder investigations suicide investigations I worked both when I was in uniform so that all the photographs that were taken of Escobar on the roof that day after he was killed I took those photographs my primary responsibilities my instructions from my boss back at the embassy in Bogota was to confirm this is Pablo Escobar you got to get up close and personal to do that the blood and the guts and the gore and things like that don't bother me for whatever reason so I was able to get close enough to look at the body when there's a suicide by a gun when you fire a weapon there are little pieces of gunpowder that come out the end of that barrel they travel a certain distance before they lose their velocity and fall to the ground if you shoot yourself in the ear with a gun the Gunpowder that comes out of that barrel is certainly going to travel that far and it will leave burn marks in the skin you can go online and look at these photographs nobody has ever I couldn't find them there are no powder burns on the side of crominus it as well face it all yeah so I tells me it wasn't a suicide the third so your first theory was a Colombian national police that's absolutely who it was you know we worked with these guys we lived with them never caught them lying to us about anything what difference would it make let me ask you this what let's just say it's not the Columbo national police let's say he committed suicide if he did would that take away the victory of you guys killing him and the victory goes to you is that would let you say if it is that let's just say we come out and said this guy did kill himself would that make a difference you know what yes yes yes it would I appreciate you saying that yes I mean it would because like I said look at the long time you went after this guy look at all the people here look at all the massacres the violence and then he committed suicide that like Steve said that wasn't the case it was the the search bloc and not the regular Columbia Police Colonel Martinez in his groups Colonel Martinez was not there right yeah in for the record let me get my situation cuz I think in the movie in the series they put me I'm getting disciplined back in Washington I want know the Ambassador copying up in sent me to Miami there was a famous informant Navigon T who had he was the one responsible for gotcha how he got ahold of the Ambassador rice I think I know how but anyway so the ambassador cost me I'd imagine so here again I'm playing you're going to Miami said sir oh because there's an informant that's gonna tell you where it's Quarrier sir we were very close where you know it was like the day before you're telling him server very yes yeah yeah we're very closer he's not anywhere they thought he was in Haiti as if he's right here in Medina and I get ordered in ambassadors this was a strong-willed ambassador and brush it's like a precedent you know he says you will get on a plane or I got on the plane and ironic it is great cuz I get to buy heavy and you know how I found out the public where it gets killed the informant is on the phone the guy who was supposed to tell me where Escobar was he says have you here they just killed Pablo Escobar what is your reaction like you know and at least II was there and you know what he always had a camera and you know anyway those photos would not exist if see one there so I get on a plane back and it's all the press people on that plane I'll never forget the Univision the Telemundo you know people I see the anchors it is full of press people coming back to Colombia the next day what kind of field day they would have on the airplane it was that's the irony but you know what I was happy of course you know I went the next day he was there congratulate really did you see the body no no never never did you know talked to all the guys congrats you know I'm saying it was a victory for them I think more for Colombia because of all the criticism that they got it was a victory for us for all the people he killed all our friends I lost good friends so it was a victory for everybody I didn't have to be there I could say Steve was there but you know it was just something great it was you know the weight of the world had been lifted on you know there was times remember when we say man I just hope he surrenders let's get her over let's all go home it was that way what so let me ask you was there ever a feeling of was there you know how you hear some stories you know I wanted to be a millionaire so bad and then I became a million I'm like oh my gosh I'm a millionaire so what you know I want to win this so bad and then so to sum they're like I don't know if it's gonna feel that but because I'm so much hungry about the chase and the hunt versus actually it becoming a reality you feel like now what did you ever have that feeling what was it like finally we got this you know a bastard you can use a different word if you choose to was there that feeling of we got him there was that feeling because it felt like the weight of the world was lifted off our shoulders yeah but and and we're not trying to be overly humble when we say this that was one investigation so when you complete an investigation you move on to the next case and that's exactly what we did once Escobar's gone of course my wife and I we came back to the United States for Christmas vacation you know we came back to Bogota in early January it's time to go back to work and work the next case how much of a break did you have after you know December 2nd well there was there was a lot of loose ends that had to be tied up you know so it took us several months and I think we probably worked on until I transferred out in June and I left in Nevada cold but well we're there there was a lot of pressure from the United States Oh from you know DOJ who you DEA to us yeah it would have done or to get it done of course you know a lot of people go tell but there was uh we'd get calls like we you know I mean we had to go brief people up in Washington what would they tell like how much longer do we need them what else do you need right what else do you need they were supportive but they wanted action yeah and because everybody knew Pablo Escobar the fight against Iran from the United States there was a lot of pressure being put on us to go after public school to get into getting now the picture obviously the famous picture that you took right when you see that picture today what's your reaction I'm proud of it now I mean when I got thing was taking the photographs of the police officers you know standing over the body and then they start grouping up and wanted group photos and I mean how many now these are our friends you know these are the guys that we faced death with and survived you know that's a very close bond with each other and they're saying Steve Steve come on over like well they actually call me sneak stick the neck stick stick coming at your photograph so I you know gave somebody camera and got in there got my photo you know probably not my proudest moment at the time but that was the elation that everybody feel that felt that this guy would you get some criticism for the pic or no oh yeah Washington was not happy about that wasn't happy now was a Colombian government not happy or dick could care less it was mainly Washington the cops are okay with it I don't know about the rest of the government so anybody that's a Pablo fan probably wasn't too happy about that picture but yeah and it was never meant to be released somebody in a Colombian national police released as how it got out but you know I don't having a remorse I don't have any guilt feelings about it the reason we're all smiling as pictures is because we all knew effective immediately at the second that Pablo died every citizen in the country Columbia is safer simply because one man's gone and if you go back and do your research you'll find out that the murder statistics support that theory eighty percent is the number I understand yeah eighty percent of following Europe because one man was can you imagine the power of one men drop in the amount of activity by 80 percent it's unbelievable that is unbelievable what do you guys do is there a ritual you have every year on December 2nd you guys do something on December 2nd level [Laughter] analyst who was assigned to Pablo Escobar he sends an email happy and every year he commemorates every year in like you said we do a while shout out for our analyst because they did a great job when you go after this traffickers you need that Intel it's not like you know in the movies onward you need all that eat so work to help you that's it and thank you to Craig for that annual to you I asked you this earlier but but I want everybody also know this is from the outside you know when you watch it narcos does a great job showing that you guys became very good friends till today how strong is your friendship how strong is the bond between we top pretty much every day we Sweezy said we you know I mean last year we did 82 appearances around the world I see how here as much as I see my wife no family now you K - were coming up here we - and have you yet seen the whole thing have you had seen narcos now you're actually the first series I saw the third one number two I'm still I'm waiting I'm still I'll watch it so still emotionally you can yeah I mean I just brings back like I said I lost some good friends of mine you don't end that you know and this is why when we say Pablo Escobar was a revenge of course it was I'd be lying if I said it in every single every time I keep saying that was a revenge like it was it's I have wanted to kill this guy yeah yeah we tell the truth did you want him alive or you wanted him dead heavily - I do he would have the US government want him alive bored they just could care let's just let's you want this guy dead as well nobody ever came out and told us I known as kill him as well you know I sit there and I watch your story and I you know I'm always curious when I see somebody that becomes a DEA agent and decides to go take your life we were with Joe Pistone recently Joe Pistone was Donnie Brasco he worked with the Italian mob and he worked heavily on taking on the Bonanno family and partially the Colombo family and for six years he was undercover and when I hear your story you were married at the time your wife was living in Bogota right and you'd be gone I think one time he said he was gone for five weeks the medina your way with from your wife how did you make that work because his marriage is still intact Jose which I cannot believe and apparently yours is as well what was the secret what system did you guys have to make your marriage work I just married the right woman you know she was she understood the you know the desire for excitement you know we were much younger and and we just liked exciting things but you know what she liked it just as much because when we were in Miami you know I had one partner there was shot and a deal gone bad and Informer killed and just a lot of activity going on in Miami in the 80s and after four years of Miami she came to me one day she said this has been exciting what's the next most experiencing we can do that's amazing I forgot the idea of going to Colombia it took a little while for her to come to grips with it but finally she came one day and she said if we're gonna do it let's do it while we're young when we were having lunch earlier today and I was you know Mario asked you the producers did they think it was gonna be this big of a hit as it became on Netflix well I think the producers did but I mean I know we didn't thinking if I wanted to hear this story we turned down a couple of producers before Eric Newman came along so when we say and we say this all the time but it's absolutely true no one is more shocked by the popularity of narcos than us how much would your life change with the documentary came out like pre narcos after not the documentary to this series how much did your life change 180 degrees right we never we never dreamt we'd be doing this in a retirement we didn't ever have the opportunity to meet you in the crew here in the world will travel in places we never would have gone so it's had a you know very adverse effect you know from being retired doing nothing and all of a sudden the series comes out and I saw the first one I said no one's gonna watch it you know and then all of a sudden man we're starting to it's you know what you know we got we got to go to speak in Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan we went to Sydney Australia and we got to speak at the Sydney Opera House and sold it out no I mean this is this is just like know things that are unbelievable now burn so that out I mean it's just been great so but like Steve says we tell the we tell the truth we tell the truth before we wrap up I do want to say this publicly you know to know that I'm sure many many many families in Colombia are glad that you guys put your life on the line to make sure people are protected there and there's an element of the way you deliver the messages I can't believe how much of respect and love you're given to a country like Colombia to have whole you know that it's it's very interesting to see America is known at this powerful nation that we like to take all the victories where this were this with that and you're actually taking a complete different approach saying hey they did it were just a couple cops and you're taking this approach and and it slaughter a lot of respect from you to you a lot of respect for me to appreciate you guys coming up but this is this is one last thing what do you guys working on right now so if I watching this I want to follow some of your stuff you know what what is something you're working on right now that people can follow and find out more about well actually we've got several things working but if you go to DEA narcos comm you know that's our website you can see there's a calendar on there show you where we're speaking around the world we're writing a book we're working with a group called the lost clipper project where we're working an eighty-year-old cold case file involving the murders or 15 Americans we've partnered up with the partnership for safe medicines that is addressing counterfeit medications coming to the United States we're on Capitol Hill three weeks ago talking to the House of Representatives Committee about that particular subject we're working with a couple of producers on potential new and this is very potential this is not a done deal but a potential new TV series addressing the heroin opioid fentanyl epidemic in the United States right now so it's there's a lot of irons in the fire it's things that again we just never thought anything like this would happen to us so it's fun that's great and and you're on Twitter DEA narcos and you're on Instagram DEA narcos what I want you to do is I want you to send them a tweet after watching this first of all go follow them and then send them it sweet DEA narcos their handle and let them know if you've watched the show what do you love most about them what you picked up from today's interview and with that being said gentlemen thank you so much for coming out here in Dallas appreciate your time truly really appreciate you guys coming up thank you

Channel: Valuetainment

Views: 3,179,788

Rating: 4.7034397 out of 5

Keywords: Entrepreneur, Entrepreneurs, valuetainment, patrick bet david, pablo escobar, pablo escobar story, pablo escobar narcos, narcos season 1, real pablo escobar, javier pena, steve murphy, pablo escobar documentary, cocaine movie, druglord, narco, drug trafficking, DEA, dea agents that took down the cali cartel, dea agents killed in mexico, el chapo, al capone, michael franzese, the mob

Id: MHj8I6Uh8qs

Length: 72min 55sec (4375 seconds)

Published: Thu May 17 2018