In the end, Javier Pea and his team tracked Escobar down in his hometown of Medelln in 1993 through use of technology that allowed them to trace his phone calls. His misrepresentations were backed by another agent in Bogot, Kent states. I thanked him numerous times for what he did, but I also told him that I dont know that I could have done what he did in that capacity. Betrayed by Don Berna (Mauricio Cujar), the narco is shipped off to the United States and Pena's plan to bring her on as an informant is foiled in the season finale. Moreover, cops like Pea felt unsatisfied by the fact that Escobar was now in prison after having surrendered on his own terms. According to El Pais, Camarenas skull, jaw, nose and cheekbones were crushed with a tire iron. I think it was really beneficial to them to see that lay of land and see what we were working then.". Javier Pea at the Colombian National Police Headquarters following a seizure of some of Pablo Escobars money, gold, and a .45 caliber gold-plated pistol. Kent details three further cases of extreme corruption in his memo, all involving Bogot DEA agents persecuting or conspiring to kill Colombian informants who threatened to bring down their activities. Pena was called away for a daylong assignment, but Murphy was on the scene the day they caught Escobar. Updated at 12:51 p.m. The agents were believed to work in Colombia and Washington, D.C.. There is much more to that phone conversation as to where and how we meet. "After Escobar is killed, maybe two or three years later, we find out the real truth that one of our officers at the Search Bloc was hand-in-hand with Los Pepes. "The violence thats depicted is all true: Pablo and his people are some of the most violent people to ever walk this earth," he said about experiencing similar feelings. WebOne mystery that still remains is the murder of the sicario Navegante (Juan Sebastian Calero) on Narcos. Judy Moncada (Cristina Umana) was a major player in the alliance of enemies who formed to take down Escobar, until her own partners took her out. (Netflix confirmed the return of Pascal as Pena, while Holbrook's Murphy remainsup in the air. Feistl adds, "All of those things contributed to them then contacting me to give them a little bit of background on Cali.". "We went back and forth for a couple of minutes and I said we were here on the ground in Cali and would like to meet as soon as possible. The streamer has yet to comment on the status of Holbrook's Murphy, however, and both Murphy and Pena couldn't comment on their future involvement with the series when speaking to THR. WebThe real-life 'Narcos' agents who helped bring down Pablo Escobar say their anger toward the notorious drug lord has not faded after 25 years - and painted a bleak picture of the He was shot six or eight times, I believe.". Dont get involved and stay away from this kind of life. he says. The episode begins in Bogota, Colombia in 1989, it is narrated by Steve Murphy. Web(Warning: Graphic details of torture and abuse) Amazon Prime's 'The Last Narc' details the horrific account of DEA agent Enrique S "Kiki" Camarena Salazar's abduction and murder by the Mexican drug lords at Guadalajara and the ensuing investigation that followed. Since that day, theories have proliferated as to who fired the fatal shot; Newman has shot down every single one, including Juan Pablo's claim that his father turned his gun on himself. 1: the North Valley cartel. Kiki is also shown confronting Felix in the streets for no good reason. The memo further claims that, rather than being simply a few bad apples who need to be reported to their superiors, these allegedly dirty agents are being protected by an ongoing cover-up orchestrated by watchdog agencies within the Justice Department. ", Sign up for THR news straight to your inbox every day, Inside the business of TV with breaking news, expert analysis and showrunner interviews. "[My partner] and I were looking for a way into the cartel and Jorge was looking for a way out of the cartel. Steve Murphy/Texas MonthlyJavier Pea and Steve Murphy sit outside of La Catedral following Pablo Escobars escape. But by the 1970s, he had discovered that the real money was in cocaine. But we all know, thats not what he chose to do. On the show, the character is But if that is indeed the case, then why has Justice chosen to silence and punish the whistleblowers in this case rather than look into their claims? They did, however, confirm when they left Colombia: After vacationing with his wife, the Murphys moved back to the United States in June 1994. Nevertheless, Javier Peas role in taking down perhaps the most infamous drug lord in history was nothing short of essential. A look at the nature of the alleged corruption may give us some clues. As he lay dying, a cartel doctor was ordered to keep him alert by administering drugs.. Well just send everything that we have through Mexico.' Trujillo, who is based on a personwhose name has been changed, is also the Colombian cop who ends up pulling the final trigger on Escobar in the season finale. "Javier and I were manning the 1-800 number but people would call in with all kinds of tips because there was a $500 reward on the table," he says. According to Kent, these offices which are supposed to serve as watchdog agencies that investigate corruption sabotaged investigations being carried out by the Florida DEA agents and by one of the OIGs own agents. "We never signed him up as a DEA informant, but he was at the base and I could always tell there was something weird," he says, adding that after Escobar's death, Don Berna went on to become a trafficker and is now in prison in the United States. ", The narrative decision did surprise Murphy, who said the writers did a "wonderful job. They were advised that the best tact was for the informants to carry it out themselves.. While the Florida agent was out on leave, the Bogot agents set up a meeting with one of the informants. The previous seasons focused on the rise and fall of Pablo Escobar and the Cali Cartel. Working closely with various sectors of the Colombian military, it has fielded death squads responsible for murdering thousands of Colombians. Using routes hed established early in his career as a smuggler, Escobar began moving drugs fromColombia and into other countries, including the United States. In the show, Pea is also involved in several extra-judicial killings and other breaches of professional ethics, which is pure drama for the show. He fell into crime at an early age in the Colombian city of Medelln where he forged diplomas and report cards for high school students as a teenager. That's not a dedicated family man. "It was so well-constructed and so well hidden, that had he gotten into it, we would still be looking for that caleta," he says of the "phenomenally well-made" closet built into the closet in the master bedroom. When he got there it was like, 'Wow, Hes here to take care of business.' The agent says he and his partner knew Salcedo was legitimate when they witnessed first-hand how members of the Colombian national police would tipSalcedo off that the Rodriguez hideouts were about to be raided. Kiki Camarena was born Enrique (Kiki) S. Camarena on July 26, 1947, in Mexicali, Mexico. But the OPR mysteriously ordered the polygrapher not to report on the test: He was instructed (to say) that the test never took place.. (Kent wrote his memo in late 2004 only after he became aware of the alleged corruption and then had exhausted other internal channels within DOJ for addressing the problems.). Was he really abducted? "Each one of them brought something to the table, which was pretty distinctive," he says. Ironically, the NDDS chief to whom Kent addressed the memorandum, Jodi L. Avergun, is now the chief of staff for DEA. "In reality, Martinez and his son catch Escobar, but we liked the idea of killing Carrillo [Maurice Compte]. Pea began working for the DEA in 1984 and started working in Bogota, Fed up with the danger, she took the pair's adopted daughter and abruptly flew back to the United States. What's the real story of the death of Kiki Camarena? ", He continued, "Where Medellin really revolutionized that Caribbean corridor, Cali revolutionized that trafficking through Mexico, which the North Valley cartel jumped on after extradition. Michael Pea plays DEA Agent Enrique Kiki Camarena in Season 1 of Narcos: Mexico. When we got together, it made the perfect storm," he says. "Because of who his father was, he was able to act or get away with certain things. "In real life, David was well-educated and smart, but he was put in a tough position and he tried to takeover and run as best he could," he says. "Ive heard Jorges version of what he believes happened. He has been transferred to Nashville, according to sources familiar with the memorandum. Subscribe for full access to The Hollywood Reporter. "Theres some artistic licenses, but the timeline is accurate.". The informant who was identified as the narcotics trafficker with several agents on his payroll was eventually brought to Florida to take a polygraph test on the allegations that he was obtaining classified documents from agents in Bogot and elsewhere., Kent says that the narco-trafficker passed the lie detector test in Florida, at which he was asked whether agents had passed him classified documents and he claimed that they hadnt. [Laughs. They agreed to reveal the names to me on the condition that I not further disseminate these for the time being. Chris ultimately becomes the DEA contact for informant Jorge Salcedo (Matias Varela), the head of security for the Cali cartel who risks his life to help the agents capture and fry their biggest fish, Miguel Rodriguez (Francisco Denis). Narcos has moved on from its original setting of Colombia from the late 70s through to the early 90s and instead will focus on the rise of the cocaine cartels in Mexico from the mid-80s. The traffickers eventually gave the Florida agents copies of confidential DEA reports, which the Bogot agents allegedly had handed over to the traffickers. Who was the real Kiki Camarena? In the show as in real life, DEA Agent Javier Pea was assigned the daunting task of taking Escobar down. Fesitl was part of the extradition team and was present when Gilberto and Miguel were sent to the U.S. in 2004 and 2005, respectively, and that was his last interaction with the pair. Within a few short years, the Medelln Cartel that Escobar established was pulling in millions every day. During that 18 month period, there were 143 Colombian National Police Officers killed as a direct result of the manhunt for Escobar. "But we felt that he was still in Medellin or in the immediate area. WebThe Bolivian-born Toft has retired from the DEA. "We were always firm believers that the way you catch these kingpins is through human assets and sources. On Narcos, Pena continued to "smack into walls" while he tried to bring down the cartel, eventually realizing that Cali had bought the presidency by placing Ernesto Samper in office and that the CIA and the Ambassador, his boss, knew about the high levels of corruption. If anyone deserved to be there when they killed Escobar, it was him.. ", Pena calls it ironic that he wasn't in Medellin the day they caught Escobar, but says it doesn't matter because justice was served. WebWatson, a 43-year-old Louisiana native, was killed after being dragged out of a taxi on his way home from a Bogot restaurant late last Thursday night after watching the NBA 2023 The Hollywood Reporter, LLC. In between, he worked in Miami against Colombian traffickers and in Washington, D.C., in the Mexico and Central America section targeting Mexican groups between 1997 and 1999. The penultimate episode sees Escobar retreating to his father's farm. There was also a standing bounty of $300,000 offered by Escobar for any DEA agent working in Colombia, including Pea. "We had always heard that Tata sent Juan Pablo to Cali to talk to the Rodriguez brothers and say, 'Hey, its over, were sorry, can we live here without fear?'" The problem is the wall was so thick that we broke two or three drill bits and we ran out of drill bits. But the truth, like water, always brings the scum to the surface. "They got along well as a unit and part of that was because Miguel and Gilberto were brothers and they grew up and went to school with Santacruz, so they had that relationship," he says. The money goes toward scholarships. Pablo might be dead but the war is not over," the series tweeted from its official account. How much of 'Narcos' Season 3 really happened? The document mirrored information the DEA group in Florida provided the corrupt agents in Bogot previously.. They alleged that they were assisted in their narcotics activities by the [Bogot] agents. WebSeven Colombian men are en route to the United States to face charges in the killing of a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agent in Bogota last year, federal officials have Toft played a key role in Colombia's successful hunt last year for Pablo Escobar, the Medellin cartel chief killed in a rooftop The fact that Narco News is breaking this story first may tell us all we need to know on that front. He was assigned to the DEA unit in Cartagena and was on Will they step up to the plate on this story, given their penchant for adhering to the standard drug-war script? Trujillo (Jorge Monterrosa), it is discovered, has been feeding Los Pepes information to aid in the hunting of Escobar and his men. He was a Marine. They are prepared to provide the Public Integrity Section with those names and everything in the files at OPR and OIG, and then some, if called upon to do so. Web"Descenso" is the first episode of Season 1 of Narcos and the first episode overall. The season two finale set up a return for Pena, even though both of the real agents indicated they weren't involved in the real hunt for Cali. (You can see photos of the real people behind the Narcos: Mexico characters here.) It wasnt going after dope, it wasnt going after money. ", As for his portrayal, Feistl called Stahl-David a perfectionist. Ernesto Don Neto Fonseca and Rafael Caro Quintero were other cartel leaders involved. WebThats especially true when he and his partner go to take down Cockroach, only to have one of Escobars hitmen take him out first, killing another DEA agent in the process. Industries Crime and Terrorism But when the informants got to the airport to leave for the U.S., they were arrested. All Rights Reserved. They basically had anything that you could ever dream of. WebJavier Pea is a former DEA agent whose story formed part of the framework for the Netflix series Narcos. So thats how I know he didnt commit suicide. "She actually talked to Eric [Newman] about it and said: 'Ive just got one bone to pick with you, I would have never left my husband there!' So how closely does the Netflix version of Javier Pea match up to the real one? We never really knew who we were dealing with and who we could count on and trust. Feistl is described as being the more serious of the two and a young agent who sought out assignment to Colombia as the drug trade shifts to Cali. Chilean drug chemist Cockroach brings his product to Colombian smuggler Pablo Escobar. They only travel a short distance, a few feet, but it strikes the body and leaves whats called powder burns. On the show, the character is shot by Salcedo as the DEA agents are approaching Pallomari(Javier Camara) to transport him to the U.S. In order to get the third season story right, Narcos enlisted the real Chris Feistlto serve as a consultant. Part of the reason it was so hard to catch Escobar was that he was willing to kill anyone who came after him. That person (the narco-trafficker) is also a DEA informant, the memorandum states, and is believed to have been controlled by the Bogot Country Office. ", The day Miguel was captured was a short-lived celebration. If we can put them together with the Public Integrity Section, they assured me that other agents who have to this point remained silent for fear of retaliation will come forward. The kidnappings were a common things. Their hunt for the notoriousMedellinCartel leader was told on the first two seasons of Narcos, where both agents serve as series consultants. In real life, Camarenas wife was indeed named Mika, and she is the mother of his three children. The agents in the Florida DEA office also tried to set up a sting targeting the allegedly corrupt agents from Bogot and Washington, D.C. The meeting (the sting) was called off when it was learned the agents likely knew of the trap, the memorandum states. Pena had a long There were no stipulations that he had to turn over any of his assets: He could have walked away a free man and never have had to work again. He was a police officer, and then he became part of the DEA. Murphy (played by Boyd Holbrook) and Pena (played by Pedro Pascal) are the two agents responsible for taking down Pablo Escobar. I believe, based on their representations, that that new evidence alone would put the corrupt agents in prison. One of the informants was kidnapped and murdered in Bogot where he had gone into hiding.. Amazingly, Gallardo was only recently sentenced in the death (hed been sentenced before but a retrial was ordered; he never left prison after 1989, though). "When I went to Colombia, it was great to interact with Michael and Matt [Whelan] in Cali," he says. When Pachoeventually surrendered in 1997, that's when Feistlleft Colombia. WebFor years in the 1980s, Escobar made untold billions off trafficking cocaine into the United States from his native Colombia. He soon couldnt understand why everyone seemed disappointed by Escobars surrender until he discovered the type of prison that Escobar had in mind for himself. Fesitl worked in Colombia for a total of 12 years. A full investigation of his allegations may well prove that the DEAs Bogot office is clean as a whistle. These charges blow away the smoke concealing the pretense of the war on drugs. And in this case, the dam holding back the truth in the so-called war on drugs may be close to breaking. Cali opened the door and the North Valley kind of kicked it through. Javier Pea wasnt going to take the silver. We are helping law enforcement get the word out about drugs to our youth, parents and schools., Kiki Camarenas son, Enrique Camarena is now a judge in California after serving as a deputy district attorney for years. "We tend to say he was a Robin Hood guy because he took some of his ill-gotten gain and helped the poor, but thats all fantasy," he says. 2000-2011 Al Giordano. The first two seasons of Narcos depict the timeline chronicled by DEA special agents Steve Murphy and Javier Pena in their 2019 book Manhunters: How We Thats one of the messages he tries to portray.". "A lot of people didnt know about the Cali cartel. When confronted with the actual tape that confirmed the informants story, the agents in Bogot complained that what the informant and DEA group from Florida had done was illegal and they would be unable to obtain the informants release (from prison).. As of now, Feistl says he has not yet had any talks about working with Narcos for season four, but that it would "make sense" for them to go to Mexico. A high school friend and congressman in California created what were called Camarena Clubs, and people across the country wore red ribbons to indicate they were rejecting drugs, an effort that drew the support of First Lady Nancy Reagan. The (Bogot) agent was unable to dissuade those involved in the investigation, and it finally took off with the assistance of the NSA, the memo states. In yet another case outlined in Kents memorandum, the second Florida DEA group was working with an informant in Colombia who claimed to have made contact with a FARC guerilla while in prison. Pablo Escobar had a suite, Murphy later remembered. '", He continues, "In his book, he says they were trying to negotiate with the Rodriguezbrothers, who were very upset by the war, and what they wanted was his assets. Details: citywinery.com Don Berna was at the base [the Colombian National Police The second season opens with the above words from narrator Steve Murphy as played by Holbrook. On the Netflix drug cartel series, the agent (played byMichael Stahl-David) pushes his boss Javier Pena (Pedro Pascal) to let him leave Bogota, Colombia so he and his partner (Matt Whelan) can hunt the four Cali godfathers on the ground. You can read about him here. Six ELN members and associates charged with narco-terrorism and international cocaine distribution conspiracy Drug Enforcement Administration Daniel C. Comeaux Special Agent in Charge Houston @DEAHoustonDiv September 21, 2020 Contact: Sally M. Sparks Phone Number: (713) 693-3329 For Immediate Release "When Escobar surrendered, many of the original Search Bloc guys got foreign assignments, which is what everybody aspires to, as a reward. Of course, with that kind of money came problems. The raiding party that hit Miguels door the next morning included two DEA agents and a search team under Gen. Jose Serrano, chief of the Colombian national police. Narcos viewers know Chris Feistl as the hungry DEA agent who helped dismantle the season-three villains, the Cali cartel. According to El Pais, Camarenas skull, Today, Fonseca is on house arrest, and Caro Quintera was released from prison in 2013 on a legal technicality and is being sought by the U.S. Camarenas death changed the face of Mexican drug cartels. Camarena held other positions in law enforcement before joining the DEA. US reexamines murder of federal agent featured in "I told him on more than one occasion that catching Miguel was a distant second and that his safety and the safety of his family was my number one priority," says Feistl. The recordings revealed that a narco-trafficker had indeed obtained the internal DEA information that was used to expose the Florida groups informant. The end of season three sets the show on track to follow the drug war to the next "real" threat of Mexico. Camarena opens the show in a scene that shows hes been abducted. The book tells the story of Salcedo, who is now in U.S. witness protection, and Feistlalso served as a source. The real Chris Feistl discusses what is true and what is fiction, and sheds insight on Season 4. DEA agent Steve Murphy joins the war on drugs in Bogota. He played an important role in the killing of Escobar's son, Juan Pablo, details the days after his father's death in his book, Pablo Escobar: My Father. He talks about how Tata had to personally go negotiate these different surrendering of assets to all the Cali Cartel traffickers. Now those people all of a sudden became 100 percent loyal to Pablo, willing to give their lives to protect him and work for him. I explained that anything with addresses, phone numbers, bank accounts, any links to different countries or in the United States were all useful.". Thats the only thing that kept us alive.". Narcoscontinues to walk the fine line between presenting its villains as characters who are addictive to watch, but who are not glorified. Though Narcos is a fictionalized version of events,showrunner Eric Newman has always said the chronology is on point. 3 power that is now No. How would I go into the building and what kind of papers would be of interest?

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