"_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "Imagine this," "President of Colombia goes on TV and tells the whole world he'll never make a deal with you." "Now a normal person thinks, "I'm fucked."" "But Pablo Escobar, he thinks that's just your opening offer." "So the man finds a way to respond." "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "And how did Gaviria take Pablo's offer?" "I think it's safe to say that he didn't really care for it." "But it wasn't just Gaviria Pablo was talking to." "In his mind, he was also negotiating with the leader of the free world." "_" "_" "_" "You see, the problem was, George Bush had his own plans for Escobar." "We will, for the first time, make available the appropriate resources of America's armed forces." "And for the drug kingpins, the death penalty." "And with a commander in chief who used to be the head of the CIA, well, you can use your imagination as to what "appropriate resources" might mean." "He started by appointing a new ambassador." "Badass former Navy man, Arthur Crosby... who specialized in Latin American affairs and counterterrorism." "Next, he dug into his old CIA Rolodex, where there was no shortage of guys who knew how to fight dirty." "And he sent us one of those, too." "Lastly, and what Peña and I like to call his own personal "fuck you" to us... he sent us something he thought we must need: a boss." "Now just how long that person would be my boss remained to be seen." "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "My title might be "ambassador,"" "but that's some bullshit politician's word." "I know what it means to be on the front lines." "And everybody in this room wants the same thing, to take down Escobar." "Now as a veteran of numerous conflicts, I learned one immutable truth:" "the only way to succeed is by working together, by communicating, by sharing intelligence and collaborating." "Understood?" "Uh, this is Claudia Messina." "She is the new DEA country attaché." "She'll be taking over all DEA operations in-country." "Messina?" "Thank you, Ambassador." "The DEA will be opening field offices in Cali, Cartagena and Barranquilla." "As far as the Medellín team is concerned, they will be housed out of CNP headquarters until further notice." "But only after some personnel changes have been made." "All right, now as far as long-term intelligence is concerned, that's under the purview of the CIA, the station chief, Bill Stechner." "Bill, you have anything you'd like to add?" "I'm good." "All right, who's here from Centra Spike?" "I am, sir." "Edward Jacoby." "All right, let's get Centra Spike back in the air immediately." "I want to know every word these assholes say and all information flows through me and I will disseminate as I see fit." "Yes, sir." "When Escobar sticks his fucking head out, we're gonna nail that son of a bitch." "What about him?" "Other than the fact that he wasn't here today." "Well, I suggested that he stay home." "You mentioned making some changes." "What exactly does that mean?" "It means I'm making some changes." "Murphy's a good agent." "He's done a lot of good work down here." "Yeah." "Looks like it." "Do you have any idea the strings that were pulled to get that guy not to press charges?" "Sounds to me like the guy would've had a dog sniffing up his ass before he got on the plane." "Maybe Steve did him a favor." "Was that a thank you?" "Be straight with me, Agent Peña, and I'll be straight with you." "I don't need a guy like that making my life more difficult." " And making the DEA look bad." " Ma'am..." "Messina." "Or boss." "We've been down here a long time." "You've been down here all of what, two hours?" "It may not make the front page, but... a lot of the intel we have is because of Steve." "He's a good man." "He's going through some shit right now." "You know, he was at the airport to stop his wife from leaving the country with their kid." "He didn't make it." "Add that to watching Escobar build a five-star prison and then walking out the back door." "We both deserve to see this through... boss." "Have you, uh... had anything to eat in the last 24 hours?" "This new boss..." "Messina... what do you know about her?" "Only what I've heard." "She's out of New York." "Doesn't put up with any shit." "Fuck!" "Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck." "Am I out?" "I don't know." "Well, I ain't ready to go home yet, Javi." "I'll tell ya that." "Damn it!" "She's fucking..." "Take a shower." "Sober up." "Talk to you." "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "Now, Gaviria had made it clear that the government was not to negotiate with Escobar." "But Colombia Attorney General Gustavo de Greiff didn't give a shit what the president wanted." "Unlike the US, where the attorney general is appointed by the president, in Colombia, the Supreme Court chooses the attorney general, whether the president likes it or not." "And in the case of Gustavo de Greiff, you bet your ass Gaviria didn't." "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "Uh-huh." "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "Listen, thanks for talking to Messina, man." "I mean it." "You saved my ass." "One more fuck-up, Murphy..." "Oh, I know." "Is it gonna happen again?" "I don't know." "DEA politics weren't the only thing we had to navigate." "The Pinzón plan was in full effect." "He was doubling down on police presence." "Medellín was under martial law and the base of Carlos Holguín would look like Fort Apache." "Me and Javi were officially guests of the CNP." "With all the comforts and amenities that a guest of the National Colombian Police could expect." "Which was zero." "And we weren't alone." "The DEA, CIA, Centra Spike and the army, all under one roof." "It was one-stop shopping for all things Pablo Escobar." "After Gaviria announced a new $1.4 million reward for Pablo's capture," "Colonel Pinzón activated a new tip line." "And apparently he thought Javi and I were just the guys to oversee it." "Forget about the fact that my Spanish was for shit." "He was sidelining us and there was nothing we could do about it." "Pablo would even have his men call in just to fuck with us." "_" "I'm not sure what we expected." "To many people, Escobar was a hero." "It was like asking Chicago to rat out Michael Jordan." "And those that didn't worship Escobar, they were simply too scared to call." "But we had a system anyways." "One tip in a particular location didn't mean shit." "A second call with the same information still might not be worth acting on." "But three calls on the same location from three different sources?" " _" " Yeah?" "Now, that had to be checked out." "Hey, I said it was a system." "I didn't say it worked." "Fuck me." "_" "Our inability to catch Escobar was frustrating." "But back in Bogotá, it was becoming a real liability." "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "Get ready to get your balls snipped." "So... your wife left." "You're upset, knocked a few back to numb the pain and then decide to take it out on some Wall Street scumbag." "Yeah, something like that." "Isolated incident?" "Yeah." "Look, I know I've been in Colombia for all of about 20 seconds." "Mm." "Before that, you and Peña had complete autonomy to call your own shots." "It's gonna take you a minute to get used to the new order." "You don't trust me yet?" "That's fine." "But if I'm gonna have your back, I need to know that I can trust you." "Otherwise, I have no problem sending you back to your wife in Miami." "Am I making myself clear?" "Loud and clear." "Excellent." "You're dismissed." "_" "_" "I got "La Quica" and "toilet."" "_" "_" "All right, well, now, that I got." "We can't take that to Pinzón." "He'll laugh us out of the office." "_" "_" "_" "Maybe we can get Centra Spike to do a flyover, see what they come up with." "Be a lot better than the fucking tip line." "I'll be right back." " A toilet?" " It's a long story." " Give me the CliffsNotes." " Look, just do me a favor and ask them to sweep over that specific area." "We're looking for any chatter from Escobar's sicarios." "Anything at all." "You recognize a voice, you come get me." "Duvall 1-4-4-3-6, we heard some chatter at 1600 megahertz." "Be advised." "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "That is definitely Velasco." "No ID on the girl." "What's the deal with the other call?" "The quality's too poor for voice recognition." "All right... these were taken about two hours ago." "What's here is fincas, fincas." "Everything else is just smaller houses here, here and here, and the outskirts." "You can probably eliminate the smaller ones, not Escobar's style." "Which of the fincas have road access both east and west?" "This one here." "It's rough terrain down the back of the mountain, but it's drivable." "It's gotta be the one." "We'd have a good chance if we came at him from both sides." "This is good." "Great." "What about Pinzón?" "We're gonna need vehicles, we're gonna need men." "Leave Pinzón to me." "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "What did he say?" "He said no." "Oh, she's not gonna last." "She gives up pretty fuckin' easy." "But Messina didn't give up easy." "She called Crosby..." "Crosby called Gaviria... and in less than 15 minutes..." " I understand." " ..." "Pinzón was gettin' a kick in the ass." "_" "_" "I guess everybody works for somebody." "_" "Just because we could make Pinzón dance didn't mean we could call the tune." "We would've gone in stealth." "Surround the fucker, then grab him." "Pinzón didn't do shit that way." "He liked kicking down the front door, waking up the whole damn neighborhood." "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "Don't forget that Pablo made a career of staying ahead of the cops." "A lot of the fincas he used had tunnels built just for this purpose." "Even though he didn't like using them." "I guess you could say that he was paranoid, but then again, if people are actually after you, that's not paranoid." "That's just smart." "Peña!" "Messina!" "He was here." "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "You know, in all the years I chased Escobar," "I could count on one hand the times we almost had him." "And each time, we forgot the two most important things we already knew about him:" "Close doesn't count." "And Pablo is never more dangerous than when you almost have him." "With all the cops on the street, it was easy to forget... this was still Escobar's town." "He tolerated it all in the interest of negotiations." "Chasing a man and his family out of their home in the middle of the night?" "That wasn't a negotiation." "To Escobar... well, that was an act of war." "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "Peña!"