"What matters is that he was killed," he says. As a result, the Florida agents decided to have the informants come to the United States with a sample of the acrylic, so they could walk DEAs chemists through the extraction process. Kiki is also shown confronting Felix in the streets for no good reason. Narcos viewers know Chris Feistl as the hungry DEA agent who helped dismantle the season-three villains, the Cali cartel. Alyssa Diaz and Mika Camarena attend the Netflix Original Series Narcos: Mexico, special screening at LA Live in Los Angeles, CA on November 14, 2018 in Los Angeles, California. The cracks in the lid DEA and OPR has attempted to place on this problem are getting bigger. Narcos: Mexico shows the growth of the Guadalajara Cartel, pieced together by Felix Gallardo out of warring factions. Authorities pose with Pablo Escobar just after this death. WebPortuguese products available Online we mail to all lower 48 states. ", Pena adds to THR, "The intrigue, the suspense it's really well done. ", Sign up for THR news straight to your inbox every day, Inside the business of TV with breaking news, expert analysis and showrunner interviews. Bem Vindos em Portugus! Javier Pea is a DEA agent who worked alongside Steve Murphy during their hunt for Pablo Escobar. Eric has lived up to his word 100 percent. "Ultimately, our investigation into all the Cali godfathers never really stopped until many, many years later, but I guess the point there would be Pacho Herreras surrender in September of 96," saysFeistl of the godfather who was portrayed by Alberto Ammann. ", Pena adds of Escobar's final days: "He was running out of money and he was running out of time. During that 18 month period, there were 143 Colombian National Police Officers killed as a direct result of the manhunt for Escobar. After news of Narcos' two-season renewal, Newman said the third season will focus on Escobar's successor, the Cali Cartel. "There were a number of ways that they came to me," Feistltells The Hollywood Reporter in a lengthy and informative chat about his real-life experience and how it was portrayed on the show. A full investigation of his allegations may well prove that the DEAs Bogot office is clean as a whistle. According to The San Diego Union-Tribune newspaper. US reexamines murder of federal agent featured in How much of 'Narcos' Season 3 really happened? Whats more, the police werent allowed anywhere near the prison. 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).. He was a Marine. "I gave them a tour of the city, showed them where actual houses and events took place, where the bloque of the Colombian national police actually was and where we did surveillances from. But the Pea of the show was also depicted as an agent not above breaking the law in order to complete his mission. "They were accountants, professional money-launderers. Thats where his stronghold was and given his situation, I cant imagine he would leave that area. Kiki Camarena was born Enrique (Kiki) S. Camarena on July 26, 1947, in Mexicali, Mexico. You would look at it for hours and say there was nothing there, unless you took the shelves out and were able to manipulate some things that were there and get access to the door, which only opened from the inside. A lot of innocent people. So he and his partner used Salcedo's intel to approach Pallomari's wife, Patricia, at her workplace and explain that Cali had a hit out on her husband. "The corruption was even worse in the military. Ambassador Michael "That really opened our eyes to the corruption that we were dealing with there.". Eventually, they did and used him as an asset andPallomari, too, is now in U.S. witness protection. But this gave Javier Pea and Search Bloc (with an assist from a vigilante group known as Los Pepes) their chance to finally bring Pablo Escobar down for real. In later years, some have argued that Mexican operatives working for the CIA were involved in Kiki Camarenas death, according to El Pais. Ironically, the NDDS chief to whom Kent addressed the memorandum, Jodi L. Avergun, is now the chief of staff for DEA. He deserves a lot of credit for that. he says. He started to smuggle car stereos and home appliances. Just his appearance and demeanor commands respect. They adopted their second daughter in May before they returned. The fact that Narco News is breaking this story first may tell us all we need to know on that front. I still have a job to do.'" They changed their names but shortly after, their identities were discovered and Tata was arrested on suspicion of money laundering. After the first failed raid on Miguel, Feistl, as shown on Narcos, told Salcedo it was time to get out and that they would capture the godfather without him. He could have watched his children grow up. Agents I know were able to vouch for my credibility and several individuals close to the prior investigations that uncovered corruption agreed to speak with me. ), The information in that document is also corroborated by a number of other sources that spoke directly to Narco News, including former government officials who are familiar with the DEAs Bogot operations. Of Juan Pablo's theory that the shot was self-inflicted with Escobar's semiautomatic pistol, which was found next to his body, Murphy explains:"I saw Pablo up close and I have photographs of him. Betrayed by his own? BOGOTA, Colombia A DEA agent has died in an apparent robbery attempt in Colombia, U.S. ", As for his portrayal, Feistl called Stahl-David a perfectionist. "[My partner] and I were looking for a way into the cartel and Jorge was looking for a way out of the cartel. 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. Narcos previously had the real Javier Pena and partner Steve Muprhy (portrayed by Boyd Holbook) consulting on the two-season story of Pablo Escobar and when the show shifted its focus to Cali, Pena and Murphy recommended the showrunners reach out to Feistl. 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. During the 1980s, Pena and Murphy were sent to collaborate with the Colombian Search Bloc in its war against drug traffickers such as Pablo Escobar, often contacting the CIA and Colombian police to help in their operations. By 1985, which is when Narcos: Mexico roughly starts, he was extremely close to unlocking a multi-billion dollar drug pipeline, the DEA says. More From Oprah Daily The next installment of Narcos: Mexico picks up in 1985, after Camarena's death has changed everything for the DEA agents in Mexico, for the Guadalajara Cartel, and for the show itself. They kept us alive when we were out doing operations, Pea said. They only travel a short distance, a few feet, but it strikes the body and leaves whats called powder burns. If they are true, there will be no brushing them aside at pre-scripted press conferences; everyone who becomes aware of these allegations will be forced to consider where we go from here in that so-called war. When the informant approached the DEA once again with information, writes Kent, the Bogot agent that traveled to Washington, D.C., now claimed that the informant was a pedophile. The money goes toward scholarships. The finale of the second season re-created the kingpin's final moments during a rooftop shootout in Medellin, Colombia. You can read about him here. JESUS ABAD-EL COLOMBIANO/AFP/Getty Images. ", The real leader of the Search Bloc, Hugo Martinez, is still alive today. Born in 1948, Pea was raised in Texas before joining the DEA. Whats the true story? 3 power that is now No. 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. Tickets: $28-$38. In the show as in real life, DEA Agent Javier Pea was assigned the daunting task of taking Escobar down. Javier Pea and Steve Murphy sit outside of La Catedral following Pablo Escobars escape. And he protected his enterprise with terror and murder. ", He continues, "One of the majors that we worked with, who we literally put our lives in his hands for an extended period of time, we later found out that he was collaborating with Los Pepes. Bienvenidos en Espaol! All Rights Reserved. He was gunned down by a North Valley member. Opening Statement, April 18, 2000 The Reagan Administration predictably freaked out and exercised its power. They basically had anything that you could ever dream of. But what happens when evidence surfaces that turns that script on its ear? ", The family did ultimately leave Colombia for Argentina. "We tried to do something with a couple of people and they would come up with these wacko ideas about what they wanted to do," Murphy recalls. The agents who reported the allegations (of corruption) did so to correct wrongs committed by other members of the DEA and OPR, Kent states in the memorandum. 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. 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 You have to understand, the search for Escobar was purely revenge. "It took us quite a bit of time to locate Pallomari and assist him in getting out of the country," he says. "It was a good day for not only DEA but also for the Colombian government, but it was short-lived because we realized at that point we still had a lot of work to do," he says. Those American tourists in the restaurant that we see get killed in the show were assumed to be DEA agents by Rafa. 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. 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. A document obtained recently by Narco News makes those questions more than hypothetical queries. And while the show makes Pea and Murphy out to be the heroes of the story, Pea insists that it was the Colombian police who deserve the real credit. Season two of 'Narcos' takes place in the early 1990's, around the same time of Escobar's death. WebSpecial Agent James Terry Watson died after being stabbed in a taxi in Bogota, Colombia, on June 20. On Oct. 12, with filming of the third season underway in Colombia, Netflix confirmed Pascal's return with a season-three photo. "There were people we worked with in Cali that were part of the police that we knew were corrupt and proved it," says Feistl of how they kept information close to the chest. "The MedellinCartel was the Wild Wild West and Cali was businesslike," explains Pena. Wikimedia CommonsAuthorities pose with Pablo Escobar just after this death. WebWhat you don't learn in Narcos: Mexico is that the Guadalajara guys thought that Kiki was the third or fourth agent they had killed -- not the first. ), Connie's departure, however, worked well for the drama. And although the charges raised by Kent in his 2004 memorandum have now passed before many eyes, they have still not been addressed in the light of day. For anyone wondering what the real DEA agents behindNarcos think about their portrayal on the Netflix series, Steve Murphy sums it up. "The blow must go on. As the two sides argued back and forth, the informant was challenged by the Bogot agents to prove his allegations, the memorandum states. Everybody was willing to hide him. Soon, he graduated to stealing cars and sanding down tombstones from the local cemetery to resell them. In real life, his name was Cesar Yusti. WebThe DEA Agent Has A Compelling Real Life Story Entertainment Agent Pea Is Just Like His 'Narcos' Character IRL by Caroline Gerdes Sep. 16, 2015 While watching the newest It was just revenge because of all the cops he had killed, along with all those innocent people. [Laughs. "We told them how it actually happened," says Pena. One week after submitting the (information) to OPR, the money laundering investigation was shut down.. But when the informants got to the airport to leave for the U.S., they were arrested. Narcoscontinues to walk the fine line between presenting its villains as characters who are addictive to watch, but who are not glorified. Within a few short years, the Medelln Cartel that Escobar established was pulling in millions every day. Special Agent James Terry Watson, A look at the nature of the alleged corruption may give us some clues. The corruption allegations raised in Kents memorandum are startling, but agents in the Bogot DEA office are not the first to have been accused of participating in a narco-trafficking conspiracy. She is pregnant throughout part of the show and living with him in Mexico with their family while his job increases in danger. The bottom line: Gallardo went way too far by targeting Camarena. ", 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. He arrived in Colombia in 1988 and immediately set to work establishing contacts with the Colombian police. So when you walked back in, it looked just like a dresser. (The DEA is part of the larger Justice Department. Eric took it in good stride. Colombian police and military forces storm the rooftop where drug lord Pablo Escobar was shot dead just moments earlier during an exchange of gunfire between security forces and Escobar and his bodyguard. In addition, Kents request to send the Bogot corruption allegations to the Justice Departments Public Integrity Section was denied, and his memorandum deep-sixed until now. "Each one of them brought something to the table, which was pretty distinctive," he says. [Warning: This story contains spoilers from the entire third season of Netflix's Narcos.]. Eventually, the informant was released from prison and tried to start working with the Florida agents again, but an agent from the Bogot office traveled to Washington, D.C., and managed to convince DEA brass to derail the investigation. Newman said he did not contact the brothers about the show. Finally, when the Colombian government tried to move him to a regular prison in 1992, Escobar escaped. Thats when we went to look for the hammers because once we were able to hit the air space, we knew there was unaccounted for space behind that wall.". He was shot six or eight times, I believe.". 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. He came back in 1999, where he overlapped with Pena, and until 2002 they were working against the North Valley cartel. You have 24 hours to leave Colombia. "The Cali cartel had that vision that 'sooner or later, this corridor is going to get hot and we might need to shift focus.' He is too obsessed with taking down Felix. 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. As the informant left that meeting, he was murdered, Kent states. WebJavier Pena (1958-) was an American Drug Enforcement Agency agent and the partner of Steve Murphy. WebA location manager was shot and killed when scouting locations in the north of Mexico city for this last season 4. However, he would make a fatal mistake, and season 2 deals with the aftermath of it: The murder of Camarena, and how the DEA responded to it. Check out our most popular TV PLAYLISTS: LATEST TV SHOW TRAILERS: goo.gl/rvKCPb SUPERHERO/COMIC BOOK TV TRAILERS: goo.gl/r8eLH6 NETFLIX TV TRAILERS: goo.gl/dbO463 HBO. WebA location manager for "Narcos" was found shot to death after scouting out a rural part of Mexico to film the Netflix series' next season. "Let me break it down for you: 4,000 soldiers, a 250-man team of Colombia's elite forces, tens of thousands of rounds fired, seven dogs and four fing helicopters. "As long as it would have taken us to get a sledgehammer and knock the wall down, so two or three minutes, thats how far away we were on the initial raid to arresting Miguel," he says. Narcos also introduced a handful of other casualties left behind in the wake of the Cali godfathers. 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. He saw the possibility and the signs of an empire being builtthis narcotics empireand he wanted to put an end to it because he saw what it could possibly become.. The agents were believed to work in Colombia and Washington, D.C.. Even if hes only worth 5 billion dollars, those numbers are astronomical. "A lot of people didnt know about the Cali cartel. Agent Javier Pea of Texas was assigned by the DEA to join in the hunt for Pablo Escobar. When he surrendered, it was like we lost him. Camarena held other positions in law enforcement before joining the DEA. WebFormer DEA agents Steve Murphy and Javier Peas are appearing in Capturing Pablo: Conversation on Narcos at 8 p.m. Friday at City Winery in the West Loop. ", He continued, "Where Medellin really revolutionized that Caribbean corridor, Cali revolutionized that trafficking through Mexico, which the North Valley cartel jumped on after extradition. But by the 1970s, he had discovered that the real money was in cocaine. And so with Pablo Escobar dead, Javier Pea left Colombia and went on to continue his successful career with the DEA before retiring in 2014. ET. And what of the mainstream-media guardians of our liberty? That doctor was a real person although he denies involvement. WebOne mystery that still remains is the murder of the sicario Navegante (Juan Sebastian Calero) on Narcos. Steve Murphy/Texas MonthlyJavier Pea at the Colombian National Police Headquarters following a seizure of some of Pablo Escobars money, gold, and a .45 caliber gold-plated pistol. Similar tales of corruption involving overseas DEA agents have surfaced in the past. ", What the third season zeroed in on, however, was the DEA's dealings with Salcedo and in fact, the Cali insider was only playing for both teams for a short amount of time. Pena had a long But they had gotten comfortable in that lifestyle. They were able to provide me with some of the highlights, but certainly not all of the information that is sitting at OPR and OIG. "It had a big impact and resonated," he says. The Bogot agent then claimed that he had no idea the Florida agents had given the informants permission to transport the cocaine. He spent four years in Mexico tracking the countrys drug dealers (the drugs of choice were marijuana and cocaine back then.). I saw the bullet hole in the side of Pablos head, I saw no signs whatsoever of the powder burns on his face. According to El Pais, Camarenas skull, jaw, nose and cheekbones were crushed with a tire iron. Escobar died Dec. 2, 1993, in a shootout with Colombian police and American DEA agents. He decided not to become a police officer because his dad thought it was too dangerous, according to NBC San Diego, which quoted him as saying, I grab a little bit from one supervisor, I grab a little bit from another, and added on to me to become who I am today., Judge Enrique Camarena Jr. is speaking to @MSASanDiego 6th Graders. Murphy (played by Boyd Holbrook) and Pena (played by Pedro Pascal) are the two agents responsible for taking down Pablo Escobar. So how closely does the Netflix version of Javier Pea match up to the real one? I hated to see Maurices character get killed, but it was very exciting. WebBest Known For: DEA agents Steve Murphy and Javier Pena were lead investigators in the manhunt for Colombian drug kingpin Pablo Escobar. In addition to phone calls, where he says he mainly fielded questions to help solidify the timeline and accuracy of events,Stahl-David visited him at his home for several days. Kuykendall is quoted in the book Whiteout: The CIA, Drugs, and the Press by Alexander Cockburn. Since Pena this season was a composite of other real-life characters (the real Pena wasn't involved in the hunt for Cali), Feistl says he experienced such frustrations. To maintain his hold on the cocaine trade, Escobar had to make it clear that he would kill anyone who crossed him, including judges and government officials. WebFor years in the 1980s, Escobar made untold billions off trafficking cocaine into the United States from his native Colombia. The finale shows Tata Escobar swallowing her pride and attempting to appeal to Gilberto (Damian Alcazar) for compassion when she asks her husband's enemy for help getting her family out of Colombia. The CIA has denied the allegations. There was also a standing bounty of $300,000 offered by Escobar for any DEA agent working in Colombia, including Pea. Javier Pea: The DEA Agent Who Hunted Down Pablo Escobar. 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? Camarena opens the show in a scene that shows hes been abducted. "We arrested Miguel, but then it was, 'Ok, now we need to focus our attention on Jorge. It wasnt going after dope, it wasnt going after money. On the series, Gilberto agrees, as long as she hands over all of her assets. "We kept on getting disappointed and it wasn't worth the grief., So the pair blew off forthcoming offers, until they met with those who would become the creators of Narcos. As he lay dying, a cartel doctor was ordered to keep him alert by administering drugs.. We had to focus on trying to locate and approach Giullermo Pallomari, because we needed him as a witness. The writers just really astound me. "We were always firm believers that the way you catch these kingpins is through human assets and sources. Will they step up to the plate on this story, given their penchant for adhering to the standard drug-war script? Was he really abducted? The DEA agents in Florida looked further into the source of that information and followed the trail to several other DEA informants. Washington, 26 abr. Narco News is supported by: One of the informants was kidnapped and murdered in Bogot where he had gone into hiding.. Camarena served in the Marines for two years, was a firefighter and police officer and deputy sheriff in California, and then joined the DEA in 1974. The investigation continued until the informant was faxed a document that identified him as a DEA informant on the FARC. Ive heard him say before that getting his story out is his way of telling people that if youre confronted with a potentially bad situation, just say 'no.' But we all know, thats not what he chose to do. His full name was Miguel Angel Felix Gallardo, and, in real life, he was a brutal and clever man called El Padrino AKA The Godfather. Their hunt for the notoriousMedellinCartel leader was told on the first two seasons of Narcos, where both agents serve as series consultants. The recordings revealed that a narco-trafficker had indeed obtained the internal DEA information that was used to expose the Florida groups informant. 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. 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. During the course of an investigation into a Colombian narco-trafficking operation, a group of DEA agents in Florida had zeroed in on several targets, with the help of several Colombian informants. 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. When Pachoeventually surrendered in 1997, that's when Feistlleft Colombia. They alleged that they were assisted in their narcotics activities by the [Bogot] agents. Javier Pea stands near a Colombian National Police helicopter. We worked primarily with the police, and they were the guys that we trusted with our lives. The third season introducedAmado Carrillo Fuentes, aka the Lord of the Skies, of the Juarez Cartel and Newman pointed outthat if and when the show goes to Mexico, the show will focus on the war moving closer to U.S. shores. "If you do that, you deny the human side of these guys, which is what allows them to happen.". After the Florida agents turned these documents over to the OPR and OIG, one of them was put on administrative leave the first sign that a cover-up was underway. Though some mystery remains around the deaths of the latter two (Chepe was believed to have been killed in a police shootout until a memoir detailed otherwise) the show shared its interpretations of the truth in its depictions. WebA Drug Enforcement Administration agent was killed in an apparent robbery attempt in Colombia, the agency announced Friday. But thats the genesis and how that story came to be. 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. The traffickers eventually gave the Florida agents copies of confidential DEA reports, which the Bogot agents allegedly had handed over to the traffickers. They were more sophisticated and very different cartels. "Miguel Rodriguez ended up getting arrested in August of 1995 just six weeks later, so we were only talking and working with Jorge for the two months. 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. Newman also said little was known about Victoria "Tata" Escobar (Paulina Gaitan) at the time. Something Feistl helped them with were the small details, such as the mannerisms and personalities of each. "Thats how much we enjoyed it. Sources told Narco News that these corruption allegations involve cases launched in 1999 or 2000, but which resulted in investigations that carried on for months or years. Pablo Escobar died in a rooftop shootout in Medellin on Dec. 2, 1993. His misrepresentations were backed by another agent in Bogot, Kent states. Thats one of the messages he tries to portray.". "Its very dangerous to draw a picture of someone as inhuman," he has said. What do Glenn Fine, the head of the DOJs OIG, and Rogelio E. Guevara, who currently oversees the DEAs OPR, know about Kents charges, which were brought forth in his memo more than a year ago? Though Murphy says he has no respect for Juan Pablo ("Hes trying to save face for his family and create a better legacy than his father left behind"), he admits that his side of what the family had faced after Pablo's death was interesting. Details: citywinery.com Don Berna was at the base [the Colombian National Police ", Though Narcos is a dramatization, Newman toldTHR the series is 50-50 when it comes to fiction and nonfiction, and that they stick to the true chronology of events. Escobar himself quickly became one of the richest men in the world. La Catedral, as the prison was called, was more like a resort. In 87 to 89, they really exploited that Mexican corridor and it was because of NAFTA and the Juarez cartel that they were able to push a lot of cocaine into Mexico on those huge 747 flights theyd land in the desert and offload six, eight, 10 tons or more of cocaine and then bring back these huge cash shipments to Cali. In order to get the third season story right, Narcos enlisted the real Chris Feistlto serve as a consultant. The ending is a sad one, and what happened to Kiki Camarena would change the face of Mexican drug cartels forever and lead to the emergence of El Chapo. 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. "Pacho was very young when they sent him to New York to set up that distribution outlet there. "Both those guys said I would be a good resource to speak to, and also because of William Rempels book At the Devil's Table: The Untold Story of the Insider Who Brought Down Cali." But through it all, Escobar always seemed to stay one step ahead. (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.). And in this case, the dam holding back the truth in the so-called war on drugs may be close to breaking. He talks about how FB.init("6fd1eea8d35df9c4bb8ba0035ab521a9"); Sign up for free email alerts list:
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