All language subtitles for Gangland Chronicles S01E03 1080p WEB h264-EDITH_track3_[eng]

[♪]

Gangs rule their territories
through ruthless enterprises,

fear,

and a strict code.

Deviate from this code

or challenge their power...

and retribution soon follows...

especially for the world's
first narco-terrorists,

the ultra-violent
Medellín Cartel.

Here are three stories

that track the organization's
astronomic rise

and calamitous fall.

First, the Medellín Cartel
buys a piece of land

to create a billion-dollar
global drug operation...

A trafficker purchasing
an island to traffic cocaine.

That was unheard of.

[Narrator]
Next, the cartel goes to war

with
the Colombian government...

Pablo had a belief

that he could bring
the government to its knees.

[Narrator] And last,
the DEA joins the fight

and helps the Colombians back
Pablo Escobar into a corner.

He knew that his enemies
were near.

He was on his own
with nowhere to go.

[automatic gunfire]

[Narrator]
These are the stories

from inside the Medellín Cartel.

This is Gangland Chronicles.

1976.

Medellín, Colombia.

What will become

one of the world's most vicious
criminal organizations

is born...

the Medellín Cartel.

[gunfire]

The cartel will rise

to dominate
the world's cocaine market,

killing as many
as 50,000 along the way.

These are folks
that have no compunction

about murdering people
to get what they want.

There's no remorse.

That's business.

[Narrator] The Medellín Cartel
is led by several kingpins:

the enterprising Ochoa brothers,

paramilitary expert
José Gonzalo Rodriguez Gacha,

and Gustavo Gaviria,

the cousin of the cartel's
infamous boss of bosses,

Pablo Escobar.

Pablo Escobar could be
a charismatic-type person

to get what he wanted,

but he could turn evil
in a heartbeat,

and you might be dead.

[Narrator] Escobar controls
Medellín's bloodthirsty hitmen,

known as sicarios.

Their targets include
law enforcement

and government officials
who are given a stark choice.

Very famous word
established by Pablo Escobar,

" Plata o plomo ,"

bullet or money.

[gunfire]

You either accept the bribe
or you get killed.

Anybody who went against
Escobar would die.

He was a well-rounded bad guy,

and I think cocaine
became his lifeblood

in terms of profit,

and that's
the direction he went.

[Narrator] With cocaine selling
for $60,000 a kilo,

$400,000 today,

by the late 1970s,
the Medellín Cartel is focused

on cornering
the surging American market,

and the key to the U.S.

is an associate
with a checkered past,

a pilot's license,
and a wild idea.

1976.

Medellín.

After serving time
in an American prison,

German-Colombian pilot
Carlos Lehder

is deported back to Colombia.

When Lehder
meets Pablo Escobar,

they both see an opportunity.

[Murphy] Carlos was able
to introduce himself to Pablo

as an accomplished pilot

who could transport
large loads of cocaine

from Colombia
to the United States.

They gave him some test runs,
it worked out great...

[Narrator] Escobar invites
Lehder into the Medellín Cartel,

and they use
Lehder's small airplane

to smuggle cocaine into Florida
by the ton.

[Murphy] Carlos was willing
to do back-to-back trips,

probably snorting coke
to stay awake.

Carlos was loving it,

just making money
hand over fist.

[Narrator] But delivering the
huge volume of product this way

poses new problems.

[Murphy] One of the challenges

in flying an aircraft
from Colombia to South Florida

is your fuel capacity.

[Narrator] The Medellín Cartel
needs a Caribbean pitstop

that is under the radar
of law enforcement.

[Murphy] Lo and behold,
Carlos finds a place

in the Bahamas Island chain.

[Pobutsky]
Norman's Cay is perfect,

because it's not
a tourist destination,

it's isolated, it's small,

it has an airstrip,
a small marina,

and it's surrounded by sharks.

[Narrator]
Lehder scares off the locals

and buys up the entire island.

By 1978, Norman's Cay

is the Medellín Cartel's
cocaine distribution hub.

[Pobutsky] Carlos Lehder
not only enlarged the airstrip,

but he also bought
a fleet of small planes,

and he became an incredibly
useful member for the cartel.

[Narrator] But when the island

goes from smuggling hub
to party location,

the DEA takes notice.

1981, Norman's Cay, Bahamas.

With over three tons of cocaine
smuggled through the island,

the Medellín Cartel is now

the world's number-one
cocaine supplier,

but Carlos Lehder's
distribution center

is no longer a secret.

[Murphy] Carlos Lehder
installs fuel tanks,

has a couple hangers built.

The armed guards were carrying
AK 47 automatic rifles.

At the same time,

he is enjoying
the fruits of his labor,

and this becomes known
as a real party place.

Not only the operation
became much more visible,

but also the behavior
of Carlos Lehder

made it more outrageous
to the entire world.

Because of that attention,

the Bahamian government came in
and seized the island...

and it forced Carlos to flee.

[Pobutsky] Carlos burned down

basically
everything on the island.

That was the end

of the most successful route
of the Medellín Cartel

for four years.

[Narrator] Carlos Lehder returns
to Colombia in 1982,

but his home country
is no longer a safe haven.

The Colombian National Police

get a tip of where
Carlos Lehder is located

and take him down,
get him back to Bogotá,

where the DEA
has a plane waiting,

and they immediately extradite
him to the United States.

[Narrator] After moving on
from Norman's Cay,

the Medellín Cartel finds
new routes and new partners

to export more cocaine
than they ever have before.

Pablo is organizing
his drug distribution

through
all the different fronts.

Colombia, central America,
the Caribbean,

and Pablo was declared

as the number-one trafficker
in Colombia.

[Narrator] The Medellín kingpins
are raking in $4 billion a year,

12 billion today,

and living the lifestyle
that goes along with it.

[Murphy] Pablo offered to pay
the national debt of Colombia

two different times,
billions of dollars.

That's how wealthy
this guy was.

[Narrator] But Pablo Escobar
wants more than wealth.

He wants power...

and if he can't take it legally,
he'll take it by force.

1982. Colombia.

Pablo Escobar wins a seat

in Colombia's
Chamber of Representatives.

His goal
is to use political power

to influence Colombia's laws

on extradition
for drug traffickers.

He really believed
at some point

he could legitimize himself

and be a national treasure
in terms of business

and all the economic things
he brought to the country.

[Murphy]
No one in the Medellín Cartel

wanted Pablo
to run for Congress.

They didn't want
the additional attention

that that was going to bring.

[Narrator] But within months,
Escobar is thrown out

after Attorney General
Rodrigo Lara Bonilla

exposes his criminal activities.

A disgraced Escobar
vows revenge.

On April 30, 1984,

Escobar sends his sicarios
after the Attorney General.

His car was stopped
in traffic.

A motorcycle pulls up
with two riders,

the guy on the back shoots

and assassinates him
in the back of his car.

[Narrator] In response
to Lara Bonilla's assassination,

the Colombian government moves
to extradite Escobar to America.

There is a saying,
"Better die in Colombia

than rot in prison
of the United States."

That's when Escobar decided to
declare war on his own country.

[Narrator]
Through the mid to late 1980s,

the Medellín Cartel kills

hundreds of police officers,
judges, journalists...

and anyone else
who gets in their way.

[Pobutsky] Escobar made
his choice to use terrorism

to intimidate
not just the state,

but the entire society.

[Narrator] Then Pablo Escobar

plots his most audacious
terrorist act yet...

a hit on presidential
candidate Luis Carlos Galán.

[Murphy] Luis Carlos Galán,

his platform
was pro extradition.

"Let's do something about
the narcos in our country

that are causing
all the murders."

He was going to be the next
president of Colombia.

[Narrator] Galán knows the
Medellín Cartel is after him,

but he's determined
to attend a campaign rally.

As he walks out on stage
in front of 10,000 people...

shots ring out.

August 18, 1989.

Soacha, Colombia.

Presidential candidate
Luis Carlos Galán,

enemy of Pablo Escobar
and the Medellín Cartel,

takes the stage
at a campaign rally.

Pablo's sicarios were there
waiting on him.

[automatic gunfire]

They shoot him there on stage.

Several other people
were wounded.

They tried to get
Luis Carlos Galán in the car

to get him to hospital.

He didn't make it
through the night.

[Narrator] The Medellín Cartel

then targets
Galán's replacement,

Cesar Gaviria,

by putting a bomb
on an airplane.

Gaviria was not on board,

but the bomb kills 110 people.

This absolutely
terrified the nation

and the support for Escobar,
if there was any,

was really weakening

with how he was killing
everybody indiscriminately.

[Narrator]
Fueled by public anger,

Gaviria wins the 1990 election
in a landslide,

and now the Colombian
government is out for blood,

systematically going after
the Medellín Cartel's leaders.

December 15, 1989.

Cartel kingpin
José Rodriguez Gacha

is killed
during a police operation.

A few months later,

Gustavo Gaviria is gunned down
in a shootout.

The Ochoa brothers
go into hiding.

With the Medellín Cartel
leadership crumbling,

Pablo Escobar
makes a surprising move.

[Pena] Pablo Escobar calls up
the governor of Colombia

and says, "Mr. President,
this is Pablo Escobar,

and I am willing
to self-surrender."

[Narrator] In exchange
for not being extradited,

Pablo Escobar agrees
to serve five years in prison,

with certain conditions.

He will imprison himself
in his own prison,

built and protected
by his own people.

[Peña] It was no prison.

It was a country club
atmosphere

where Pablo had
his own apartment,

had his color-coordinated
curtains,

giant TVs.

He was living in luxury.

The government
got a political cushion

where they felt
they had put a bad guy in jail,

and Pablo got the ability
to continue his business,

live the way he wanted,
and most importantly,

if he served his term,
he was free.

[Narrator]
But when Pablo Escobar

takes advantage
of his light prison sentence,

the country comes after him...
and the cartel.

July 22, 1992.

Envigado, Colombia.

Less than a year
into his prison sentence,

Pablo Escobar
savagely murders two associates

at his custom-built jail...

He thought
they were stealing from him.

[screaming]

[Pobutsky]
They were tortured, killed,

and cut into pieces
and allegedly barbecued.

That outraged the associates
from the Medellín Cartel

because they realized he now
goes after everybody,

not just his enemies,
but his own people.

So that shifted
not only the thought process

of the Colombians
and the government,

but also the world's view
of what was going on down there.

[Murphy]
When we found out about it,

the United States Embassy
went to President Gaviria

and said,
"Something's got to be done."

[Narrator] President Gaviria

orders him
to be moved to a state prison,

but with the help
of his sicarios,

Escobar escapes.

The Colombian government
has no choice but to respond,

and this time, American
DEA agents join the fight.

For the next 18 months,
Javier and I live in Medellín

with the Colombian
National Police.

Their only objective
was to find, capture,

and or/kill Pablo Escobar.

[Narrator]
But the Medellín Cartel

soon has more than
the Colombian government

and the DEA after them.

1993. Medellín, Colombia.

Supported
by U.S. law enforcement,

the Colombian National Police
wages an all-out assault

on Pablo Escobar's
Medellín Cartel.

We started raiding his money
launderers in Medellín and Miami

where we were picking up
financial records, accounts,

and then we started
seizing all this money

in the United States
and in Europe.

First time in history

where we're dismantling
a whole organization,

which had never
been done before.

[Narrator] At the same time,

a new enemy is giving
the Medellín Cartel

a taste of its own medicine.

In early '93,
a group comes along

that everybody now knows
as Los Pepes,

and Pepes stands for "People
Persecuted by Pablo Escobar."

[Narrator] Los Pepes,
a vigilante group

made up of relatives

of the Medellín Cartel's
many victims

and members of the rival
Cali Cartel,

make it their mission
to destroy what is left

of the Medellín's
once powerful organization.

[gunfire]

[Murphy] They would administer
their own form of justice,

in the form
of a bullet in the head.

The accountants,
the lawyers, the hitmen...

all the inner circle
of Escobar was attacked.

[Narrator]
With Gaviria and Gaucha dead,

and the other kingpins
behind bars,

by 1993, Escobar

is all that's left
of the cartel's leadership.

The Medellín Cartel
was basically gone.

Pablo Escobar had to feel
utterly isolated,

because he was
the last man standing.

Pablo was a bad guy,
a bandit,

a bandido,
whatever you want to call him,

from day one.

His view of the world

was either domination,
or you're going to kill me,

and that characteristic

is really what did him in
in the end,

because there was nowhere
for him to go.

[Narrator] December 1, 1993.

Without any money,
and his cartel in shambles,

Pablo Escobar
spends his 44th birthday

in a safe house
hidden somewhere in Medellín.

His gift to himself

is to stay on the phone
with his family...

allowing American Intelligence

to pinpoint the neighborhood
where Escobar is hiding.

We're starting
to intercept his phone calls.

Escobar would talk to his son
every day at 5:00,

and by now, they're starting
to hone in on Pablo Escobar.

[Narrator] The next day,

the Colombian police
flood the neighborhood

with a full-scale ground search.

Then, in a second-floor window
of a house,

they spot Escobar,
virtually alone.

[Murphy] When Escobar
was finally located,

we expected him
to have a full army.

He was down to one.

That shocked everybody.

[Narrator] A shootout ensues

between the bodyguard
and authorities.

As Escobar flees across
the rooftop of his hideout...

he is shot dead by police.

[Murphy]
The death of Pablo Escobar

marked the end
of the Medellín Cartel,

and it's the first time

that an entire cocaine

production
and distribution cartel

had been completely
dismantled and eliminated.

[Narrator] But the Medellín
Cartel's legacy

is a blueprint for cocaine
export that many have followed.

Somebody gets arrested,

there's another person

that's willing
to take over their business,

and it's still
going on right now.

Colombia continues

to be associated
with drug trafficking

when they would prefer

the victims
to be appreciated and remembered

rather than the victimizers.

The nation, to this day,

is living through the trauma
of drug trafficking

caused by Pablo Escobar
and the Medellín Cartel.