The Military Workshop
1st Lieutenant
- Joined
- Jul 31, 2005
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Went to an event with Javier Pena and Steve Murphy the real DEA agents who took down Pablo Escobar as depicted in Nacos.
Seems they now do about 75 of these presentations a year. Have just done NZ and Perth and doing Canberra on Saturday and Melbourne on Monday. The have web page and Facebook pages, DEANarcos.
They went through the history of the Escobar manhunt. They work as a good pair with interesting photos and mentioning some parts of the series which were not accurate. Some of the photos were quite graphic. Some good pics of the prison Pablo built for himself. One thing they were both keen to emphasise was the good work of the specially chosen members of the Search Bloc (chosen from soldiers who had no relatives in Meddelin). I thought they were fairly modest about their own role.
I enjoyed the presentation and they answered some interesting questions. Probably the one they get the most as they pre-empted it was the relationship between Pena and Los Pepes. LP was the vigilante type group that started killing many of Escobars associates and in some cases children. They were supported by the Cali cartel and some in the police / military. The series showed that Pena was giving them information to help them. Pena basically said Netflix told him they were going to portray him this way and as they were paying him good money he signed some paperwork that he agreed with the portrayal. He says he did not cross a line by giving LP information although he did know the main guy in Los Pepes.
They mentioned that at one time they had enough evidence to put the President of Haiti (Aristide) on trial for drug offences. The White House stopped it. Same President who had a well known Foundation.
Murphy said about 1/3 true and others dramatisations of events. For example there was no COL Carillo who got killed. He was not present when Escobar killed although did get there quickly. They both seemed very happy with the series and their presentation included clips. They said two more series to come. One on the investigation into the death of DEA agent Kiki Camarena and the other on Tijuana.
I had heard Murphy on the radio earlier in the week and he said Escobar probably did not want them killed because of the reaction by DEA after murder of Camarena. This seemed odd when they said Escobar put a $300,000 bounty on their heads. Much to my surprise they said never offered bribes. The silver or lead theme was quite big in Narcos.
They mentioned they have a book coming out in December called Manhunters about the taking down of Escobar. Murphy was dismissive of the book by Mark Bowden called Killing Pablo. Bowden also wrote Blackhawk Down. Having read Killing Pablo, written in 2001, I would say I was impressed with it. I will buy their book anyway.
Seems there is even a board game on Narcos !
Overall I enjoyed the evening.
Seems they now do about 75 of these presentations a year. Have just done NZ and Perth and doing Canberra on Saturday and Melbourne on Monday. The have web page and Facebook pages, DEANarcos.
They went through the history of the Escobar manhunt. They work as a good pair with interesting photos and mentioning some parts of the series which were not accurate. Some of the photos were quite graphic. Some good pics of the prison Pablo built for himself. One thing they were both keen to emphasise was the good work of the specially chosen members of the Search Bloc (chosen from soldiers who had no relatives in Meddelin). I thought they were fairly modest about their own role.
I enjoyed the presentation and they answered some interesting questions. Probably the one they get the most as they pre-empted it was the relationship between Pena and Los Pepes. LP was the vigilante type group that started killing many of Escobars associates and in some cases children. They were supported by the Cali cartel and some in the police / military. The series showed that Pena was giving them information to help them. Pena basically said Netflix told him they were going to portray him this way and as they were paying him good money he signed some paperwork that he agreed with the portrayal. He says he did not cross a line by giving LP information although he did know the main guy in Los Pepes.
They mentioned that at one time they had enough evidence to put the President of Haiti (Aristide) on trial for drug offences. The White House stopped it. Same President who had a well known Foundation.
Murphy said about 1/3 true and others dramatisations of events. For example there was no COL Carillo who got killed. He was not present when Escobar killed although did get there quickly. They both seemed very happy with the series and their presentation included clips. They said two more series to come. One on the investigation into the death of DEA agent Kiki Camarena and the other on Tijuana.
I had heard Murphy on the radio earlier in the week and he said Escobar probably did not want them killed because of the reaction by DEA after murder of Camarena. This seemed odd when they said Escobar put a $300,000 bounty on their heads. Much to my surprise they said never offered bribes. The silver or lead theme was quite big in Narcos.
They mentioned they have a book coming out in December called Manhunters about the taking down of Escobar. Murphy was dismissive of the book by Mark Bowden called Killing Pablo. Bowden also wrote Blackhawk Down. Having read Killing Pablo, written in 2001, I would say I was impressed with it. I will buy their book anyway.
Seems there is even a board game on Narcos !
Overall I enjoyed the evening.
