News (Media Awareness Project) - Colombia: Killing Pablo - Escobar Employs A Ruse As His Family Takes Flight |
| Title: | Colombia: Killing Pablo - Escobar Employs A Ruse As His Family Takes Flight |
| Published On: | 2000-12-11 |
| Source: | Inquirer (PA) |
| Fetched On: | 2008-09-02 09:17:31 |
ESCOBAR EMPLOYS A RUSE AS HIS FAMILY TAKES FLIGHT
Closing In, The Drug Lord's Pursuers Received Some Alarming News:
Their Quarry Had Escaped To Haiti.
By November of 1993, Gustavo de Greiff was becoming a
problem.
He was the Fiscal General, Colombia's top federal prosecutor, and he
was now working in open defiance of President Cesar Gaviria on the
matter of Pablo Escobar. De Greiff had told Gaviria that he disagreed
with effectively holding the Escobar family hostage. As an elected
official - an "independent entity," he called himself - he had decided
to help the family leave Colombia in order to complete his deal for
the fugitive's surrender.
When word spread that the family was looking for a haven in Canada,
Colombian Defense Minister Raphael Pardo contacted the Canadian
ambassador, only to learn that de Greiff already had called to request
that the Canadian government allow the family to enter. The Colombian
government was now split on the matter, so U.S. Ambassador Morris
Busby threw his support behind Gaviria, contacting the various
governments himself and winning assurances that the Escobars would be
turned away.
During these negotiations, de Greiff suddenly informed the U.S.
Embassy that Escobar had escaped to Haiti. He said his office had
learned from a reliable informant that the drug boss had landed safely
in Haiti on Nov. 25. According to the source, Escobar was now under
the protection of a Haitian death squad called "Night Services," which
was unofficially attached to the Haitian police.
The hunt for Escobar appeared to be coming apart. The embassy traced
de Greiff's sources to Miami - an imprisoned cocaine dealer connected
with the Cali cartel named Luis "Lucho" Sanatacruz and two men with
the nicknames "Navigante" and "Hector." DEA agents were dispatched to
debrief the men personally. The Haitian death squad leader supposedly
protecting Escobar was a man named Joel Deeb.
"We are analyzing the developing situation for clues to the potential
motivation of someone like Joel Deeb in providing Pablo Escobar with
sanctuary," read a secret State Department cable written that weekend.
While the embassy tried to verify Escobar's presence in Haiti, the
cable concluded, the Search Bloc was continuing to operate in Medellin
under the assumption that Escobar remained in the area.
In light of what happened over the next two days, the Haiti tip
appears to have been an effort to distract the authorities and create
enough confusion to help slip the Escobar family out of Colombia. The
day after "Hector" "confirmed" to de Greiff that Escobar was in Haiti,
Centra Spike picked up Escobar using a phone in Medellin. If Escobar
had been planning to lie low in order for the Haiti ploy to work,
events soon conspired to flush him back out on the airwaves.
DEA Special Agent Kenny Magee was friendly with the security chief for
American Airlines at the El Dorado Airport in Bogota, so he was
selected to follow the Escobar family as they left the country. A
blue-eyed former Michigan cop who had come to Bogota four years
earlier, Magee had flunked Spanish in his senior year of high school.
(He told his teacher, "I'm never going to need Spanish." She said,
"You never know.")
Magee showed up at the airport on Saturday, Nov. 27, with two
plainclothes Colombian National Police colonels, and with DEA agents
Steve Murphy and Javier Pena. Magee had purchased tickets on two early
evening flights booked by the Escobars, one to London and the other to
Frankfurt. The planes were leaving within 10 minutes of each other, so
Magee and the two Colombians pocketed their boarding passes and waited
for the family to show up.
It wasn't hard spotting them. The family's plans had evidently been
leaked to more than just the National Police and the U.S. Embassy. The
departure of their plane from Medellin had been captured by TV camera
crews there, and three dozen reporters were waiting for them inside
the terminal in Bogota.
The small plane stayed out on the tarmac, and all of its passengers
except the Escobars were let off. Bodyguards carried the Escobars'
luggage to a waiting Avianca Airlines bus, followed by more than 20
heavily armed men escorting Escobar's wife Maria Victoria, daughter
Manuela, son Juan Pablo and Juan Pablo's plump 21-year-old Mexican
girlfriend, Doria Ochoa. The family members held jackets over their
heads to avoid being photographed. They boarded the bus and were
driven to a remote entrance where they could wait out in private the
six hours until their overseas flight.
Five minutes before the Lufthansa flight to Frankfurt was scheduled to
depart, the family emerged surrounded by bodyguards and were hustled
through the main terminal. All but Juan Pablo held jackets over their
heads. The teenager shouted threats at the mob of reporters pushing
around them, then disappeared down the jetway.
Magee and the Colombian policemen followed, taking seats in business
class. It was the first time Magee had seen the family. Maria Victoria
was a short woman with glasses, conservatively and stylishly dressed.
The tiny Manuela, 9, clung to her mother. Juan Pablo stood 6 feet tall
at age 16, a round-shouldered, portly boy. He and his girlfriend sat
apart from his mother and sister.
Magee carried a shoulder bag with a camera built into the bottom. He
began snapping pictures of the family surreptitiously. An enterprising
journalist had a seat next to Juan Pablo, trying to interview the
youth with what appeared to be little success.
When the plane landed in Caracas, there was so much security out on
the runway that it looked to Magee like a head of state was arriving.
It was the same in Frankfurt, hours later.
Unknown to the family, just an hour after their flight had left
Bogota, a spokesman for the German Interior Minister had released a
statement announcing that the Escobars would not be allowed to enter
Germany. Soon afterwards, an angry Pablo Escobar was on the phone,
blowing his Haiti cover story. He called the Presidential Palace in
Bogota.
"This is Pablo Escobar. I need to talk to the president," he told the
operator at the palace.
"OK, hold on, let me locate him," the operator said, and immediately
patched the call to the National Police. After a delay, a police
officer posing as a palace operator came on the line and said, "We
can't get in touch with the president right now. Please call back at
another time."
The police officer had sized it up as a joke, and hung up. The phone
rang again.
"This is Pablo Escobar. It is necessary that I talk to the president.
My family is flying to Germany at this time. I need to talk to him
right now."
"We get a lot of crank calls here," the officer said. "We need to
somehow verify that it is really you. It's going to take me a few
minutes to track down the president, so please wait a few more minutes
and then call back."
With that, the officer informed his superiors that Pablo Escobar was
making calls to the palace. President Gaviria was notified; he refused
to speak with Escobar. When the fugitive called back a third time, the
Search Bloc was waiting, and the call surfaced on its electronic web.
"I'm sorry, Mr. Escobar, we have been unable to locate the
president."
Escobar went berserk. He swore at the officer on the phone. He
threatened to detonate a bus filled with dynamite in front of the
palace and set off bombs all over Bogota. He said he would bomb the
German Embassy and begin killing Germans if his family was not allowed
to enter that country. Minutes later he made similar threats on the
phone to the German Embassy and the Lufthansa office in Bogota.
No one had been able to get a precise fix on his location, but he was
without a doubt still in Medellin.
Chapters in this series with links:
Chapter 1: Escobar's Rise To Power
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1692/a04.html
Chapter 1 (continued): A Deadly Manhunt Guided By The US
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1690/a07.html
Chapter 2: A Top-Secret Electronic Tracking Unit Rejoins The Hunt
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1696/a07.html
Chapter 3: With Escobar Eluding Capture, Americans Summon Delta Force
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1702/a01.html
Chapter 4: Delta Force, In Bogota, Gets The Lay Of A Confusing Land
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1704/a08.html
Chapter 5: Raring To Get Started, Delta Learns Its Limits
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1712/a10.html
Chapter 6: Delta, Colombians Get Off To Bad Start
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1715/a05.html
Chapter 7: Incorruptible Colonel Rejoins Escobar Pursuit
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1729/a05.html
Chapter 8: Escobar's Nemesis Hones His Troops For The Hunt
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1727/a04.html
Chapter 9: Luxury 'Prison' Affords A Rare Look At Escobar
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00.n1741.a07.html
Chapter 10: A Conditional Offer To Surrender
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1733/a06.html
Chapter 11: Frustrating Hunt Gives Rise To Vigilantism
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00.n1741.a08.html
Chapter 12: Homegrown Escobar Enemy Joins Fight
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00.n1743.a06.html
Chapter 13: Escobar's Powerful Foes Ally Against Him
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00.n1746.a08.html
Chapter 14: Angry Widow Aids Pursuit Of Escobar
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1752/a09.html
Chapter 15: A Former Ally Offers A Profile Of Escobar
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1757/a04.html
Chapter 16: A Rivalry Grows Between Spy Units
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1779/a06.html
Chapter 17: A Traitor Within The Search Bloc
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1776/a01.html
Chapter 18: Los Pepes' Killings Put Heat On Escobar
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1781/a01.html
Chapter 19: Escobar Complains Of Unfair Treatment
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1788/a03.html
Chapter 20: U.S. Spy Data, Vigilante Killings Start To Coincide
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00.n1818.a09.html
Chapter 21: 'Tacit Support' For Tough Tactics
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00.n1816.a07.html
Chapter 22: Martinez Pushes Ahead With The Hunt
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1819/a02.html
Chapter 23: Search Bloc Leader Tries To Keep His Son From Joining The
Manhunt http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00.n1816.a07.html
Chapter 24: Pressure Mounts On Escobar Family
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1821/a01.html
Chapter 25: A Father And Son's High-Tech Connection
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1826/a01.html
Chapter 26: Mission Stirs Concern Back Home
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1836/a07.html
Chapter 27: Trackers Get A Line On Elusive Escobar
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1843/a05.html
Chapter 28: As The Hunters Close In, A Narrow Escape
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1849/a05.html
Chapter 29: Escobar's Wife, Children Become The Bait
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1853/a04.html
Closing In, The Drug Lord's Pursuers Received Some Alarming News:
Their Quarry Had Escaped To Haiti.
By November of 1993, Gustavo de Greiff was becoming a
problem.
He was the Fiscal General, Colombia's top federal prosecutor, and he
was now working in open defiance of President Cesar Gaviria on the
matter of Pablo Escobar. De Greiff had told Gaviria that he disagreed
with effectively holding the Escobar family hostage. As an elected
official - an "independent entity," he called himself - he had decided
to help the family leave Colombia in order to complete his deal for
the fugitive's surrender.
When word spread that the family was looking for a haven in Canada,
Colombian Defense Minister Raphael Pardo contacted the Canadian
ambassador, only to learn that de Greiff already had called to request
that the Canadian government allow the family to enter. The Colombian
government was now split on the matter, so U.S. Ambassador Morris
Busby threw his support behind Gaviria, contacting the various
governments himself and winning assurances that the Escobars would be
turned away.
During these negotiations, de Greiff suddenly informed the U.S.
Embassy that Escobar had escaped to Haiti. He said his office had
learned from a reliable informant that the drug boss had landed safely
in Haiti on Nov. 25. According to the source, Escobar was now under
the protection of a Haitian death squad called "Night Services," which
was unofficially attached to the Haitian police.
The hunt for Escobar appeared to be coming apart. The embassy traced
de Greiff's sources to Miami - an imprisoned cocaine dealer connected
with the Cali cartel named Luis "Lucho" Sanatacruz and two men with
the nicknames "Navigante" and "Hector." DEA agents were dispatched to
debrief the men personally. The Haitian death squad leader supposedly
protecting Escobar was a man named Joel Deeb.
"We are analyzing the developing situation for clues to the potential
motivation of someone like Joel Deeb in providing Pablo Escobar with
sanctuary," read a secret State Department cable written that weekend.
While the embassy tried to verify Escobar's presence in Haiti, the
cable concluded, the Search Bloc was continuing to operate in Medellin
under the assumption that Escobar remained in the area.
In light of what happened over the next two days, the Haiti tip
appears to have been an effort to distract the authorities and create
enough confusion to help slip the Escobar family out of Colombia. The
day after "Hector" "confirmed" to de Greiff that Escobar was in Haiti,
Centra Spike picked up Escobar using a phone in Medellin. If Escobar
had been planning to lie low in order for the Haiti ploy to work,
events soon conspired to flush him back out on the airwaves.
DEA Special Agent Kenny Magee was friendly with the security chief for
American Airlines at the El Dorado Airport in Bogota, so he was
selected to follow the Escobar family as they left the country. A
blue-eyed former Michigan cop who had come to Bogota four years
earlier, Magee had flunked Spanish in his senior year of high school.
(He told his teacher, "I'm never going to need Spanish." She said,
"You never know.")
Magee showed up at the airport on Saturday, Nov. 27, with two
plainclothes Colombian National Police colonels, and with DEA agents
Steve Murphy and Javier Pena. Magee had purchased tickets on two early
evening flights booked by the Escobars, one to London and the other to
Frankfurt. The planes were leaving within 10 minutes of each other, so
Magee and the two Colombians pocketed their boarding passes and waited
for the family to show up.
It wasn't hard spotting them. The family's plans had evidently been
leaked to more than just the National Police and the U.S. Embassy. The
departure of their plane from Medellin had been captured by TV camera
crews there, and three dozen reporters were waiting for them inside
the terminal in Bogota.
The small plane stayed out on the tarmac, and all of its passengers
except the Escobars were let off. Bodyguards carried the Escobars'
luggage to a waiting Avianca Airlines bus, followed by more than 20
heavily armed men escorting Escobar's wife Maria Victoria, daughter
Manuela, son Juan Pablo and Juan Pablo's plump 21-year-old Mexican
girlfriend, Doria Ochoa. The family members held jackets over their
heads to avoid being photographed. They boarded the bus and were
driven to a remote entrance where they could wait out in private the
six hours until their overseas flight.
Five minutes before the Lufthansa flight to Frankfurt was scheduled to
depart, the family emerged surrounded by bodyguards and were hustled
through the main terminal. All but Juan Pablo held jackets over their
heads. The teenager shouted threats at the mob of reporters pushing
around them, then disappeared down the jetway.
Magee and the Colombian policemen followed, taking seats in business
class. It was the first time Magee had seen the family. Maria Victoria
was a short woman with glasses, conservatively and stylishly dressed.
The tiny Manuela, 9, clung to her mother. Juan Pablo stood 6 feet tall
at age 16, a round-shouldered, portly boy. He and his girlfriend sat
apart from his mother and sister.
Magee carried a shoulder bag with a camera built into the bottom. He
began snapping pictures of the family surreptitiously. An enterprising
journalist had a seat next to Juan Pablo, trying to interview the
youth with what appeared to be little success.
When the plane landed in Caracas, there was so much security out on
the runway that it looked to Magee like a head of state was arriving.
It was the same in Frankfurt, hours later.
Unknown to the family, just an hour after their flight had left
Bogota, a spokesman for the German Interior Minister had released a
statement announcing that the Escobars would not be allowed to enter
Germany. Soon afterwards, an angry Pablo Escobar was on the phone,
blowing his Haiti cover story. He called the Presidential Palace in
Bogota.
"This is Pablo Escobar. I need to talk to the president," he told the
operator at the palace.
"OK, hold on, let me locate him," the operator said, and immediately
patched the call to the National Police. After a delay, a police
officer posing as a palace operator came on the line and said, "We
can't get in touch with the president right now. Please call back at
another time."
The police officer had sized it up as a joke, and hung up. The phone
rang again.
"This is Pablo Escobar. It is necessary that I talk to the president.
My family is flying to Germany at this time. I need to talk to him
right now."
"We get a lot of crank calls here," the officer said. "We need to
somehow verify that it is really you. It's going to take me a few
minutes to track down the president, so please wait a few more minutes
and then call back."
With that, the officer informed his superiors that Pablo Escobar was
making calls to the palace. President Gaviria was notified; he refused
to speak with Escobar. When the fugitive called back a third time, the
Search Bloc was waiting, and the call surfaced on its electronic web.
"I'm sorry, Mr. Escobar, we have been unable to locate the
president."
Escobar went berserk. He swore at the officer on the phone. He
threatened to detonate a bus filled with dynamite in front of the
palace and set off bombs all over Bogota. He said he would bomb the
German Embassy and begin killing Germans if his family was not allowed
to enter that country. Minutes later he made similar threats on the
phone to the German Embassy and the Lufthansa office in Bogota.
No one had been able to get a precise fix on his location, but he was
without a doubt still in Medellin.
Chapters in this series with links:
Chapter 1: Escobar's Rise To Power
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1692/a04.html
Chapter 1 (continued): A Deadly Manhunt Guided By The US
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1690/a07.html
Chapter 2: A Top-Secret Electronic Tracking Unit Rejoins The Hunt
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1696/a07.html
Chapter 3: With Escobar Eluding Capture, Americans Summon Delta Force
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1702/a01.html
Chapter 4: Delta Force, In Bogota, Gets The Lay Of A Confusing Land
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1704/a08.html
Chapter 5: Raring To Get Started, Delta Learns Its Limits
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1712/a10.html
Chapter 6: Delta, Colombians Get Off To Bad Start
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1715/a05.html
Chapter 7: Incorruptible Colonel Rejoins Escobar Pursuit
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1729/a05.html
Chapter 8: Escobar's Nemesis Hones His Troops For The Hunt
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1727/a04.html
Chapter 9: Luxury 'Prison' Affords A Rare Look At Escobar
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00.n1741.a07.html
Chapter 10: A Conditional Offer To Surrender
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1733/a06.html
Chapter 11: Frustrating Hunt Gives Rise To Vigilantism
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00.n1741.a08.html
Chapter 12: Homegrown Escobar Enemy Joins Fight
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00.n1743.a06.html
Chapter 13: Escobar's Powerful Foes Ally Against Him
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00.n1746.a08.html
Chapter 14: Angry Widow Aids Pursuit Of Escobar
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1752/a09.html
Chapter 15: A Former Ally Offers A Profile Of Escobar
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1757/a04.html
Chapter 16: A Rivalry Grows Between Spy Units
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1779/a06.html
Chapter 17: A Traitor Within The Search Bloc
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1776/a01.html
Chapter 18: Los Pepes' Killings Put Heat On Escobar
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1781/a01.html
Chapter 19: Escobar Complains Of Unfair Treatment
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1788/a03.html
Chapter 20: U.S. Spy Data, Vigilante Killings Start To Coincide
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00.n1818.a09.html
Chapter 21: 'Tacit Support' For Tough Tactics
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00.n1816.a07.html
Chapter 22: Martinez Pushes Ahead With The Hunt
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1819/a02.html
Chapter 23: Search Bloc Leader Tries To Keep His Son From Joining The
Manhunt http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00.n1816.a07.html
Chapter 24: Pressure Mounts On Escobar Family
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1821/a01.html
Chapter 25: A Father And Son's High-Tech Connection
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1826/a01.html
Chapter 26: Mission Stirs Concern Back Home
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1836/a07.html
Chapter 27: Trackers Get A Line On Elusive Escobar
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1843/a05.html
Chapter 28: As The Hunters Close In, A Narrow Escape
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1849/a05.html
Chapter 29: Escobar's Wife, Children Become The Bait
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1853/a04.html
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