For the first time, legendary DEA operatives Steve Murphy and Javier
F. Peña tell the true story of how they helped put an end to one of the
world's most infamous narco-terrorists in Manhunters: How We Took Down
Pablo Escobar--the subject of the hit Netflix series, Narcos.
Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar's brutal Medellín Cartel was
responsible for trafficking tons of cocaine to North America and Europe
in the 1980s and '90s. The nation became a warzone as his sicarios
mercilessly murdered thousands of people--competitors, police, and
civilians--to ensure he remained Colombia's reigning kingpin. With
billions in personal income, Pablo Escobar bought off politicians and
lawmen, and became a hero to poorer communities by building houses and
sports centers. He was nearly untouchable despite the efforts of the
Colombian National Police to bring him to justice.
But Escobar was also one of America's most wanted, and the Drug
Enforcement Administration was determined to see him pay for his crimes.
Agents Steve Murphy and Javier F. Peña were assigned to the Bloque de
Búsqueda, the joint Colombian-U.S. taskforce created to end Escobar's
reign of terror. For eighteen months, between July 1992 and December
1993, Steve and Javier lived and worked beside Colombian authorities,
finding themselves in the crosshairs of sicarios targeting them for
the $300,000 bounty Escobar placed on each of their heads.
Undeterred, they risked the dangers, relentlessly and ruthlessly
separating the drug lord from his resources and allies, and tearing
apart his empire, leaving him underground and on the run from enemies on
both sides of the law.
Manhunters presents Steve and Javier's history in law enforcement from
their rigorous physical training and their early DEA assignments in
Miami and Austin to the Escobar mission in Medellin, Colombia--living
far from home and serving as frontline soldiers in the never ending war
on drugs that continues to devastate America.