Barry seal:-PART5

Outside a courthouse, a man approached the judge who'd indicted the cartel for Lara's murder and requested a temporary dismissal. "Ask for whatever you want, and they'll put it wherever you want it, in Colombia or outside the country Then you can relax. Neither your life, nor the lives of your family members will be in danger." The judge refused. Climbing into a taxi, he was shot dead by five men in a Mazda.

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Armoured vehicles transported US embassy staff. Their children went to school on a bus protected by army jeeps with machine guns. On the roads, the staff kept their eyes peeled for motorbike assassins. Some kept their windows down, so they could listen for the distinct sound of a motorbike approaching. In their guarded living quarters they heard guns fired every night. An empty car aimed at the embassy rolled down a hill, hit a curb and exploded, sending flames three hundred feet into the air. Embassy staff was reduced to a bare minimum.

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Any locals working with the Americans were killed in grotesque ways. One had pins inserted under his fingernails, before being shot in the head and left on the street with a sign around his neck: "Killed for Being a DEA Informant." After the DEA got word that a guerrilla hit team had been contracted by Pablo to kidnap key members, they closed their Medellin location.

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In the latter half of 1984, Pablo thought it was safe to return home. He convened a meeting of seventy important people, ranging from traffickers to priests, who arrived with 200 bodyguards. Extradition was discussed. Pablo proposed that Medellín should have a united group of bodyguards divided into zones. Among the big four founders of the Medellin Cartel, Gacha's power was rising, while Lehder's was falling. Lehder was assigned to oversee jungle operations and to maintain relations with the guerrillas guarding the labs.

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A little after midnight on the night of the meeting, a Mercedes arrived at the farmhouse. A well-dressed woman emerged. She knocked on the door and claimed to have flowers for Dr Hernandez. Roberto told her that she was at the wrong address. He warned his brother that he'd never seen anyone in the flower-delivery business arrive in a Mercedes Benz. Pablo dismissed it as nothing. Roberto instructed the bodyguards to start shooting in the air if any strangers showed up.

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Around 2 am, shots were fired. Pablo and his brother ran out of the back of the farm-house. A shot grazed Roberto's leg and pieces of brick hit him in the face, causing lots of bleeding. They came across one of their body- guards returning in a car. They escaped in it along with Gustavo.

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A trafficker from the city of Cali, which had a history of rivalry with Medellin, had attended the meeting at the farmhouse and subsequently snitched Pablo out, hoping for a government guarantee against extradition.

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The colonel in charge of the raid had been paid $50,000 a month by Pablo. Pablo sent him a message, "Now you are against me and you know what I think about that."

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On the same night as the raid, Jorge Ochoa got into trouble in Spain, where he'd emigrated with the boss of the Cali Cartel and settled in an 8,000 square-foot mansion, complete with a swimming pool, tennis courts, a disco and four Mercedes Benz. An informant told Spain's Special Prosecutor for the Prevention and Repression of Drug Trafficking that Ochoa was in Madrid under a fake name: Moisés Moreno Miranda.

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Surveillance showed Ochoa living a life of luxury, frequenting restaurants and concerts, and his wife depositing hundreds of thousands of dollars in local banks, which the police concluded was hot money. The Spanish authorities tipped off the DEA, who notified Washington: "Intelligence.. has indicated that suspected Colombian trafficking group intends to create investment company with unlimited funding and is in the process of purchasing several extremely expensive residences, indicating intent to remain in Spain."

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For almost three months, the Spanish authorities monitored the two drug bosses. After Ochoa asked about buying 10,000 acres in southern Spain, the police feared that he was about to set up a global cocaine hub.

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On November 15, 1984, the two Colombian bosses and their wives were arrested. Attempting to capitalise on the windfall, the Americans made overtures to the Spanish in the hope of getting the Colombians extradit- ed. The stage was set for a lengthy legal battle.

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In volatile Colombia, even forming an army called Death to Kidnappers didn't always serve as a deterrent. In 1985, Pablo's father was kidnapped by policemen. On his way to visit one of Pablo's farms, he was pulled over by six men in a jeep. After tying up the workers accompanying him, they drove him away. They wanted $50 million.

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After she found out, Pablo's mother spent hours yelling and crying and praying. Pablo put out the word that if his father ended up with a single bruise the ransom money they got wouldn't be enough to pay for their own burials.

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Remaining composed, Pablo formed a plan to capture the kidnappers. His father needed medicine for open-heart surgery. Many of the two hundred drugstores in Medellin had security cameras. He installed cameras in those that didn't. He offered a reward for photos of anyone buying the heart medicine his father needed. Two kidnappers were identified. As the kidnappers used payphones, Pablo gave hundreds of radio transmitters to people with instructions to listen to a certain radio station. Whenever the kidnappers called Pablo's mother, the station announced a song dedicated to Luz Marina. After hearing this, the people with the transmitters rushed out to the nearest payphones.

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Over eighteen days, Pablo's brother negotiated the ransom down to $1 million. The money was delivered in duffel bags with electronic tracking devices, which the kidnappers took to a farm. The house was surrounded and assaulted from every direction. Three of the kidnappers were captured and sentenced. to death by Pablo. His father was released unharmed.

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Perhaps things weren't as safe in Colombia as Pablo thought. He went everywhere with bodyguards, moved around a lot and took extra precautions.

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