Narco Wars (2020) s01e01 Episode Script
How Cocaine Came to America
1
(vehicle running)
(men speaking spanish)
(motor starts)
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(thud)
(men speaking spanish)
(dog groans)
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(dog groans)
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Man: Shake this square world
and blast off for kicksville.
Richard nixon: Public enemy
number one is drug abuse.
Nancy reagan: Just say no.
Ronald reagan: Halting
the drug problem in america
Is like carrying water
in a sieve.
George h.W. Bush: Take my word
for it, this scourge will stop!
Kamala harris:
There's now an understanding
That the war on drugs
was an abject failure.
Man: You have to stop and ask
yourself, how did we get here?
Donald trump:
We will build a wall.
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George jung: I grew up
in a town like happy days.
There weren't any drugs,
no guns, no violence.
And when I went out
to california,
My intention was to go to
long beach state college
And complete my degree
in marketing.
Suddenly, everybody was
smoking marijuana.
And I saw the value
in selling the marijuana,
More than getting high
off of it.
My name is george jacob jung,
spelled j-u-n-g, okay?
And what I'm known for
Is being one of
the major drug smugglers
In the world.
♪
♪
The money was just rolling in,
And you know, of course
it was tax free. (laughs)
But I became bored with that,
as a matter of fact.
I wanted more, I wanted
more thrill, more adventure.
So I convinced my college
buddies to get involved.
Let's go down to mexico
and get our own pot.
♪
♪
We went to a place
called puerto vallarta.
And couldn't speak spanish,
And after five days
we couldn't even find a joint.
My ego was kind of
struck down to zero.
And a little yellow volkswagen
pulled up out front of the bar,
And this little blonde girl
got out,
And she came right to our table.
She said, "you know,
I've been watching you guys
For like five days."
She said, "you've asked
everybody in puerto vallarta
For marijuana except
the police chief."
She said, "you need help."
I said, "yes, I do."
And she said,
"I live with a guy
Who can give you all
the marijuana you want."
And I said, "let's go!"
We went over to meet him,
and he said,
"how are you gonna get it
out of here?"
And I said, "fly it."
He said, "do you have a plane?"
And I lied and I said,
"yes, I do."
I said, "I can get one
and I'll be back with it."
So then it was time
to learn how to fly.
♪
♪
I did this trip in
a certain amount of time,
And I was making a ton of money.
But they finally
caught up with me.
I was looking at five years
in the federal system.
The judge was about
to sentence me,
And I got up and I said,
"it's ludicrous that
I should be sentenced
For taking a plant
across an imaginary line."
(laughs)
And he said,
"that may be true, mr. Jung,"
He said, "unfortunately
it's against the law."
And so I got the five years.
♪
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(thunder)
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Michael corleone blanco:
My mother grew up
In this part of town,
Which was the only place that
you could actually smoke reefer,
You know, have a couple drinks,
Bet a little on numbers,
watch rooster fights,
And maybe go and have
a good time with a prostitute.
I'm talking about 1950s.
There was still muddy streets,
horse-drawn carriages.
My name is
michael corleone blanco.
I'm the youngest surviving son
of one griselda blanco.
Also known as
the queen of cocaine.
She told me that she
remembered being so poor,
She didn't have
no shoes or sandals.
And my mother said to herself,
the day I have children
I'm gonna make sure they live
in the lap of luxury.
The neighborhood was divided
Between these two
local street gangs,
And she started to date a kid
From the other part of
the neighborhood, pestañitas.
Pestañitas ran bootlegging,
he ran a couple prostitutes,
Sold some weed,
and he met this little girl.
She was 14 when
she fell in love with him.
They got married, and
he introduced her to marijuana.
They'd been drug dealing
together, right.
They were getting money,
but pestañitas told my mother,
"we're making peanuts here.
If we can get this weed
to new york,
We could make
a big load of money."
(horns honking)
(siren)
So they relocate to new york,
And they start doing deals
in new york.
When they start
making serious money,
My mother goes back to colombia
And she meets a gentleman
who was a club owner,
And the gentleman tells her,
"you might wanna think about
this drug called cocaine."
Reporter:
This is jackson heights
In the borough of queens.
It's one of the places
where cocaine
Comes home
to the united states.
Man: This has become
the central distribution point
For the majority
of all the cocaine
Distributed in
the northern united states.
If you just stand here
and watch these people,
That's exactly what
they're doing right now,
Is they're doing business.
Blanco: In the early '70s,
Griselda becomes
the queen of queens,
Queens, new york.
She's selling cocaine.
My mother realizes
that this is the future.
♪
(sniffing)
Bob palombo: Cocaine was
on the rise,
The demand was starting
to increase.
At jfk airport, the seizures
were from a pound or so,
Or two pounds on the body,
To two or three kilos
in the suitcases.
We were starting
to see other methods,
Anything that could
conceal cocaine,
Was starting to make its way in
more frequently.
And griselda blanco's
fingerprint was on that.
♪
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Jung: I was sentenced to danbury
federal correctional institute,
And that was how I met
the infamous carlos lehder.
Carlos was there
for stealing cars
And shipping them
illegally to colombia.
I said, "well, basically
you're a car thief."
And he said, "what about you?"
And I said, "I flew planeloads
of pot out of mexico."
He said, "do you know
anything about cocaine?"
I didn't.
He said, "you can buy it
For $3,000 to $4,000 a kilo
in colombia."
And I said, "well, how much
does it sell for
In the united states?"
And he said, "$60,000 a kilo."
And I said,
"you know what, carlos?
I think you and I are gonna
go into business together."
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Blanco: Griselda entrepreneured
the cocaine industry
As we know it.
From the jungle,
to the street corner,
To the nightclub,
to your household.
My mother did that.
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Where's the first place
people are gonna buy drugs at?
On the corner.
What's the second place people
are gonna do and sell drugs at?
The disco.
It's the epitome and
the era of disco music.
♪
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Reporter: It's 3:00
in the morning in manhattan,
And still at studio 54,
People crowd the doors
hoping to get in.
Blanco: My mother
liked to rub elbows
With the elite of the time.
Reporter: Society columnists
adore studio 54,
For the personalities
it attracts.
Blanco: Studio 54,
she practically owned the joint.
Jung: Studio 54 was
lined up for blocks.
Everybody's snorting
cocaine in there.
It was Saturday night fever
with señorita cocaine.
here comes paradise ♪
mmm ♪
It took over america
for the rich and famous.
nice ♪
(sirens)
Reporter: The number of people
snorting cocaine
Is rising steadily,
despite the steep price.
About $100 for a gram,
Enough for several people
to get high at one party.
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Reporter: Cocaine paraphernalia
is selling well
Right on madison avenue.
Reporter: Who is buying this?
Man: Everyone.
From the secretary, lawyers,
businessmen, old and young.
We have customers in
the entertainment business,
But most of them are executives.
♪
Peter bourne: Well, it's not
a serious problem nationwide,
Given the very large number
of people who use cocaine.
It is a serious problem
for a certain small minority,
And those tend to be people
who are very wealthy,
For whom money is no concern,
Who can get unlimited
access to cocaine.
(sirens)
Palombo: Cocaine, at that point,
Really wasn't in
law enforcement's radar.
And so there was a gap
in the intelligence
That was being developed,
And this gave the colombians
an opportunity to establish
A greater foothold for smuggling
the drugs into the country
And distributing the drugs
without being caught.
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Blanco: My mother makes
a fortune in new york city
And moves back to colombia.
And her and el capitán see that
their empire's grown so much
That they need henchmen,
they need soldiers.
And everybody knew
That if you wanted to get
into the cocaine business,
You had to get the green light
from griselda.
♪
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Pablo escobar's boss was
one of those smugglers.
My mother didn't like him
too much, so pablo killed him.
And my mother said, "pablo,
you've got a future, kid."
♪
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Palombo: It wasn't until later
That I realized
what a role she played,
Not only in
the cocaine business,
But also in the business
of violence.
She was psychopath.
She loved killing people.
(camera shutter clicking)
Jung: In the beginning,
I really liked him,
He was young and well-mannered
and educated.
He had an innocence
about him, also.
Mónica lehder:
I would describe my father
As a rebel, adventurous man.
He was a chilled person,
he loved his music,
He loved to be around friends,
Peaceful, sometimes
introverted, too.
Jung: I figured a great guy
to meet and to work with,
And we can make
a lot of money together.
♪
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And the next thing I knew, we
were on our way down to colombia
To meet a guy
named pablo escobar.
A lot of people asked me
was I in awe or whatever.
I mean, he could have been
a vacuum cleaner salesman;
I didn't know
who the hell he was.
♪
(engine revving)
We talked and he said,
"I have one rule:
You betray me and
I'll have to kill you."
And I said, "well, you'll never
get to kill me,
'cause I'll never betray you."
I mean, it's a simple rule,
right? (laughs)
You know, people walking
around the ranch
All with machine guns
and this and that.
That wasn't my trip.
I mean, I just wanted to get in
and get the hell out of there.
(engine starts)
♪
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(cha-ching)
Jeremy mcdermott:
Pablo escobar industrializes
The cocaine trade.
He gathers a big group
of different traffickers
Based in the city of medellín.
And they begin to pool their
shipments and work together.
And then carlos lehder brings
The mass transport element
via planes.
He provides the air bridge.
Then there's the retailers,
The griselda blancos,
Others in the u.S.,
They are running
the distributions networks,
And then funneling back
the money to the cartel.
♪
Tom cash: Carlos lehder is to
the cocaine smuggling business,
What the wright brothers
were to aviation.
Andy: When I first met carlos,
It was simply to purchase
some airplanes for him.
I never used my real name;
I went by an alias.
He got a hold of me and said,
"hey, I got this place
in the bahamas.
That's where we're gonna
operate out of,
And I need some airplanes."
So I picked up a couple
airplanes for him
And flew them to bahamas.
And carlos said, "hey, you want
to fly down to colombia,
Fill 'em up and bring 'em
back to the islands,
And make a little extra money?"
And so I said, "yeah, okay."
Carlos was very convincing.
You know, the smile on his face
and how great it is.
So, consequently,
You kind of insidiously
get involved in this.
I mean, I had no desire
to be a criminal,
I had no desire to go to jail.
Reporter: One of the most
favored routes
From colombia to miami
is via the bahamas,
Famous for its beaches, casinos,
And hundreds of thinly inhabited
Cays or islands
That have been used for
smuggling for centuries.
Andy: The flying was
not nearly as dangerous
As hanging out there
overnight in colombia.
These little strips were out
in the middle of nowhere.
I remember sleeping in a hammock
with a .38 on my chest,
Because there were some people
that would come in
With automatic weapons
and steal the product.
If you messed up,
you weren't getting out.
If you, as others did,
crash an airplane
At some of these clandestine
strips in colombia,
And you were injured, the narcos
buried you with the airplane.
They didn't take you
to hospital.
So there was a great incentive
To successfully land
and take off.
Jung: There's an old saying
that the marijuana business
Was done with a handshake,
And the cocaine business
was done with a gun.
I mean, people walking
around with guns,
And everybody had one.
It was very serious,
and mistakes weren't tolerated.
♪
♪
(boat approaching)
Reporter:
In the drugs business,
All roads lead
to miami, florida,
America's biggest banking center
outside new york.
Reporter: Cocaine dealers
regularly pay cash
For a $50,000 car,
a $100,000 yacht,
Or a $1 million condominium.
Al singleton:
One of the side-effects
Of the cocaine trade was the
impact it had on the economy,
And the amount of cash
that was free-flowing.
♪
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Jim shedd: The money
that was coming into miami
Was just incredible.
I remember we would have to go
to the federal reserve bank,
And there were just pallets and
pallets and pallets of cash.
Many times the federal reserve
bank of miami
Had more cash than all the other
federal reserve banks
Put together.
(plane approaching)
♪
♪
Singleton:
He purchased norman's cay
For what I was told at the time
was $2 million,
So carlos had actually
purchased the island.
Jung: And he wanted to build
like an empire there,
Drug smuggling empire.
Reporter:
Using a front company,
He acquired most of the property
on the island,
And turned it into
a drug transshipment port.
Jung: It was full of naked women
And parties and
cocaine everywhere.
Armed bodyguards walking
around the perimeters
With machine guns,
which he imported from germany.
Andy: Norman's cay was
approximately 200-plus miles
From the east coast of florida.
So it was a very easy trip
for a light airplane,
Which would draw
no suspicion whatsoever,
Because a light airplane
didn't have the range
To go anywhere where this
merchandise was picked up.
Jung: In the beginning
it was all fine.
Then carlos changed drastically,
he did like a 180.
And I told him,
I said, "this is crazy.
The only way to do this
is to keep on the move
And keep changing locations,
where nobody knows who you are,
Or what you are,
and you keep moving."
And I said,
"everybody in the world's
Gonna be watching that island."
And they were.
It was a madness.
And that's when I decided
it was time to go.
♪
♪
♪
Anybody who thinks
they're a drug lord,
They're living some kind
of foolish, childish dream.
Once you get on the list,
it's over.
(wings flapping)
♪
♪
♪
(gunshot)
♪
(man speaking spanish)
(gunshot)
♪
♪
♪
Blanco: The first
sicario motorcycle hit,
It was done by
griselda's killers,
And they weren't young
15-year-old, 16-year-old boys;
They were grown bandidos.
It was a different time.
My mother never
believed that a boy
Should get involved
in men's stuff.
♪
♪
♪
♪
♪
Griselda comes to miami.
You have an industry that was
trying to be established
By other latinos.
But now this corporate entity
came into town and said,
"no, no, no, this is my town,
I don't care what you guys
think, I run all the cocaine."
My mother always told me,
"you know what's the best way
To take care
of your competition?
Erase your competition.
Then you have nobody
to compete with."
(siren)
Investigator: Right now
two people are dead,
And there are others injured.
I don't know the exact amount.
Reporter: Police say they
don't know what the motive was
For the shootings, but they are
sure it wasn't robbery.
Singleton: The shooting occurred
in the middle of the day,
In a very popular shopping mall
called dadeland.
Reporter:
Inside the liquor store,
One colombian national
and another non-cuban latin
Suspected of drug trafficking
lay face up in a pool of blood.
Investigator: They were
well armed, we can say that,
And they came prepared
to do battle.
Singleton: The subjects went
inside with automatic weapons,
Killed the intended target
and his bodyguard
Inside the liquor store.
Reporter: The shooting
continued outside,
As the assailants
sprayed gunfire
All around the parking lot.
Shell fragments were found
some 40 yards from the store.
Singleton: They'd fired
automatic weapons
Into the sidewalk area,
Wounding two other
totally innocent bystanders.
Witnesses were just
beside themselves.
They couldn't believe the fact
That they were minding
their own business, shopping,
In a suburban shopping mall,
And ended up being shot at
with machine guns.
It was totally unprecedented,
No one had ever seen
anything like this before
On any homicide scene.
Palombo: This was the handiwork
of griselda blanco.
She loved to make
that statement,
And the bloody trail continued
from that point on.
Blanco: That day, 1979, I think
Miami and the united states
understood that cocaine
Would generate so much violence
and so much financial gain,
That people were willing to kill
people in broad daylight,
Innocent or not innocent.
Woman: No! No!
Reporter: Last week, the bodies
of two colombians were found.
Reporter: The majority
of murders here
Are related to drug trafficking.
Reporter: Colombian drug dealers
have opened fire
In crowded shopping centers,
along busy highways,
In quiet residential
neighborhoods.
Reporter: This colombian
was machine-gunned
As he sat in his car.
Ike seamans: 514 persons
have been murdered
In miami this year.
Lloyd hough: There's no end
to the selection of weapons
That they have here.
They're a lot better armed
than law enforcement.
Singleton: We became known
as dodge city.
Joseph davis: What I see going
on here would make chicago
In the days of prohibition
Look like a baptist
Sunday school picnic.
(train horn blows)
Singleton:
The homicide rate doubled
From 300 a year to 600 a year.
We were all overwhelmed.
Not the least of which was
the medical examiner's office
Which had to use a refrigerated
truck to store bodies.
Palombo: The primary target
of metro-dade homicide
Was griselda blanco.
She not only wanted
the person shot,
But she wanted the person's wife
and even the children shot.
She was a monster.
♪
♪
(man speaking spanish)
Andy: Initially, he'd try
a little bit of the product
Occasionally,
but it got to the point
Where he was, I believe,
addicted to it,
And I think that really
distorted his perception
Of what the operation was, and
he became a different person.
He was very paranoid,
he ran around with a .45,
Waving it around,
And you never knew what the hell
he was gonna do.
He just had this attitude
that he was the king.
That's when I decided that
this could get dangerous.
Maybe it's time to say sayonara
to this activity.
Reporter: Colombian
drug baron carlos lehder
Had armed guards
To prevent outsiders
landing by boat or plane.
For yachtsmen, this island
had a menacing reputation.
Andy: Some time after I left,
One of the most famous
news anchors in north america,
Walter cronkite, sailed into
the harbor at norman's cay
And was met by
a couple of fellas
That were sporting ar-15s.
And when he asked
what the deal was,
They told him that he wasn't
welcome on the island,
And he should just
get in his little boat
And sail on out of the harbor.
Cronkite wasn't gonna
be put off like that,
So he opened up his own
little investigation,
And one thing led to another.
And eventually
the bahamian police
Were convinced
by the u.S. Authorities,
Dea and what have you,
That you need to do something
about this island down there.
♪
♪
♪
Jung: Carlos became a freudian
kaleidoscope of madness,
Because on one end
of the spectrum,
He loved john lennon,
And he loved adolf hitler!
And that was
mind-boggling to me.
♪
♪
♪
Lehder: It was on the news,
on the radio, on the streets.
We had the army coming to
our house almost every day,
Looking for him.
♪
♪
Palombo: As she began to create
more and more enemies,
She wasn't able to really enjoy
the fruits of her endeavors
Because she was on the run.
Blanco:
I would always wonder why
We had so many people with me.
And my brother would tell me,
"you know why?" "why?"
"'cause you're the prince
of this family,
And nothing's gonna
happen to you."
♪
♪
Palombo: Her husband,
darío sepúlveda,
Is growing weary of her,
he's disgusted with her.
Talk about the pot calling
the kettle black, right?
He's an assassin himself, and
even she was too much for him.
He's worried about
the well-being of his son,
Michael corleone, and he takes
michael and goes to colombia.
Well, griselda wasn't
having any of that.
And a short time later,
she pays off police in colombia.
Darío's driving down the road
with little michael in the car.
(bell tolls)
Blanco: And after
a couple minutes,
Four cops, two motorcycles
pull us over.
And he handcuffs my father,
and my father goes,
"what are you doing?"
And my father looks
at his bodyguard,
And I think right then and there
they realized it.
And I look at my daddy,
And I said, "papi, papi!"
My dad was hit by 27 bullets.
I saw the holes on his back.
And there was all blood
coming out of 'em.
I was about to be six years old.
Palombo: Griselda blanco ordered
the hit on her husband,
And there's no doubt in my mind
that she didn't care
Whether her son saw
the assassination or not.
♪
♪
All he knew was that he was
whisked up, put on a plane,
And delivered to his mother
in irvine, california.
And shortly thereafter
is when we arrest her.
♪
She was just propped up in bed
reading the bible.
She didn't have
the .38 in her hand;
That was on her nightstand.
I said, "hola, griselda."
She looked at me with
a very bewildered look.
"no. Me llamo betty."
I said, "nah, I don't think so."
And I put the cuffs on her,
away we went.
The maid had taken
little michael down the street
To go play at a park.
We didn't want him in the house,
You know, it was gonna be
too traumatic.
He was as cute as a button,
playing at a playground,
Just a nice kid.
And it was so sad, and I
remember commenting to my wife,
I said, "you know, I really
feel sorry for this child.
I wouldn't mind taking this kid
and adopting him myself."
♪
♪
♪
♪
Sebastián marroquín:
I only had the opportunity
To meet carlos lehder
for one or two weeks
In the hacienda nápoles.
They became very close friends;
They were both
against the extradition.
Lehder: They were very close,
But they always kept their
families away from everything.
Marroquín: Sadly carlos lehder
lose all of his money and power,
And he was consuming
a lot of drugs.
Reporter: Colombian
law enforcement officers
Have not said exactly
how police were led
To lehder's house in medellín,
But that lehder was set up
by one of his alleged partners
In the cocaine cartel,
pablo escobar.
Mcdermott: The story is that
there was a big party
At pablo escobar's hacienda, and
carlos lehder arrived coked up.
And one of escobar's sicarios
makes a pass
At one of the girls he was with,
and lehder just kills him.
And so escobar has
to smooth all this over.
But elements of
the medellín cartel
Then see carlos lehder
as a liability.
Steven cohen: Escobar sees
the need to appease
U.S. And colombian officials who
are applying increasing pressure
On him and his organization.
And lehder gets offered up
as the sacrificial lamb,
And essentially turned over
By escobar and
medellín cartel associates.
Lehder: I remember the day
of my father's arrest.
I was with my mother,
And I can still feel how
her face turned white,
And the screams.
♪
(helicopter)
Reporter:
The plane from colombia
Carrying reputed drug king
carlos lehder
Touched down in florida
early this morning.
Security was heavy;
gun-toting federal agents
Circled the courthouse in tampa
where he was taken.
Justice department officials
describe lehder
As one of the most violent
drug dealers ever captured.
♪
Jung: I was looking at more than
20 years in prison, straight up.
The judge said, "when you were
young, you had $100 million."
And he said,
"nobody knew who you were.
Why didn't you just take it
and go away?"
And I had an answer, because I
had figured it out a while back,
That it wasn't
the money anymore.
My father knew what was
going on for years,
And he said,
"you're a thrill junkie!"
He said, "why don't you
become a race car driver
Or something like that?"
(chuckles)
♪
Escobar sent my wife
to visit me,
And she said,
"he wants you to testify."
And I said, "I won't."
She had my daughter, who was,
I don't know, four years old,
With her, and she looked
at me and she said,
"this time he's not asking."
♪
Lehder: I was six years old
when we needed to go hide,
Because escobar
was looking for me.
He knew the love that
my father had for me,
And the perfect way
to silence him
Is to threaten his little girl
when his trial started.
You can't even imagine
that it's possible,
But they say that at war,
everything goes.
♪
Reporter: It is one
of the biggest victories
In u.S. History for drug agents
and federal prosecutors.
Now that he's been convicted,
Lehder faces
a life prison sentence,
Plus 150 years on top of that.
Lehder: They saw him
as a trophy, I say.
He wrote his first letter,
And he promised me that
he would be home by christmas.
And now it's been 33 christmas
waiting for him.
♪
♪
♪
♪
Blanco: When you've done
so much bad in your life,
That type of beef
never goes away.
That type of generational
hatred, revenge,
It don't go away.
So after eight years
of my mother's release,
She was killed.
♪
♪
Tom brokaw: You have some
exclusive details for us, brian.
Brian ross: Tom, pablo escobar
is, without a doubt,
The most powerful and ruthless
of all the drug bosses.
Reporter: It's believed that his
cocaine empire
Has made escobar one of
the world's richest men.
Reporter:
Worth estimated at $3 billion.
Reporter: Escobar's ranch is
a monument to his illegal trade.
The plane over the gate
is the first
He used to transport
illegal drugs.
Reporter: Those who would
challenge pablo at his own game,
Learned he would do
anything to win.
Cocaine bought
these 10,000 acres
Of mansions and guest houses.
Quite a haul for a man
who began his career
Stealing gravestones and cars
and working as a golf caddy.
Captioned by
side door media services
(vehicle running)
(men speaking spanish)
(motor starts)
♪
♪
♪
♪
♪
♪
(thud)
(men speaking spanish)
(dog groans)
♪
(dog groans)
♪
♪
♪
Man: Shake this square world
and blast off for kicksville.
Richard nixon: Public enemy
number one is drug abuse.
Nancy reagan: Just say no.
Ronald reagan: Halting
the drug problem in america
Is like carrying water
in a sieve.
George h.W. Bush: Take my word
for it, this scourge will stop!
Kamala harris:
There's now an understanding
That the war on drugs
was an abject failure.
Man: You have to stop and ask
yourself, how did we get here?
Donald trump:
We will build a wall.
♪
♪
♪
♪
George jung: I grew up
in a town like happy days.
There weren't any drugs,
no guns, no violence.
And when I went out
to california,
My intention was to go to
long beach state college
And complete my degree
in marketing.
Suddenly, everybody was
smoking marijuana.
And I saw the value
in selling the marijuana,
More than getting high
off of it.
My name is george jacob jung,
spelled j-u-n-g, okay?
And what I'm known for
Is being one of
the major drug smugglers
In the world.
♪
♪
The money was just rolling in,
And you know, of course
it was tax free. (laughs)
But I became bored with that,
as a matter of fact.
I wanted more, I wanted
more thrill, more adventure.
So I convinced my college
buddies to get involved.
Let's go down to mexico
and get our own pot.
♪
♪
We went to a place
called puerto vallarta.
And couldn't speak spanish,
And after five days
we couldn't even find a joint.
My ego was kind of
struck down to zero.
And a little yellow volkswagen
pulled up out front of the bar,
And this little blonde girl
got out,
And she came right to our table.
She said, "you know,
I've been watching you guys
For like five days."
She said, "you've asked
everybody in puerto vallarta
For marijuana except
the police chief."
She said, "you need help."
I said, "yes, I do."
And she said,
"I live with a guy
Who can give you all
the marijuana you want."
And I said, "let's go!"
We went over to meet him,
and he said,
"how are you gonna get it
out of here?"
And I said, "fly it."
He said, "do you have a plane?"
And I lied and I said,
"yes, I do."
I said, "I can get one
and I'll be back with it."
So then it was time
to learn how to fly.
♪
♪
I did this trip in
a certain amount of time,
And I was making a ton of money.
But they finally
caught up with me.
I was looking at five years
in the federal system.
The judge was about
to sentence me,
And I got up and I said,
"it's ludicrous that
I should be sentenced
For taking a plant
across an imaginary line."
(laughs)
And he said,
"that may be true, mr. Jung,"
He said, "unfortunately
it's against the law."
And so I got the five years.
♪
♪
(thunder)
♪
♪
Michael corleone blanco:
My mother grew up
In this part of town,
Which was the only place that
you could actually smoke reefer,
You know, have a couple drinks,
Bet a little on numbers,
watch rooster fights,
And maybe go and have
a good time with a prostitute.
I'm talking about 1950s.
There was still muddy streets,
horse-drawn carriages.
My name is
michael corleone blanco.
I'm the youngest surviving son
of one griselda blanco.
Also known as
the queen of cocaine.
She told me that she
remembered being so poor,
She didn't have
no shoes or sandals.
And my mother said to herself,
the day I have children
I'm gonna make sure they live
in the lap of luxury.
The neighborhood was divided
Between these two
local street gangs,
And she started to date a kid
From the other part of
the neighborhood, pestañitas.
Pestañitas ran bootlegging,
he ran a couple prostitutes,
Sold some weed,
and he met this little girl.
She was 14 when
she fell in love with him.
They got married, and
he introduced her to marijuana.
They'd been drug dealing
together, right.
They were getting money,
but pestañitas told my mother,
"we're making peanuts here.
If we can get this weed
to new york,
We could make
a big load of money."
(horns honking)
(siren)
So they relocate to new york,
And they start doing deals
in new york.
When they start
making serious money,
My mother goes back to colombia
And she meets a gentleman
who was a club owner,
And the gentleman tells her,
"you might wanna think about
this drug called cocaine."
Reporter:
This is jackson heights
In the borough of queens.
It's one of the places
where cocaine
Comes home
to the united states.
Man: This has become
the central distribution point
For the majority
of all the cocaine
Distributed in
the northern united states.
If you just stand here
and watch these people,
That's exactly what
they're doing right now,
Is they're doing business.
Blanco: In the early '70s,
Griselda becomes
the queen of queens,
Queens, new york.
She's selling cocaine.
My mother realizes
that this is the future.
♪
(sniffing)
Bob palombo: Cocaine was
on the rise,
The demand was starting
to increase.
At jfk airport, the seizures
were from a pound or so,
Or two pounds on the body,
To two or three kilos
in the suitcases.
We were starting
to see other methods,
Anything that could
conceal cocaine,
Was starting to make its way in
more frequently.
And griselda blanco's
fingerprint was on that.
♪
♪
Jung: I was sentenced to danbury
federal correctional institute,
And that was how I met
the infamous carlos lehder.
Carlos was there
for stealing cars
And shipping them
illegally to colombia.
I said, "well, basically
you're a car thief."
And he said, "what about you?"
And I said, "I flew planeloads
of pot out of mexico."
He said, "do you know
anything about cocaine?"
I didn't.
He said, "you can buy it
For $3,000 to $4,000 a kilo
in colombia."
And I said, "well, how much
does it sell for
In the united states?"
And he said, "$60,000 a kilo."
And I said,
"you know what, carlos?
I think you and I are gonna
go into business together."
♪
♪
♪
♪
Blanco: Griselda entrepreneured
the cocaine industry
As we know it.
From the jungle,
to the street corner,
To the nightclub,
to your household.
My mother did that.
♪
♪
Where's the first place
people are gonna buy drugs at?
On the corner.
What's the second place people
are gonna do and sell drugs at?
The disco.
It's the epitome and
the era of disco music.
♪
♪
Reporter: It's 3:00
in the morning in manhattan,
And still at studio 54,
People crowd the doors
hoping to get in.
Blanco: My mother
liked to rub elbows
With the elite of the time.
Reporter: Society columnists
adore studio 54,
For the personalities
it attracts.
Blanco: Studio 54,
she practically owned the joint.
Jung: Studio 54 was
lined up for blocks.
Everybody's snorting
cocaine in there.
It was Saturday night fever
with señorita cocaine.
here comes paradise ♪
mmm ♪
It took over america
for the rich and famous.
nice ♪
(sirens)
Reporter: The number of people
snorting cocaine
Is rising steadily,
despite the steep price.
About $100 for a gram,
Enough for several people
to get high at one party.
♪
♪
Reporter: Cocaine paraphernalia
is selling well
Right on madison avenue.
Reporter: Who is buying this?
Man: Everyone.
From the secretary, lawyers,
businessmen, old and young.
We have customers in
the entertainment business,
But most of them are executives.
♪
Peter bourne: Well, it's not
a serious problem nationwide,
Given the very large number
of people who use cocaine.
It is a serious problem
for a certain small minority,
And those tend to be people
who are very wealthy,
For whom money is no concern,
Who can get unlimited
access to cocaine.
(sirens)
Palombo: Cocaine, at that point,
Really wasn't in
law enforcement's radar.
And so there was a gap
in the intelligence
That was being developed,
And this gave the colombians
an opportunity to establish
A greater foothold for smuggling
the drugs into the country
And distributing the drugs
without being caught.
♪
♪
Blanco: My mother makes
a fortune in new york city
And moves back to colombia.
And her and el capitán see that
their empire's grown so much
That they need henchmen,
they need soldiers.
And everybody knew
That if you wanted to get
into the cocaine business,
You had to get the green light
from griselda.
♪
♪
Pablo escobar's boss was
one of those smugglers.
My mother didn't like him
too much, so pablo killed him.
And my mother said, "pablo,
you've got a future, kid."
♪
♪
Palombo: It wasn't until later
That I realized
what a role she played,
Not only in
the cocaine business,
But also in the business
of violence.
She was psychopath.
She loved killing people.
(camera shutter clicking)
Jung: In the beginning,
I really liked him,
He was young and well-mannered
and educated.
He had an innocence
about him, also.
Mónica lehder:
I would describe my father
As a rebel, adventurous man.
He was a chilled person,
he loved his music,
He loved to be around friends,
Peaceful, sometimes
introverted, too.
Jung: I figured a great guy
to meet and to work with,
And we can make
a lot of money together.
♪
♪
And the next thing I knew, we
were on our way down to colombia
To meet a guy
named pablo escobar.
A lot of people asked me
was I in awe or whatever.
I mean, he could have been
a vacuum cleaner salesman;
I didn't know
who the hell he was.
♪
(engine revving)
We talked and he said,
"I have one rule:
You betray me and
I'll have to kill you."
And I said, "well, you'll never
get to kill me,
'cause I'll never betray you."
I mean, it's a simple rule,
right? (laughs)
You know, people walking
around the ranch
All with machine guns
and this and that.
That wasn't my trip.
I mean, I just wanted to get in
and get the hell out of there.
(engine starts)
♪
♪
(cha-ching)
Jeremy mcdermott:
Pablo escobar industrializes
The cocaine trade.
He gathers a big group
of different traffickers
Based in the city of medellín.
And they begin to pool their
shipments and work together.
And then carlos lehder brings
The mass transport element
via planes.
He provides the air bridge.
Then there's the retailers,
The griselda blancos,
Others in the u.S.,
They are running
the distributions networks,
And then funneling back
the money to the cartel.
♪
Tom cash: Carlos lehder is to
the cocaine smuggling business,
What the wright brothers
were to aviation.
Andy: When I first met carlos,
It was simply to purchase
some airplanes for him.
I never used my real name;
I went by an alias.
He got a hold of me and said,
"hey, I got this place
in the bahamas.
That's where we're gonna
operate out of,
And I need some airplanes."
So I picked up a couple
airplanes for him
And flew them to bahamas.
And carlos said, "hey, you want
to fly down to colombia,
Fill 'em up and bring 'em
back to the islands,
And make a little extra money?"
And so I said, "yeah, okay."
Carlos was very convincing.
You know, the smile on his face
and how great it is.
So, consequently,
You kind of insidiously
get involved in this.
I mean, I had no desire
to be a criminal,
I had no desire to go to jail.
Reporter: One of the most
favored routes
From colombia to miami
is via the bahamas,
Famous for its beaches, casinos,
And hundreds of thinly inhabited
Cays or islands
That have been used for
smuggling for centuries.
Andy: The flying was
not nearly as dangerous
As hanging out there
overnight in colombia.
These little strips were out
in the middle of nowhere.
I remember sleeping in a hammock
with a .38 on my chest,
Because there were some people
that would come in
With automatic weapons
and steal the product.
If you messed up,
you weren't getting out.
If you, as others did,
crash an airplane
At some of these clandestine
strips in colombia,
And you were injured, the narcos
buried you with the airplane.
They didn't take you
to hospital.
So there was a great incentive
To successfully land
and take off.
Jung: There's an old saying
that the marijuana business
Was done with a handshake,
And the cocaine business
was done with a gun.
I mean, people walking
around with guns,
And everybody had one.
It was very serious,
and mistakes weren't tolerated.
♪
♪
(boat approaching)
Reporter:
In the drugs business,
All roads lead
to miami, florida,
America's biggest banking center
outside new york.
Reporter: Cocaine dealers
regularly pay cash
For a $50,000 car,
a $100,000 yacht,
Or a $1 million condominium.
Al singleton:
One of the side-effects
Of the cocaine trade was the
impact it had on the economy,
And the amount of cash
that was free-flowing.
♪
♪
Jim shedd: The money
that was coming into miami
Was just incredible.
I remember we would have to go
to the federal reserve bank,
And there were just pallets and
pallets and pallets of cash.
Many times the federal reserve
bank of miami
Had more cash than all the other
federal reserve banks
Put together.
(plane approaching)
♪
♪
Singleton:
He purchased norman's cay
For what I was told at the time
was $2 million,
So carlos had actually
purchased the island.
Jung: And he wanted to build
like an empire there,
Drug smuggling empire.
Reporter:
Using a front company,
He acquired most of the property
on the island,
And turned it into
a drug transshipment port.
Jung: It was full of naked women
And parties and
cocaine everywhere.
Armed bodyguards walking
around the perimeters
With machine guns,
which he imported from germany.
Andy: Norman's cay was
approximately 200-plus miles
From the east coast of florida.
So it was a very easy trip
for a light airplane,
Which would draw
no suspicion whatsoever,
Because a light airplane
didn't have the range
To go anywhere where this
merchandise was picked up.
Jung: In the beginning
it was all fine.
Then carlos changed drastically,
he did like a 180.
And I told him,
I said, "this is crazy.
The only way to do this
is to keep on the move
And keep changing locations,
where nobody knows who you are,
Or what you are,
and you keep moving."
And I said,
"everybody in the world's
Gonna be watching that island."
And they were.
It was a madness.
And that's when I decided
it was time to go.
♪
♪
♪
Anybody who thinks
they're a drug lord,
They're living some kind
of foolish, childish dream.
Once you get on the list,
it's over.
(wings flapping)
♪
♪
♪
(gunshot)
♪
(man speaking spanish)
(gunshot)
♪
♪
♪
Blanco: The first
sicario motorcycle hit,
It was done by
griselda's killers,
And they weren't young
15-year-old, 16-year-old boys;
They were grown bandidos.
It was a different time.
My mother never
believed that a boy
Should get involved
in men's stuff.
♪
♪
♪
♪
♪
Griselda comes to miami.
You have an industry that was
trying to be established
By other latinos.
But now this corporate entity
came into town and said,
"no, no, no, this is my town,
I don't care what you guys
think, I run all the cocaine."
My mother always told me,
"you know what's the best way
To take care
of your competition?
Erase your competition.
Then you have nobody
to compete with."
(siren)
Investigator: Right now
two people are dead,
And there are others injured.
I don't know the exact amount.
Reporter: Police say they
don't know what the motive was
For the shootings, but they are
sure it wasn't robbery.
Singleton: The shooting occurred
in the middle of the day,
In a very popular shopping mall
called dadeland.
Reporter:
Inside the liquor store,
One colombian national
and another non-cuban latin
Suspected of drug trafficking
lay face up in a pool of blood.
Investigator: They were
well armed, we can say that,
And they came prepared
to do battle.
Singleton: The subjects went
inside with automatic weapons,
Killed the intended target
and his bodyguard
Inside the liquor store.
Reporter: The shooting
continued outside,
As the assailants
sprayed gunfire
All around the parking lot.
Shell fragments were found
some 40 yards from the store.
Singleton: They'd fired
automatic weapons
Into the sidewalk area,
Wounding two other
totally innocent bystanders.
Witnesses were just
beside themselves.
They couldn't believe the fact
That they were minding
their own business, shopping,
In a suburban shopping mall,
And ended up being shot at
with machine guns.
It was totally unprecedented,
No one had ever seen
anything like this before
On any homicide scene.
Palombo: This was the handiwork
of griselda blanco.
She loved to make
that statement,
And the bloody trail continued
from that point on.
Blanco: That day, 1979, I think
Miami and the united states
understood that cocaine
Would generate so much violence
and so much financial gain,
That people were willing to kill
people in broad daylight,
Innocent or not innocent.
Woman: No! No!
Reporter: Last week, the bodies
of two colombians were found.
Reporter: The majority
of murders here
Are related to drug trafficking.
Reporter: Colombian drug dealers
have opened fire
In crowded shopping centers,
along busy highways,
In quiet residential
neighborhoods.
Reporter: This colombian
was machine-gunned
As he sat in his car.
Ike seamans: 514 persons
have been murdered
In miami this year.
Lloyd hough: There's no end
to the selection of weapons
That they have here.
They're a lot better armed
than law enforcement.
Singleton: We became known
as dodge city.
Joseph davis: What I see going
on here would make chicago
In the days of prohibition
Look like a baptist
Sunday school picnic.
(train horn blows)
Singleton:
The homicide rate doubled
From 300 a year to 600 a year.
We were all overwhelmed.
Not the least of which was
the medical examiner's office
Which had to use a refrigerated
truck to store bodies.
Palombo: The primary target
of metro-dade homicide
Was griselda blanco.
She not only wanted
the person shot,
But she wanted the person's wife
and even the children shot.
She was a monster.
♪
♪
(man speaking spanish)
Andy: Initially, he'd try
a little bit of the product
Occasionally,
but it got to the point
Where he was, I believe,
addicted to it,
And I think that really
distorted his perception
Of what the operation was, and
he became a different person.
He was very paranoid,
he ran around with a .45,
Waving it around,
And you never knew what the hell
he was gonna do.
He just had this attitude
that he was the king.
That's when I decided that
this could get dangerous.
Maybe it's time to say sayonara
to this activity.
Reporter: Colombian
drug baron carlos lehder
Had armed guards
To prevent outsiders
landing by boat or plane.
For yachtsmen, this island
had a menacing reputation.
Andy: Some time after I left,
One of the most famous
news anchors in north america,
Walter cronkite, sailed into
the harbor at norman's cay
And was met by
a couple of fellas
That were sporting ar-15s.
And when he asked
what the deal was,
They told him that he wasn't
welcome on the island,
And he should just
get in his little boat
And sail on out of the harbor.
Cronkite wasn't gonna
be put off like that,
So he opened up his own
little investigation,
And one thing led to another.
And eventually
the bahamian police
Were convinced
by the u.S. Authorities,
Dea and what have you,
That you need to do something
about this island down there.
♪
♪
♪
Jung: Carlos became a freudian
kaleidoscope of madness,
Because on one end
of the spectrum,
He loved john lennon,
And he loved adolf hitler!
And that was
mind-boggling to me.
♪
♪
♪
Lehder: It was on the news,
on the radio, on the streets.
We had the army coming to
our house almost every day,
Looking for him.
♪
♪
Palombo: As she began to create
more and more enemies,
She wasn't able to really enjoy
the fruits of her endeavors
Because she was on the run.
Blanco:
I would always wonder why
We had so many people with me.
And my brother would tell me,
"you know why?" "why?"
"'cause you're the prince
of this family,
And nothing's gonna
happen to you."
♪
♪
Palombo: Her husband,
darío sepúlveda,
Is growing weary of her,
he's disgusted with her.
Talk about the pot calling
the kettle black, right?
He's an assassin himself, and
even she was too much for him.
He's worried about
the well-being of his son,
Michael corleone, and he takes
michael and goes to colombia.
Well, griselda wasn't
having any of that.
And a short time later,
she pays off police in colombia.
Darío's driving down the road
with little michael in the car.
(bell tolls)
Blanco: And after
a couple minutes,
Four cops, two motorcycles
pull us over.
And he handcuffs my father,
and my father goes,
"what are you doing?"
And my father looks
at his bodyguard,
And I think right then and there
they realized it.
And I look at my daddy,
And I said, "papi, papi!"
My dad was hit by 27 bullets.
I saw the holes on his back.
And there was all blood
coming out of 'em.
I was about to be six years old.
Palombo: Griselda blanco ordered
the hit on her husband,
And there's no doubt in my mind
that she didn't care
Whether her son saw
the assassination or not.
♪
♪
All he knew was that he was
whisked up, put on a plane,
And delivered to his mother
in irvine, california.
And shortly thereafter
is when we arrest her.
♪
She was just propped up in bed
reading the bible.
She didn't have
the .38 in her hand;
That was on her nightstand.
I said, "hola, griselda."
She looked at me with
a very bewildered look.
"no. Me llamo betty."
I said, "nah, I don't think so."
And I put the cuffs on her,
away we went.
The maid had taken
little michael down the street
To go play at a park.
We didn't want him in the house,
You know, it was gonna be
too traumatic.
He was as cute as a button,
playing at a playground,
Just a nice kid.
And it was so sad, and I
remember commenting to my wife,
I said, "you know, I really
feel sorry for this child.
I wouldn't mind taking this kid
and adopting him myself."
♪
♪
♪
♪
Sebastián marroquín:
I only had the opportunity
To meet carlos lehder
for one or two weeks
In the hacienda nápoles.
They became very close friends;
They were both
against the extradition.
Lehder: They were very close,
But they always kept their
families away from everything.
Marroquín: Sadly carlos lehder
lose all of his money and power,
And he was consuming
a lot of drugs.
Reporter: Colombian
law enforcement officers
Have not said exactly
how police were led
To lehder's house in medellín,
But that lehder was set up
by one of his alleged partners
In the cocaine cartel,
pablo escobar.
Mcdermott: The story is that
there was a big party
At pablo escobar's hacienda, and
carlos lehder arrived coked up.
And one of escobar's sicarios
makes a pass
At one of the girls he was with,
and lehder just kills him.
And so escobar has
to smooth all this over.
But elements of
the medellín cartel
Then see carlos lehder
as a liability.
Steven cohen: Escobar sees
the need to appease
U.S. And colombian officials who
are applying increasing pressure
On him and his organization.
And lehder gets offered up
as the sacrificial lamb,
And essentially turned over
By escobar and
medellín cartel associates.
Lehder: I remember the day
of my father's arrest.
I was with my mother,
And I can still feel how
her face turned white,
And the screams.
♪
(helicopter)
Reporter:
The plane from colombia
Carrying reputed drug king
carlos lehder
Touched down in florida
early this morning.
Security was heavy;
gun-toting federal agents
Circled the courthouse in tampa
where he was taken.
Justice department officials
describe lehder
As one of the most violent
drug dealers ever captured.
♪
Jung: I was looking at more than
20 years in prison, straight up.
The judge said, "when you were
young, you had $100 million."
And he said,
"nobody knew who you were.
Why didn't you just take it
and go away?"
And I had an answer, because I
had figured it out a while back,
That it wasn't
the money anymore.
My father knew what was
going on for years,
And he said,
"you're a thrill junkie!"
He said, "why don't you
become a race car driver
Or something like that?"
(chuckles)
♪
Escobar sent my wife
to visit me,
And she said,
"he wants you to testify."
And I said, "I won't."
She had my daughter, who was,
I don't know, four years old,
With her, and she looked
at me and she said,
"this time he's not asking."
♪
Lehder: I was six years old
when we needed to go hide,
Because escobar
was looking for me.
He knew the love that
my father had for me,
And the perfect way
to silence him
Is to threaten his little girl
when his trial started.
You can't even imagine
that it's possible,
But they say that at war,
everything goes.
♪
Reporter: It is one
of the biggest victories
In u.S. History for drug agents
and federal prosecutors.
Now that he's been convicted,
Lehder faces
a life prison sentence,
Plus 150 years on top of that.
Lehder: They saw him
as a trophy, I say.
He wrote his first letter,
And he promised me that
he would be home by christmas.
And now it's been 33 christmas
waiting for him.
♪
♪
♪
♪
Blanco: When you've done
so much bad in your life,
That type of beef
never goes away.
That type of generational
hatred, revenge,
It don't go away.
So after eight years
of my mother's release,
She was killed.
♪
♪
Tom brokaw: You have some
exclusive details for us, brian.
Brian ross: Tom, pablo escobar
is, without a doubt,
The most powerful and ruthless
of all the drug bosses.
Reporter: It's believed that his
cocaine empire
Has made escobar one of
the world's richest men.
Reporter:
Worth estimated at $3 billion.
Reporter: Escobar's ranch is
a monument to his illegal trade.
The plane over the gate
is the first
He used to transport
illegal drugs.
Reporter: Those who would
challenge pablo at his own game,
Learned he would do
anything to win.
Cocaine bought
these 10,000 acres
Of mansions and guest houses.
Quite a haul for a man
who began his career
Stealing gravestones and cars
and working as a golf caddy.
Captioned by
side door media services