All language subtitles for ESCOBAR NOVI - Documentary (2021)

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BIRDS CHIRP

OMINOUS MUSIC

GRUNTS

MAN:
The pain I had was excruciating.

MOANS

Every time I'd breathe, there
was pain.

GUNFIRE

MOANS

I was very aware that
we were in Pablo Escobar's area.

The nightmare scenario.

PANTS

What happens if Escobar's men
get me?

But the main thing was the pain.

GRUNTS

GUNFIRE

GASPS

GUNFIRE

What was I going to do?
Think about your morale.

Father, son, Holy Spirit.
I swear, no more.

The Catholic prayers came out.

I said, give me the strength
to die with an element of
honour.

SIGHS

I lay there thinking,

how the fuck did I get myself
here?

LOUD BANG

GUNFIRE

REPORTER:
This was the work of the
Medellin drug cartel.

REPORTER SPEAKS IN SPANISH

REPORT CONTINUES

FEMALE REPORTER SPEAKS IN
SPANISH

REPORTER SPEAKS IN SPANISH

REPORTER:
A bomb has exploded in
the capital of Colombia
in Bogota,

killing 35 people and injuring
around 200.

SIREN WAILS

The explosion devastated
the headquarters of the
country's security police.

The main suspects
are Colombia's drug cartels,

but the most prominent cartel
bosses
have escaped.

One Pablo Escobar,
just minutes, the police say,

before they raided his hiding
place.

On Sunday,
Presidential elections take
place.

GUNFIRE

Three candidates
have been assassinated already.

The cause: the unending drugs
war.

Central to the conflict is Pablo
Escobar,
leader of the Medellin Cartel

and Colombia's most feared
criminal.

Cocaine dealing transformed him
to one of the world's richest
men.

DRAMATIC MUSIC

MAN: When you look at Pablo
Escobar
and the size and scope of his
organisation,

he is the largest cocaine
manufacturer
and distributor ever

in the history of the world.

Responsible for as much as
80% of the cocaine in the world.

Think of that, 80%.

Initially, there was an alliance
between the two cartels,
Medellin and Cali.

COLOMBIAN NEWS REPORT

MAN: Cali cartel controlled
cocaine distribution to New
York.

Pablo Escobar controlled the
Miami area.

Then Cali started
trying to get into Miami,

Pablo was trying to get into
the New York markets.

SIREN WAILS

The war started and it was so
vicious

that the Cali cartel
tried to bomb Pablo Escobar's
building.

They placed a car bomb
at the base of that apartment

where Pablo Escobar's family was
based.

Bomb detonated, everybody was
fine

but the retribution that Pablo
Escobar
took on the cartel was vicious.

MAN SPEAKS SPANISH

SIREN WAILS

CARS HOOT

UPBEAT STREET MUSIC PLAYS

MAN: I was invited to a meeting
with the Cali cartel.

Gilberto Rodriguez told me in
two minutes

the reason we are here is
we have a terrible enemy, Pablo
Escobar,

and either we get rid of him
or he gets rid of all our
family.

What they wanted from me

was to put them in contact with
some of the ex-SAS forces

that were retired in England
to which I had access.

MAN: 1989, I received a
telephone call
from Jorge Salcedo Cabrera.

I said, what is it?

He said, we want you to work for
some businessmen in Cali.

The mission was to eliminate
Pablo Escobar
from the Cali cartel's lives.

Kill Pablo Escobar.

And I knew just the person for
that role.

You don't get asked
to assassinate Pablo Escobar

unless you have the right
experience.

GUNFIRE

SHOUTS

GUNFIRE CONTINUES

SHOUTS

ADVENTUROUS MUSIC

I went to Angola
because I wanted to get into
action.

REPORTER:
Angola divided and at war with
itself

has collapsed.

EXPLOSION

GUNFIRE

For us, the Cubans or the
Russians
have no right to kill Angolans.

We have to get aid from anyone
who will help us to defend
ourselves.

REPORTER: There have been
about 200 British mercenaries

involved in the war

who are paid to fight against
the MPLA,

the movement which won the civil
war
and which now runs Angola.

We interviewed Peter McAleese,

commander of all the FNLA
mercenaries
in Northern Angola.

What I want is for the public to
hear
the other side of the operation,

see the good side and the bad
side,
and to let them judge for
themselves.

MC ALEESE:
I was young, I was fit, I was
aggressive.

Although I disliked communism,
it was never a personal thing.

They supplied most of the enemy
at that time.

The communist plan for Africa
was to go across the central
belt

and then start proceeding North
and South.

The West backed the FNLA
and the Eastern Bloc backed the
MPLA.

I wouldn't have wished it
on my worst enemy.

It was a nightmare.

The place was in a state of
breakdown.

And there was a lot of money
in arms, changing hands.

Why shouldn't we fight
communism?

Whether it be for money
or for a cause we believe in.

I first met Dave Tomkins in
Angola.

He had never been a regular
soldier

but what I did notice about him,
he was extremely brave.

TOMKINS: I've had a whole host
of jobs
in the security

business, defence equipment.

I was the guy
who would get you anything,
anywhere:

bombs, missiles, artillery
rounds,

in the millions and millions
of dollars' worth

to Iran, Iraq, PLO,
you name it, I shipped it.

MC ALEESE: He liked to sport
a large medallion he had round
his neck.

A bit suave, a bit debonair.

He was always well coiffured,
you know.

TOMKINS:
My first impressions of Peter
were

I was impressed with him.

I was impressed with the way
he handled himself, moved.

He wasn't flash.

We just gelled as soon as we
met.

MC ALEESE: Dave said,
are you interested in a job in
Colombia?

And I accepted.
I could not resist the
challenge.

UPBEAT MUSIC

TOMKINS:
Peter and I flew from London to
Cali.

We were met by Jorge Salcedo.

MC ALEESE:
We called him George.

He also had a code name
he liked to use called Ricardo.

- How are you?
- Very well.

- Nice to see you.
- Let me introduce you to Peter
McAleese.

Pleasure is mine.

Come by me.

MC ALEESE: I could tell that
Jorge
was definitely somebody within
the system

because he walked us
straight through customs,

immigration,
and there was no hold-up
whatsoever.

I felt that the mission
had been sanctioned at the
highest level.

CABRERA:
At that time, I knew everybody.

I had no problems
getting them through customs,

it was immediate.

And that power came from the
Cali cartel.

CARS HOOT

TOMKINS: I had a video camera
and videoed everything.

They took us to the outskirts of
Cali,

to a private sports centre
that was owned by the cartel.

- How was your flight?
-Top of the range, thank you.

TOMKINS: And in a rest area
there by the pool having lunch

was the four Cali cartel leaders

and that is where I had my
negotiation.

We represent a group of highly
skilled
soldiers, the best in the world.

I charge per month, per person,

plus bonuses, plus expenses,
plus all found, everything.

Money was not an object for
them,
they had billions.

Peter is our main trainer;
he was with the SAS.

And then it just went a bit
quiet

and it became a bit more
intense.

Like it had been orchestrated.

One of them leaned over

and he said to me:

Can you kill Pablo Escobar?

TENSE MUSIC

MC ALEESE:
The morals of killing Escobar,

I didn't have any conscience
about it.

How can you have morals

when the American government
has a million dollars on his
head?

The Colombian government
has quite a bit on his head.

COLOMBIAN NEWS REPORT

The guy was a threat to the
government,
the way of life in Colombia.

Although he was kind
to a lot of people in Medellin,

but the fact is he upset the
balance
of power within Colombia

and he had to go.

Think about the heartaches that
he caused
by some of the people that he
killed.

COLOMBIAN NEWS REPORT

MURPHY:
He put a bomb on a commercial
airliner

because he thought there was
going to be
a presidential candidate on that
plane

and he wasn't even on there.

So 110 people died

because Pablo wanted to impose
his will
on somebody else.

MC ALEESE:
You can't moralise with that.

I have never looked upon it as
murder,
I've looked upon it as a target.

I've looked upon it as

you could say that's a cop-out,
it's not,
it is genuinely how I feel.

Thou shalt not kill,
you are in the wrong business

because that is what it's about.

The actual act of killing
someone,

when you are a professional
soldier
and you are on a mission,

is partly what
you have chosen to do in your
life.

I was a bit nervous
the first time I killed anybody.

I was in the SAS,
I was posted out to Aden in
1967.

That area is now called Southern
Yemen.

We were in a camp called
Haberlain

and it was constantly being
motared
and shot at by dissident rebels.

Our task was to get out
and try and get rid of these
men.

We moved up to this area where
we thought
was a group of shepherds there.

As I looked at them,
something clicked in my mind

and told me,
these guys are not shepherds.

It was pretty dark.

I spoke to one, he stood up
GUNFIRE

and he shot Dave Healy
who was the troop sergeant

and I turned round
and I just blootered him.

I fired a round into his
stomach.

He stood up and he straightened
up

and I put another five into his
chest
and he slid down a wall.

SLOW INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC

I felt really like
I'd proved myself as a soldier.

I felt proud that
I hadn't failed in battle.

In the eyes of some,
it may be morally wrong

but then again,
that was the profession that I
chose.

BIRDS CHIRP

OMINOUS MUSIC

The first night it was cold

and I found a can of beans
in my escape bag.

GROANS

I found some hexamine blocks
which the British army used for
cooking

and when the can inflates again,
you know the food is cooked.

It was beautiful.
LAUGHS

It was a fear that Escobar
could send people to kill me.

On the hill there, lying on my
own,
I had some vivid dreams,

and this dream was Angola.

SHUDDERS

There was a guy bent over a bush

and somebody had shot him
in the back of the head.

His brains had come out,
he was still holding the bush.

PANTS

Managing to hang on.

PEOPLE SPEAK THROUGH RADIO

The Cali cartel was very
confident
that they could kill Escobar

when he had
one of his usual parties in his
ranch.

The details were to be carried
by the British.

TOMKINS:
We will target Hacienda Napoles,

we'll wait for him to come there
and you will have to tell us
when he is.

You will have to put your spies
into action, police and
military.

They said, good idea.

MC ALEESE: I wanted to do a
flight recce,
the reason being,

I wanted to know
what the ground looked like

because that is where
we were going to strike.

HELICOPTER WHIRRS

PEÑA: Hacienda Napoles
was Pablo Escobar's pride and
joy.

He loved that finca,
it was about ten thousand acres,

it had a zoo where he had
all the exotic animals of the
world there.

I remember the elephants,
the giraffes, the famous hippos.

A museum where he had Al
Capone's car in.

He'd bought all kinds of things
relevant to gangsters.

PEÑA: He built an airstrip

where his drug trafficker
friends
would come in to negotiate.

He had sicarios guarding that
finca.

MC ALEESE:
When we were in the air,

I looked down at Hacienda
Napoles

and I realised that it was a lot
easier than I had actually
thought in the beginning

because I could see the ground.

CAMERA CLICKS

It was tailor-made
for a complete assault team.

I had to think about med evac.

Should anybody be shot,
how do we get them out?

There was three airfields
that I was thinking about,

how we could med evac there.

We knew where the guards were.

We could see the guards on the
gate
and in various places.

The main thing I was
concentrating on
was the shape of the houses,

how the houses were laid out

and how the stables were laid
out
and the best place to attack it
from,

and above all, I look for an
area
where the assault team would
land.

It was pleasing to the eye
of a military person

and I said, this one is a goer.

I felt excitement at the
challenge,

excitement at doing something
that nobody else could achieve.

Everything in my military career

had led me to believe that
this was my day.

TOMKINS: We needed a number of
men,
preferably special force types

who were capable and mentally
prepared
to take on this mission.

MC ALEESE: How many men
are we going to use? We decided
on 12.

We can only go for the top guys.

Billy, it's Peter.

Lots of experience, combat
proven,
who had the big balls to do
this.

It's Dave, Dave Tomkins.

MC ALEESE: The selection process
I had for the men was based on

the fact that some of them
had served with me before,

others were recommended by other
people.

I knew I could count on you.

And to be fair, none of them
said no,
they just said, we'll come.

Alex Lennox, how are you?

In the beginning,
Dave Tomkins called me.

Very well my friend,
been a long time.

Alex had been parachute
regiment,
32 Battalion, South African
army.

I've got a good job opportunity
for you.

I was excited.

Good money, very good money.

I said, where is it.

Colombia.

I'm in.

Basically come through Panama,
not straight to Colombia, you
know the drill.

ADVENTUROUS MUSIC

TOMKINS: He looks like
a Peruvian mountain goat
doesn't he?

They came in via circuitous
routes,
Germany, Argentina.

CHATTER

It was security protocol.

CHATTER

MC ALEESE:
We with George, met them at the
airport,

and George again secured them
through the passport and
immigration.

That's it, Jock, you look super.
Straight out of Miami Vice.

CHATTER

Everybody's here!

MC ALEESE: By this time,
George had acquired an
apartment.

Very spacious, very palatial.

Everybody came there
and we settled them in.

Brilliant, fabulous,
well-furnished.

There was only one way into it,
that was by elevator.

It had armed security,
they supplied us weapons.

So we all had weapons

in case we got a surprise visit
from anybody.

CHATTER

Today is a nice day,
the sun is shining in Cali.

LAUGHTER

Here is a missionary
to donate a few dollars to the
poor.

That could be me cos I'm fucked.

I think that's 750
but just double check that.

What, mate?
I can get the motorcycle.

My ship's come in.

UPBEAT MUSIC

LENNOX: We were on 5000 dollars
a month,
plus expenses, plus food.

But that was just a retainer.

I was on 1000 pounds a day.

MC ALEESE: The next morning, I
got
the guys together, gave them a
quick brief.

At this stage, we still hadn't
told them
the target was Pablo Escobar.

We didn't feel
they needed to know at that time

and I emphasised, do not do any
drinking
whilst you are here.

SHOUTS AND CHATTER

LATIN MUSIC

LENNOX: The most beautiful women
in Latin America are in Cali.

I mean, it's just unbelievable,

that we've got 12 of us
and they're beginning to seduce
us.

It really was everybody loves
Cali,
we love Cali and we did.

LAUGHTER

TOMKINS: Guys spent a week or so
running around the clubs and
social life

doing what guys do,
making a nuisance of themselves.

MC ALEESE:
I went for a walk through Cali

and I passed by a pub
that was fairly open.

SHOUTS

I went, what the fuck.

SHOUTS

Two of my team were there,
they were drunk.

Anywhere else
it would've been funny a
situation,

but we could not afford
to bring attention to ourselves.

I sent them back to the flat.

SLURRED SPEECH

The next day,
we stopped a week's wages off
them.

A thousand dollars off you and
you.

I said also,
you will do exactly as I tell
you.

So I went to the chemist
and I got some stuff called
Antabuse

and if you drink alcohol with
it,
you start vomiting.

So I made them take Antabuse
tablets.

LATIN MUSIC

CABRERA: Cali is a small city,
not used to seeing a lot of
foreigners.

Their presence
was getting noticeable in the
city.

So, I decided it was time to
leave town.

DRAMATIC MUSIC

We were 8000 ft up.
It was cold, a shivering cold.

I was thinking about survival
because I could have died.

And it gives you time to mull
over
certain mistakes that you have
made.

I was soul searching.

PANTS

I thought about a number of
things.

My marriage wasn't going too
well.

Everything went through my head,
you know my childhood, mother,
father.

I wished I had been a better
husband
and a better father.

I was hurting a lot
and I felt my head was going to
burst open.

I was trained to kill by the
army

but the fighting instinct
came from no mean city, Glasgow.

SLOW PIANO

I was brought up in Riddrie,
right next to Barlinnie prison.

My upbringing in Glasgow,
it was hard and tough

but when you lived where I
lived,
with the people I lived with,

it's natural.

I never saw my father,
I just heard about him.

My dad was an extremely hard
person,
he was feared by a lot of
people.

WOMAN: He was quite a tough man,
quite a hardy old man.

He'd get himself into some
scrapes

and I remember as a child seeing
him,

a whole gang attacked him,
he had about 46 stitches in his
head.

MC ALEESE:
He was also absent.

And I remember my mother said to
me,
your dad's home,

and I remember distinctly
he had a uniform on.

I walked up to him and I said,
hey mister, are you my daddy?

Because I had never seen him.

If you look up here at the top
right-hand window of Barlinnie
prison,

my father used to be
incarcerated there

and he'd put little things in
the window,

different colours to tell my
mother,
you know,

either he loved her, he was
depressed,
he was happy, things were going
well.

BREWER:
Mammy would be upset at times
because

my father didn't know how to
sorta be with him.

That's the only way I can put
it.

He never ever told any of us
he loved us, you know.

MC ALEESE: I seen my dad
fighting
on a few occasions.

He got himself involved in a
fight.

I was very young at the time

and my father had been dethroned
as the local hard man

by a guy called John Dones.

And old Miles, who was my
grandfather,

said, we are not having this,
the family has been toppled.

So he put my father on a
training regime
for the comeback fight.

They exchanged blows
and it was fairly heated.

They were both really going for
it.

It looked like something,
you know, out a movie.

My father took a couple of
smacks,
but he bested John Dones

and eventually dropped him.

GRUNTS

My father used to beat me.

He just hit me once

and all I saw was a load of
stars.

He broke my nose.

It made me think

that I could never let
anybody beat me.

I prefer to leave it alone
if you could, you know.

BREWER:
I think Peter wanted him to say
to him,

I am really proud of you.

But I don't think
my father could say that.

I don't think he was able to say
that.

MC ALEESE:
It made me a fighter.

I found myself becoming
more and more aggressive

because I was moving up the food
chain
of the hard men.

I was trying to find something
that I could channel my
aggression into.

I had to get out of Glasgow
because Glasgow wasn't good for
me.

SLOW PIANO ENDS

BIRDS CHIRP

MEMBER:
The skinny one.

Very nice, I love them shorts
mate.

There is Don chewing a fucking
orange.

My God you are ugly close up.

He wants somebody to push him.

TOMKINS: We needed a place to
train
and we needed weapons.

We can't go around
shooting in the streets

and eventually they moved us
to a place called Pennsylvania.

WHISTLE

That was a beautiful ranch
that the Cali cartel had.

MEMBER:
There is Dave doing his
exercise.

After a hard day I am having to
relax.

Oh, we felt relaxed because you
know that
there was money behind you.

A hundred acres of mountain-top
retreat.

It had Chinese gardens,
full scale bowling alley,

swimming pool, sauna, weight
room,

stables, horses, quad bikes,
guard dog perimeters,

guarded by the security guards
at the front gate,

a cook - Martha, servants.

It had an antenna for the
television,
bigger than my house.

They could get a tv channel
anywhere,

you wanted to watch EastEnders

MC ALEESE: It was out of this
world,
it was truly palatial.

The most important thing
about being up there,

there were no pubs.

The drinkers suddenly realised
it wasn't on anymore

and the guys started taking it
seriously
and we started to train.

Up!

Come on boys, come on.

LENNOX: We needed to be fit.
An unfit soldier is a dangerous
one.

We had plenty of that,
but not enough fitness,

so that really challenged the
guys.

Five, four, three, two.
Come on go, go, go!

We'd do basic para PT and
fitness.

Ten push-ups, go, down.

TOMKINS: We used to run around
the running track

every morning at 6 o'clock.

Bloody thing.

MC ALEESE: We were told there
were
weapons arriving and to be ready
for them.

The weapons were obtained
in the United States.

They were smuggled into the
country.

We are getting excited,
we were psyched up,

waiting on them.

TOMKINS: And then it was
smuggled up
on the back of a farmer's pickup
truck

that folded up and had a false
bottom,
and all the weapons were in
there.

That's when the guys were like
kids
let loose in a sweets shop.

Ah fucking hell, here we go.

MC ALEESE:
There were Interdynamics,

which is a small submachine gun.

- TOMKINS: We had M16s, AR15s.
- MC ALEESE: Anti-tank rockets.

TOMKINS: SPAS-12 shotguns,
machine pistols, Uzis,

Zulu grenades, 66mm anti-tank
LAW rockets,

60 kilos of C4 explosives,
anti-personnel mines,

whatever we wanted.

CHATTER

It was like fucking Christmas.

The whole thing has come
together.

Everything that we needed to
assault,

weapons-wise, was there.

Go!

GRUNTS

TOMKINS: Now the weapons had
arrived,
it had become real,

and the training went into full
swing.

CLICKS

I could see
the mentality of the men
switching.

They were starting to come
together,
identifying with team leaders,

the team leaders identified with
me.

CLAPS

They suddenly realised

they were going to close
with the enemy and kill them.

Everything seemed to be
slipping into place,

that you get with a unit
that has just started up

and everybody became
part of the unit that we had.

OMINOUS MUSIC

BIRDS CHIRP

MC ALEESE: The second day,
I just lay there, shivering
cold

PANTS

and I was going through things:
have I got food, the water is
taken care of,

and I was planning in my mind
if help didn't come,

how I could help myself
because I had escape money on
me.

And I formulated a plan

and I felt it would take me
something like 8 days to get
better.

But did I have enough food
to sustain me for eight days?

Did I have enough warmth,
did I have enough medical kit

to keep myself going
to try and kill the pain?

I didn't.

PANTS

SLOW PIANO

The day I left the British army,
I just went to one side and I
started crying.

It was the worst thing
I ever did in my life.

I drifted from job to job,
I just wasn't fitting in

and I just felt lost.

And my aggression became worse.

My idea of a good Friday night,

you go on the pubs, get pissed
and have a good fight.

It got to the stage in my life
where I felt that

disputes could be solved by
violence.

Irene was a girl I got involved
with.

It developed into arguments

and one day I hit her,
a slap in the back of the head.

And before I knew where I was,
to use Glasgow terminology,

I was getting huckled off by the
police.

I was charged with assault

and I got myself locked up
in Gloucester prison.

I don't blame that lassie
for what happened, I blame
myself.

I am extremely sorry.

If I could meet the judge
who sent me to prison,

I'd walk up and shake his
fucking hand.

AFRICAN GROUP SINGS

I was doing a lot of reflection,
where was I going to go from
here?

SHOTS

What experience I had
from the special forces,

I wanted to use it and test
myself
even further than I had gone.

There were plenty of places to
go
if you were seeking combat.

GUNFIRE

I was a mercenary in Angola,

GUNFIRE

I was a mercenary in the
Rhodesian army,

I was a mercenary
in the South African army.

PLANE FLIES LOW

In Rhodesia,
every time we went out,

we had some form of contact
with the enemy.

MUFFLED SPEECH

There was a thing called the
black book,

my name was in it,
it said 'a good hard, soldier'.

That's how I considered myself.

BIRDS CHIRP

The discipline that we are
talking about
is that we are going to fight
back.

That's the difference.
Understood?

Honestly, guys, nobody can touch
us.

Together as a team we can take
on
four times our number,

I assure you we can do it.

Everybody here has got
trigger time under their belt

which is more than what the
army's got.

Keep it up, keep it together,

realise that they cannot fucking
do us,
and I mean it.

I am not creating this in my
mind,

if we can't convince ourself
that this is
the case, we'd be as well go
home.

This is home.

Just had lunch, Roy and myself.
I had a tomato, Roy had a
carrot.

LAUGHTER

It's terrible here,
I'm doing it for the job.

MC ALEESE:
Terry Tangney came to see me

and he says, my bottle has gone.

I'm shit scared,
whatever it is that you are
doing,

I just want to go home, mate.

They had no idea who the target
was.

We didn't tell them it was Pablo
in case,
well for security reasons.

I'm out, I'm sorry mate.

MC ALEESE:
I said to myself,

if his bottle has gone and we
let him go,
who is going to do it next?

I'll tell the boys that you have
problems
at home with the wife

and you have to go.

The guys turn round and said,
he's a fucking liar, his bottle
has gone.

Thanks, mate.

no worries

LENNOX:
The truth was he wasn't up to
it.

He wanted to get out
and he was a security risk,

that's what he was,

and he should have never been
let home
until it had finished.

TOMKINS:
So, gentlemen.

You're probably wondering
what you are doing here,

who the target is.

Some of you
might have guessed it right.

We called them together
and said, right,

you are speculating on who the
target is
or what we are here for.

Don't speculate anymore,
this is the target, his name is

Pablo Escobar.

The head of the Medellin drug
cartel.

Great, how are we going to do
him?

LAUGHS

ADVENTUROUS MUSIC

At the last meeting I had
with the cartel bosses,

Chepe Longdonyo,
who was one of the four,

came to me and he said,
David, bring me back Escobar's
head

and I'll give you a million
dollars for it.
I said, yeah, alright.

I said to David,
I'll cut his head off once he is
dead,

give you it and you can get the
money,
I'll take 100 grand.

And it would have been proof he
was dead
if I had brought him his head.

MC ALEESE:
I had a look at the situation
and I said,

I think it's time to do another
flight
over the route, into the target
area.

CAMERA CLICKS

SPEAKS IN SPANISH

80 men on the premises.

We assumed there were 40 on duty
and 40 resting.

SPEAKS IN SPANISH

MC ALEESE: The ammunition
they were carrying was 60 rounds
per man

and it was submachine guns,
which didn't have the range of
what we had.

SPEAKS IN SPANISH

MC ALEESE: Every one of the
enemy
there should be 3 men for,

so we made up those numbers,
we made it up in ammunition.

The capacity of the Ordinates
was enough to fucking kill 2000,
3000 guys.

GUNFIRE

Tactical wise, we had the
advantage.

They were on to a loser, not us,
because we had the fire power.

CAMERA CLICKS

EL ÑANGAS SPEAKS IN SPANISH

MC ALEESE: What I particularly
liked
was taking something from an
idea,

turning it into a plan
and implementing that plan.

The aim is to close with the
enemy
and kill them.

If you fail to plan, you plan to
fail.

New evidence has emerged that
British mercenaries are training
gunmen

for the drug cartels in
Colombia.

One mercenary has produced a
videotape

which he says shows
former British and Australian
soldiers

at a secret Colombian training
camp.

This man, Terry Tangney,
sold NBC the pictures.

MC ALEESE:
Terry got back to Australia.

The first thing he did was sell
a story
on what was happening in
Colombia.

He jeopardised the mission,

he jeopardised the men
who were his comrades there,

there but fortunately enough
didn't mention Pablo Escobar

because at that time he didn't
know.

I don't know what British
mercenary
activity there is in Colombia.

I have seen the rumours too.

If there is any, then I deplore
it.

Why would the CIA or FBI
or anything want to stop it

when he was a target
for the United States anyway?

PEÑA: When we heard about this
plan,
of course we wanted him dead,

so any effort to kill Pablo
Escobar
was of course welcomed,

we wanted it to happen.

- You got it Dave?
- Pardon?

- You got it?
- Yup.

TOMKINS: I think they adopted
a suck it and see policy.

They are disposable.

If they achieve it, fine, it's
achieved
an objective that suits us all,

if they don't achieve it,
we've lost nothing.

CABRERA: It was a need that
they should maintain secret in
the area.

So one of the solutions was to
move
the whole group to the middle of
the jungle.

OMINOUS MUSIC

PANTS

MC ALEESE: I woke up.

Still no sign of any rescue.

The pain at this stage,
it hadn't subsided,

but I was learning to live with
it
a bit more.

I had some of the beans that I
had left.

I just prepared myself to lie
and wait
until some form of help came.

The other reason I did that
was to try and get my body to
repair itself,

have an element of repair
should I have to try and walk
out.

COUGHS

It was a fear that

GROANS

Escobar's guys could come and
get me.

I was very aware
of what could happen to me.

I had decided if they came,
I was going to take them with
me.

WESTERN MUSIC

CHATTER

TOMKINS: They moved us to a
place
they called La Guagua.

God knows what that means,
'the jaguar' or something.

LENNOX:
The trip was quite amazing trip.

We went by a Dakota aircraft;
it really was phenomenal.

MUSIC CONTINUES

Give us a smile son

LAUGHTER

I'd bring it home for you Billy,
if I could.

But I'm not allowed,
police won't let me.

MAN:
The Colombian or British police?

The British police.
The Colombian police won't mind.

MAN: This is the place.

LENNOX:
Finally, they took us to the
training area.

It was obviously a cartel
stopping ground,
moving cocaine,

stuff like that.

MC ALEESE: The jungle
accommodation
was just a long hut.

It held us all.

CHATTER

We set up camp
and settled in there

to begin another phase of
training.

There's Dave with the M60.
There goes Alex.

TOMKINS:
It was in the middle of nowhere.

He has finally got it.

It wasn't Guerrilla territory
that we knew of.

No beds, no bedding.

MC ALEESE: It was on a side of a
river,
so there was no trouble bathing

and keeping yourself clean.

What a sight!
LAUGHTER

And we just got on with the
routine there.

The helicopters,
one was parked behind us,

two were over the other side of
the river.

I am about to change the colour
of
this United States of America
chopper

that's made its way here.

It has landed all on its own.

We are going to re-spray it
nice Colombian police green.

TOMKINS: Historically,
Pablo gave orders to his guys

never fire on the military or
the police.

We had a tactical advantage,

approach the house low level
and their spotters would have
said

it's police and military
because we have got military
colours

and we are in police logo,
policia nacional all over our
helicopter.

We go into the grounds
without being fired upon,

before somebody realises,
fuck me, it's not the army.

The shit would hit the fan then.

GUNSHOTS

MC ALEESE: Six o'clock in the
morning,
get up, it was still dark,

we did tactical training.

There was nobody around
for many, many miles.

GUNSHOT

We could fire weapons,

fire rockets,

LOUD BANG

drop bombs.

There was nobody to hear it.

LOUD BANG

CHEERS

MC ALEESE:
In the jungle,

you had to do some serious
training.

Just in case something went
wrong
on the actual mission

and we had to make our own way
back.

They were getting fitter,

every day they were training
together,
so you were getting that team
spirit.

The eight-million-dollar man.

LENNOX:
It takes a team to do the job

and the team gelled very well
for the operation.

HELICOPTER WHIRRS

MC ALEESE: We were out there
practising
on a riverbed that we had,

which was roughly
the same size as the target.

The men had yellow patches

sowed on to the top of their
balaclavas

so as I could identify
our own guys from the enemy.

LENNOX: We were given
a very competent Colombian pilot

who flew for the cartel
on numerous operations.

MC ALEESE: One was called Pablo
and the other one was called
Tiger

and Tiger had an awful lot
of police experience.

TOMKINS:
Tiger, he was a bit of a
daredevil.

He would zoom round
through the riverbanks

and clip the treetops.

He seemed to want to get
as close to them as possible.

We just covered everything from
A to Z.

GUNFIRE

The morale was sky high.

GUNFIRE

What I was trying to do in my
mind

was give those men
the best chance they had

of leaving that target alive.

As we're going around,
the fire group will land at one
end

while this one is still laying
fire
to cover this.

MUFFLED SPEECH

MC ALEESE: We'd get together,
we sat down at the table,

what we call a Chinese
parliament.

The men had an awful lot of
input
in that they were dealing with
their lives.

This team will then land
under the cover of these guys,

there is no chance of being shot
at,
it will be closed.

MC ALEESE:
Everybody felt they contributed.

We put the final plan together,
the ground, the situation, the
mission,

the execution, the admin and log

and that was it, after that,
it's go.

When you talk about a mission,

you don't make it long winded,
you just say ground, situation,
mission.

Our mission is to kill Pablo
Escobar.

The operation will be carried
out
in three phases:

one,

the flight from the jungle
to the target.

GUNFIRE

Imagine all of a sudden
helicopters come over,

start machine-gunning the place.

EXPLOSION

TOMKINS: By the time I've
dropped 40 kilos of explosives
around the place,

they'd have been shell shocked.

SHOUTS AND GUNFIRE

One helicopter's got the assault
group in,

which are going to land first.

It would have been 12 guys on
the ground,

Peter Mc up there with his
Gympie
and his gun ship.

So we had some aircover.

We would fan out.

One group is the cover group.

SHOUTS

Phase two, the rest of them
would start clearing the
premises,

working our way.

Action on the target.

GUNFIRE

GROANS

You engage the target

and you put enough rounds
to put him down.

Ba ba bam.

GROANS

The assault team's aim
was to get into the house.

Women and children were off the
menu.

SHOUTS

We had the area colour coded.

White was the front,
black was the back

and we'd numbered it
one, two, three, section.

Clear!

We knew which part of the house
he resided in, which was in
black one.

Clear!

TOMKINS: Once the house
clearance team
were in section one,

we'd direct our fire to section
two,
ahead of them.

So we are clearing the way for
them
to move through the house

to find Escobar.

Phase three, withdraw to target.

MAN SPEAKS THROUGH RADIO

And we are taking Pablo's body
to the helicopter.

Right, we have hacked his head
off,
so we only have a bit of him to
carry,

we were overcrowded
on the choppers.

And eventually
they would have flown us back to
Cali,

and hopefully we would all have
lived
forever, a day and gone home.

HELICOPTER WHIRRS

MUFFLED VOICE ON RADIO

- Do you want me to make it
jump?
- Not at me!

LAUGHTER

MC ALEESE: Everything was ready
to go,
the men were ready

and it seemed to turn into a
waiting game.

And then a spanner landed in the
works.

A Sunday Times reporter
by the name of James Adams

had picked up on the actual
mission
and was threatening to print a
story on it.

TOMKINS: He was an ex-spook
or a spook at the time.

He had accessed flight
information

and the fact that he got it

shows that he wasn't just
your average journalist.

MC ALEESE:
He contacted someone who knew
Dave

and we agreed to meet him in
Panama.

We have got a story, a very good
story

and now I want you to contribute
your side.

At the time, I was the defence
correspondent
of the London Sunday Times.

- You don't have a story.
- There is a story.

I was told by somebody
in the US intelligence community

that there were a group of
mercenaries

planning to kill Pablo Escobar

and they were led by
this Brit called Dave Tomkins

and that was kind of it.

So the rest of it, from my
perspective,
was all about bluff.

And we are ready to publish it.

TOMKINS: And I said, well,
if you print that,

you will jeopardise some lives
that are here now.

What are you doing?

Mind your own business.

ADAMS:
Then the question was,

well how are we going to deal
with this?

And Dave clearly wanted the
operation
to go ahead, fair enough.

I didn't care whether
he killed Pablo Escobar or not.

So, there was a bargain to be
struck

between what he wanted
and what I wanted.

If you don't print until we tell
you to,

we will give you exclusive
rights
to the whole story.

MC ALEESE:
What we said, let us do the
operation

and he could have the story
at the end of it.

The exclusive, we can work with.

And then I said to him,
I have a good idea.

I will put you at the heart of
the battle.

He declined.

I told the cartel that
we had a security breach

that could embarrass us.

They said, get him here
and we will kill him.

LAUGHS

I said, no that can't happen.

I knew nothing about that at all

and I think Dave
is a wonderful human being.

LAUGHS

GUNFIRE

MC ALEESE:
We had telephoned the Cali
cartel.

We said to them, we had better
get a move on with this
operation,

otherwise it's not going to come
off,

due to the world press getting
on to
what is actually happening here.

If Pablo knows we're coming,
we have got a problem.

OMINOUS MUSIC

MAN SPEAKS THROUGH RADIO

SPEAKS IN SPANISH

TOMKINS:
The radio burst into life,

the message that came out of it
in Spanish,

Pablo is there now,
round the swimming pool, having
a meeting,

go now.

He's there, go, go.

Billy, Phoenix is a go, Phoenix
is a go.

When we had him in position,
we said let's go for it.

ADVENTUROUS MUSIC

TOMKINS: They were all there,
got their kit,

check mine, I'm out, okay,
go helicopters, helicopters.

HELICOPTERS WHIRR

MC ALEESE: I was so psyched up.
People talk about fear.

Fear was out of the question
because we had conquered it.

We'd been training for 11 weeks

to go and get this guy
and do the business on him.

ADVENTUROUS MUSIC CONTINUES

TOMKINS:
The flight was nothing special.

I smoked a couple of cigarettes,

making sure
I didn't set light to the bombs.

MC ALEESE:
We were flying low, about 200
ft.

The reason for this,

the radar operators
belonging to the military

were on the payroll of the
person
that we were about to take out.

TOMKINS:
I am concerned for my safety.

I just want to do
what we trained to do,

get it over with,
get the money and go home.

LENNOX: On the helicopter,
Pete Donnelly looked at me,

shaked his head as if to say,
this is not good.

The first time in my life,
in that helicopter,

I prayed to a God I never
believed in,
never spoke to.

I said these things:
if you are real, protect us.

MC ALEESE:
As we were flying towards the
target,

I noticed that there was
heavy cloud over the Andes.

I thought, maybe the pilots
know what they are doing,

they will lift above the cloud
and go over.

LENNOX:
I saw each helicopter quite
regularly

but there was a time when we had
to split.

We were heading on for
refuelling.

It seems a bit choppy, mate.

I could see that
we were in some problems.

I couldn't see anything
so I know the pilot couldn't
either,

cos we were in a cloud.

MC ALEESE:
I didn't feel right about it.

I turned to Dave and the men in
the back.
I said, get in the crash
position.

It was instinct.

Get in the crash position.

Fuck!

As I turned myself back,
we hit the trees

SHOUTS

and the helicopter turned over.

The blade came through
the cab of the helicopter

and we started bouncing though
the trees,
upside down.

SHOUTS

TOMKINS:
I'm frightened out of my skin

and I want to go home.

CRASH

CRASHING STOPS

BIRDS CHIRP

GASPS

MC ALEESE:
The pain I had was excruciating.

GROANS

Every time I breathed
there was pain.

TOMKINS:
I am sitting there

waiting to get out of the cloud

and I wake up, like, from a
dream

and I am huddled in the corner
of the helicopter which is on
its side

and nobody is in there, bar me,
as far as I am concerned.

I know I am smothered in claret,
my head hurts like a bastard

and I wanted to put my hand up

and all I pictured in my mind

was my hand was going to go
in this fucking hole into my
brain.

So I didn't touch it.

And then it clicked; the bombs.

I don't know what damage
it has done to the timers.

When it goes up,
it took half the mountain with
it.

And I found the satchel of
charges,

cut all the fuses off of them
so they couldn't blow.

One of them, the time pencil had
broken
actually, so I was very lucky.

SIGHS

And I fought my way through,

breaking branches,
anything to get out of that
helicopter.

I suppose it was sheer survival
panic

and I thought,
fucking right, that's me out.

SHOUTS

- Peter, are you alright?
- Yeah.

Then I see Peter and the other
two
staggering out of the woods

and Peter was hurt.

MC ALEESE: Dave, Dave, Dave,
I'll take the morphine.

I said to Dave, pass me down a
drip.

I can't move.

I just drank the drip,
squeezed it in my mouth.

Find him something warm.

TOMKINS:
There was no pilot.

Where's Tiger?

So I got back in the aircraft

Look at me, Tiger.
TIGER GASPS

and I called his name, Tiger,
and he mumbled

'mi pierna', which means 'my
leg'.

He had been hit with
what I assume was the helicopter
blade.

TIGER SCREAMS

Now I run down his legs
and they were still on.

I'll get you some morphine,
mate.

I had tried to get a drip in his
arm
and his veins were flat,

I couldn't find a vein.

I went to this arm

and it was filleted
from the shoulder to his wrist

as though a butcher
had opened it up to the bone

and there was no blood.

He was mortally wounded.

Here you are, mate.

Mike, over.

MAN SPEAKS SPANISH THROUGH RADIO

We have crashed, we have
crashed.
Pilot's dead, need immediate
evac.

We found out that they'd
crashed,
so that became an abort.

SCREAMS

TOMKINS: Peter was in a bad way,
his hands were smashed,

his ribs were smashed, his legs
fucked,
and he couldn't do much.

In fact I took some photographs
of him,
he's collapsed on the deck.

Flaco had wounds and bits from
trees
I suppose, and glass,

Mario was fine,

I had my busted head

which turned out to be a tiny
little wound
but just decided to bleed a lot.

There's nowhere to land.

When the helicopter located us,

it hovered about 60/80 ft above
us.

There's just rough rugged trees
and bushes
everywhere, nowhere to land.

Come on.
SCREAMS

Alright, alright.

MC ALEESE:
Dave and I decided for them to
go down,

try and get help
and bring some of them back to
me,

to get me out,

because I was smashed up fairly
badly.

GROANS
I am going to get help, alright.

I'll be as quick as I can.

TOMKINS: Wrapped him up and we
got
all the medical packs, bandages

and we packed it round him
so he would be able to stay
warm,

it was cold up there.

GROANS

MC ALEESE:
And when they left, I suddenly
realised

I had broken a rule of combat
survival,

one man should have stayed with
me,

but I just, it never dawned on
me
at the time, I just said I'll be
okay.

LENNOX:
What are we going to do?

First thing was the concern of
Dave,
helicopter, Peter,

and then the modus operandi is
survival

in the area of Pablo Escobar.

CHEERS ON TELEVISION

EL ÑANGAS SPEAKS IN SPANISH

TOMKINS:
You're trying to push your way
through,

it's thousands of years
of overgrown stuff.

Mario and Flaco pointed out to
me
that there was a stream

flowing from the top of the
mountain.

So they went off
to try and find a way down
below.

And it was getting dark at five
o'clock,
six o'clock in Colombia, pitch
black.

MC ALEESE: I had no sense of
time;
my watch had come off.

I was judging the day
by the amount of light.

I crawled about, I searched for
food

GROANS

and I lay there, shivering cold.

TOMKINS: I was frozen to the
bone
and I could imagine Peter up
there,

8000 feet up, dead body,
can't move very well.

He's a friend,
a very, very good friend,

and I care for him
like I care for my son.

PANTS

I was never going to leave him,
you know,

we would have moved heaven and
earth
to get him down that mountain,

dead or alive.

GRUNTS

EL ÑANGAS SPEAKS IN SPANISH

TOMKINS: That morning, after I
spent
the night on the mountain, away
from Peter,

I heard people coming up.

SHOUTS

Everything in that Triunfo area
is controlled by Escobar anyway.

SPEAKS IN SPANISH

MC ALEESE:
If Pablo caught me,

I would have had a terrible,
long, drawn-out painful death.

EL ÑANGAS SPEAKS IN SPANISH

TOMKINS: I'd heard people.
Thinking it's our guys, I called
out

SHOUTS IN SPANISH

Senor, senor!

SPEAKS IN SPANISH

Eventually we had reached the
bottom.

GASPS

GROANS

It was day three, I woke up.

At this stage, the pain was so
bad,
I started sort of hallucinating,

you know, and seeing things,

looking at some of the people
I had associated with in life.

In the early days of my youth

and through to the middle part
of my life,

I did carry an awful anger
within me.

There was a bit of guilt.

I felt a lot of the anger
may have come from my father.

SIGHS

I'm sorry, dad.

I'm sorry, dad.

I have an awful lot of regrets

and none of them
are in the soldiering side of my
life.

SLOW PIANO

I regret in the fact that I had
a woman
who was a good wife,

she was very supportive of me,

she followed me along
through thick and thin

and I took her loyalty to the
wire.

PANTS

I'm sorry.

I wasn't a good father,
but I do love my kids.

I'm sorry.

Due to the way I was, my
character,
my violence, my aggression,

I failed at these things.

A dirty low down
scum bag of a man, eh.

I swear, God I swear.

And being a Catholic

I promise.

I promise, God, no more.

I tried to make a deal with God.
LAUGHS

and I said to myself,
God, get me out of this

and I will always be a good boy
afterwards.

GASPS

SHALLOW BREATHS

GUNSHOT

BIRDS CHIRP

I heard a gunshot
but it was in the far distance

and then I heard voices.

PANTS

And the voices started coming
closer

and I said, I have got to
prepare myself
for the inevitable.

And I sat there with my weapon
and I said, let them get on top
of me

and I'll take as many as I can
with me.

At the same time,
I would be killing myself.

As they came closer and closer,
I could eventually see movement.

One man came
so I shoved the machine gun at
his stomach.

SPEAKS IN SPANISH

SIGH OF RELIEF

He went amigo, amigo, colonel
Ricardo,

which was one of the code words
that we had.

I then knew I was in the hands
of friendly forces

SPEAKS IN SPANISH

and he says,
we're going to take you down.

I was still in a state of bad
repair.

I said, how long will it take?
He said, eight hours.

They chopped down a long thin
tree.

It was nothing to them,
they just seemed to do it
naturally,

loaded down a re-entrant,
tied a rope round my shoulders

and they slid me down this tree.

SLOW PIANO

And we moved along,

and they did that all the time
down waterfalls, re-entrants.

I was in immense pain.

We kept on and on and on.

How far is it?
Four hours.

How far is it?
Four hours.

And the pain was just

I felt it was killing me.

There was a mental pain there,
and it was,

right, you have done this wrong
at this given time,

you can't put any of it right,
you can only put it right

if you keep yourself alive,
get yourself out of here

and get back to the UK.

There was a dark side to my
character,

but I found that an awful lot of
the anger,
it started subsiding.

Everything seemed to come to me.

There was a clarity
that I have never known before.

I think it was starting to bring
me
to terms with an element of
reality.

I felt a sense of peacefulness

and I got to the bottom
where I had to stand up and
walk.

Every step I took, it was pain
like I have never known in my
life,

but I knew that
at least I had been rescued

and I had a chance of staying
alive,
so it perked up morale.

HELICOPTER WHIRRS

I flew into Cali.

I walked into the bathroom,
in the mirror,

every part of my body
was covered in bruises.

I had four broken ribs in the
front,
four in the back

and there was quite a bit of
internal bruising

but not enough to kill me.

I lay in bed and thanked my
higher power
that what happened to me,

I should have been dead,

and I was still alive.

TOMKINS: Everybody is there
to look after the guy next to
you.

Peter was the team leader, you
know,

he was an important and integral
part
of that operation.

He is fearless, he is brave, he
is loyal

and people have
a great deal of respect for
Peter.

He is the ultimate special force
soldier.

MC ALEESE: There was a
disappointment,
we'd failed.

You know you can look at it,
a mountain got in the way,

but the fact is
we hadn't achieved the mission

and I knew even within my heart
and soul

if we had got over that
mountain,

there would have been no Pablo
Escobar.

SLOW GUITAR

Physical state now is
I am in constant pain.

I have got diabetes,
I have arthritis in every joint
in my body

but mentally, spiritually,
I feel fantastic.

I stopped drinking about seven
years ago
and then when I stopped
drinking,

I found there was
an awful lot of space in my
mind.

I feel that being a churchgoer
filled that space.

The aggression seemed to
subside,
it got less, and it got less.

My brother Peter is a good man.

He has got a kind, warm
and generous heart.

He could be aggressive,

but I think he was hurt
by the way things were.

I am proud of his achievements
of how he's managing his life,

even today
with the problems he has had.

If anybody else
has anything different to say
about him

that's their opinion,

but I know him as my brother
and I know him as the man.

MC ALEESE:
I love being loved,

and when I say that,
I don't mean in a female sense,

I just mean my friends, my
relatives
and above all my children.

If I hadn't been through
all those things in life,

the fights, the shortcomings
that I had,

crashes in helicopters,
break up of marriages.

If I hadn't have had them,
I couldn't have been where I am
today.

It's just like everything had
burned out,
there was nothing left

except to live a good spiritual
life.

What I can say is
I learned a lot on the side of
the Andes.

It was the beginning of me
growing up

and eventually, I came to terms
with a guy called Peter
McAleese.