#player24

Adam:…….YEAH.

-rene/notfine-mp3

--Lauren

@evilergs 💜

- Tori

After initially raiding the wrong location in Los Olivos, Hugo realized his mistake and moved to the right location. Miraculously, he looked out of the van and saw Pablo talking on the phone from the window. He was actually talking to his son Juan Pablo and not Tata during his last phone call although the content of the call were just as portrayed in the episode. Juan Pablo had a list of about forty questions from a journalist that Escobar was answering for him. He was trying to leverage the media one last time to get the government to meet his demands for surrender. Hugo called Colonel Martinez with full confirmation. This was not a drill. He was told to wait for backup before moving in.

Colonel Martinez's son Hugo was the expert as using the technology that pinpointed Escobar's location based on his radio frequency. It was 1993. No smartphones. No check-ins. This was an art and Hugo Martinez was the man although, the Search Bloc didn't feel that way. For over a year, there were many failed attempts at finding Escobar. Most of the police felt that Hugo was a joke and his location gadgets were useless. In fact, they started making fun of him to the point where his father assigned him back to being with a small crew in an unmarked white van driving the streets and listening for signals. Hugo's father was convinced the technology was the only way to catch Escobar so in an effort to give his son some confidence he sent him on a mission to listen in on another drug dealer, Juan Camilo Zapata. He was flamboyant and talked on the phone frequently. He didn't think he would have someone listening in with the Pablo hunt going on so catching him was relatively easy, but it was the confidence Hugo needed to continue. Shortly after that, Colonel Martinez's son was able to trace the calls Pablo was having with his own son. In the end, the hunt for Pablo came down to the children of the Search Bloc leader and drug kingpin.

Colonel Hugo Martinez realized that his Search Bloc had no choice but to allow Los Pepes to operate unimpeded. It was a necessary evil in the fight against Escobar. The United States was not even aware of the situation at this point. The new President of the United States, Bill Clinton, was busy acclimating to the Oval Office and appointing hundreds of new employees. This strategy proved to be dangerous for the colonel and the Gaviria administration. Attorney General De Grieff led the charge of accusing Martinez of his involvement with Los Pepes. On July 29, 1993, he had enough evidence to put the commander of the Search Bloc away for kidnapping, torture and possibly murder. The whole thing escalated into a huge problem when the U.S. finally found out and realized they couldn't be linked to this madness. It's the reason we see Martinez emphasizing that when Escobar dies, a Colombian policeman should be standing over his corpse.