01x01 - How Cocaine Came to America

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(vehicle running)

(men speaking spanish)

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(men speaking spanish)

(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 w*r 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 g*ns, 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 prost*tute.

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 prostit*tes,

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."

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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.

♪

♪

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.

♪

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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.

♪

♪

Pablo escobar's boss was

one of those smugglers.

My mother didn't like him

too much, so pablo k*lled 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 k*lling 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 k*ll you."

And I said, "well, you'll never

get to k*ll 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 g*ns

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 g*n.

I mean, people walking

around with g*ns,

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 g*ns,

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)

♪

♪

♪

(g*nsh*t)

♪

(man speaking spanish)

(g*nsh*t)

♪

♪

♪

Blanco: The first

sicario motorcycle hit,

It was done by

griselda's K*llers,

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 sh**ting 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,

k*lled the intended target

and his bodyguard

Inside the liquor store.

Reporter: The sh**ting

continued outside,

As the assailants

sprayed g*nf*re

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 g*ns.

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 k*ll

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 m*rder*d

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 b*ll*ts.

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;

g*n-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 w*r,

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 k*lled.

♪

♪

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 ill*gal trade.

The plane over the gate

is the first

He used to transport

ill*gal 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.