The Underworld Podcast - Colombia's Narco-Soccer: Pablo Escobar, Los Pepes, and the Murder of The Gentleman

Episode Date: February 8, 2022

In the early Nineties Colombia had one of the world’s best soccer teams. Some even tipped them for 1994’s World Cup in the USA. But the country’s narco mayhem would come crashing down on the squad long before the tournament began. And for the nation’s captain, a tall, stoic defender from Medellin they called ‘The Gentleman’, one on-field mistake would have fatal consequences back home. Featuring gunned-down referees, a deadly cross-country rivalry, Pepes, Pablo and a kidnap-mediating, scorpion-kicking goalkeeper. Get Surfshark VPN at https://surfshark.deals/UNDWRLD - Enter promo code UNDWRLD for 83% off and 3 extra months free! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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At First Citizens Bank, we roll with your goals because we're built for what you're building. Fit for your ambition for Citizens Bank. June 23, 1994, clear skies, 90 degree heat, 93,000 fans at the Rose Bowl Stadium, Pasadena. A cauldron of emotion and excitement. Match day two of the World Cup, soccer's biggest stage, and a clash between the hosts, USA, and star studied Colombia, Los Cafeteros, the coffee makers. Three tournament tips and destroyers of previous finalists Argentina just weeks before. After years in the sport's shadows, coach Francisco Matarana, a former player,

has given the Cafeteros flamboyance and flair. Even in the Californian heat, nobody truly expects the Americans to win. But Columbia on the ropes, they're reeling from defeat to lowly Romania. is set by off-field drama and death threats, kidnappings and attempted hits. Pablo Escobar is fresh in the ground, but his death has only accelerated an orgy of killing in native Medellin, where for years soccer and narco-trafficking have become one. Colombian captain Andres Escobar, the gentleman, is also a son of Medellin. He stars in defence for its best club, Athletical Nacional,

A soft-spoken son of a banker, Andres is almost universally loved, a towering, stoic presence, with a mullet and a face chiseled like an Easter Island statue. He and his fianc, Pamela, are readying for marriage and kids, and Andres has just agreed to join A.C. Milan, Europe's best team. A few chaotic seconds change everything. It's 34 minutes in. U.S. winger John Hark's screws across in. into the area. Andres moves, hesitates, and then he lunges full stretch, poking the ball with

his right toe right past his own keeper, Oscar Cordoba, himself a replacement for a star who's jailed amid Columbia's drug war. Andres has just scored on his own team. Bedlam. The old stadium creaks in a thousand star-spangled banners way from its bleachers. The Americans can't believe it. Cordoba falls backwards like a dying Hollywood star. Escobar lays on his back, head in his hands. You will take them, the exasperated ESPN caller says, any way you can get them. Columbia picked themselves up and carry on,

but they're rattled, incoherent, and just minutes after half-time, the Americans score again. Cheers of USA ring out across Pasadena, and Colombia's World Cup campaign, when Brazilian legend Pelle said they'd actually win, is all but over after two games. Not even a win against Switzerland in the next match can save them, and within a week, the Colombians are on the plane home to Bogota.

Four days after that, Andres Escobar is dead, gunned down by key players in Colombia's rudder list and ultra-violent drug trade. It's killing shock soccer and Colombia. Priors of justice ring out from every major city in the country, including Medellin and the president vows to clean up a national sport

a passion has become riddled with cocaine money corruption and murder but there is far more chaos to come welcome to the underworld podcast hi guys and welcome to another episode of the show

where we give you some pretty good life hacks on how not to call reception at 3am asking for cool girls and Mafia Coke my name's Sean Williams and I'm joined today every day by my co-host Danny Gold It's cold, wet, windy, horrible in Berlin. Everyone's got Omicron. I think my dad's got Omicron.

Anyone, anything you can cheer me up with? Actually, not really. Oh, you know, they legalized gambling in New York State this year, and there's all these absurd, like, all these companies that are doing and all these absurd buy-in deals. So I've been figuring out ways to capitalize on that without actually being good at gambling, like using multiple sites, their freebies to bet on opposing sides of the game

and just kind of, you know, seeing, if I can get myself a little legalized film, flam money. So I'll look into it, kids. Definitely start gambling if you haven't already. I let that be a lesson. I mean, I think that's going to dovetail quite nicely with today's episode, actually. I'm just about to head off to Sicily tomorrow. Everyone's got Omicron there too, but they've got sunshine beaches and good food,

which, you know, after being in Germany makes that just about stomachable. I'm working as Simon, doing stuff about the mafia, really interesting piece, and the podcast that I'm going to, I'm hoping is going to draw people to our podcast, which is way better, of course. And then people can sign up to the Patreon, tons of stuff there, as always. I think we've got Scottish gangsters going up there. I'm speaking to a guy who's an expert on North Korean Bureau 39. Drug dealers.

I think I'm going to try and speak to some sort of chief of justice against the mafia out in Sicily. Anyway, there's tons of stuff. And, yeah, I mean, like, I'm going to have some stuff from my trip out there soon. I mean, I think you're going to have anything coming up from St. Louis as well? Yeah, I might do some stuff with people who really know the fentanyl situation well. You know, people have been on the streets there. Also, speaking of Colombian cartels, we interviewed two of the best reporters on them for the Patreon in earlier days, Toby Mews, whose book, Kilo is incredible. And Monica of Willemezar.

Patreon.com slash the end of world podcast, $5 a month will get you a lot more bonus stuff. For sure. And, yeah, I mean, I've been interested in stuff for a while. I think I've been researching a story about a British club that was stealth taken over by a big drug baron. Still yet to place that, thanks, industry. But yeah, I remember like, this was like a big, big deal. The death of And the Colombians in USA-94,

it was like the first cup I recall as a kid and it kind of straddled the old and the new worlds in soccer. And I'm going to call it football from now on. So you've had your time with that. And there's like Diana Ross and Ray Houghton and Georgi Hadji and that Bulgarian guy looked like a wolf. And another one called Yankov and a German called Kunz, which

eight-year-old me thought was the funniest thing ever. And I think sadly 36-year-old me still thinks it's worth her chuckle. I really have no idea what you're talking about, but I hope some of the listeners do. I'm going to teach you some stuff about the beauty of the beautiful game. Anyway, the Colombians, right?

These coffee makers, they're like, this team is hot, right? Like really, really hot. coming into the tournament. They arrive in the US. They've just lost only one of 26 matches before that. And Pelle, I mean, he loves a 19, like a weird favorite here and there. But he reckons the Colombians are going to win the whole thing.

And it's not even a crazy bet. On their way to qualifying, Columbia Hammer and Argentina side 5-0 in Buenos Aires. The Colombians play so well that the Argentines give them a standing ovation, which, I mean, if you've seen much South American football, that means a lot. lot. Watching on rather than playing is Argentine legend Diego Madadona possibly the best player ever. And also one of the best cocaine doers ever too. Oh yeah. We'll dive a little deeper into Diego's troubled 90s as well and that's going to get into like gangs, drugs, bent politicians. We'll get there in a little bit. Yeah, but also, you know, I want to point out to people,

this isn't just an episode about soccer. You know, it's like Friday Night Lights and football, right? It's going to be about cocaine and cartels and all that. So don't get to spooked if you don't care about soccer. No, no, I'm not going to, like, do match reports, like, this is, this is more about drugs than anything else. But for ordinary Colombians, right, like, coming into this World Cup, they're weary from years of insurgency, drug wars, terrorism, economic woes, this World Cup in the U.S. is a chance to unite under the flag and pull together for once.

Football is, quote, the cultural strength of the country, says, like, possibly Colombia's most famous person, the writer Gabriel Garcia-Marc. We were always an elegant team, he says. We learned from Brazil and Argentina, but we did not know how to score goals. Now we know. And take it from me, he doesn't know anything about football, so even he's getting excited about this thing. And coach Francisco Matarana, he sits at the top of this renaissance.

He's a Medellegene man himself. He's played for Athletico Nacional over 350 times. And he's leading it to it and Colombia's first and only Copa Libertadores victory in 1989, that's Nacional. Though, as we'll hear soon, that historic moment also has a massive narco shadow looney over it. Materana is the guy who gave Anders Escobar his National debut in 1987, and he wants USA-94 to change the world's perception of his beloved home country. Quote, I remember when we went to Europe in 1988, and even at the 1990 World Cup in Italy,

most of the time during press conferences, we'd have to talk about Pablo Escobar. The attacks, drug trafficking, no one asked about football. So they're very much like our listenership, I imagine. So there's Pablo, right, the other Escobar. There's actually a documentary about this called The Two Escobars and the guys who made it, Zimbalest Brothers. They're the ones I worked for when I was putting together that doc about who shot Jam Master Jay and the other one about Bob Marley's attempt and assassination.

So I don't know if you watched that for this, but it's a pretty good doc. It's awesome. Yeah, I've put a link on. on the reading list as well. So, yeah, I recommend people watch that. I mean, like everyone listening to our show already probably knows a ton about Columbia's most infamous son. So I'm not going to go into much detail about Pablo.

But they might not know about the Kingpin's love of football, which he grows up with between Medellin's top two tier clubs, Nacional and Independiente. Nice. You got it. I did I get it? I feel like I screwed that up. Anyway. Two top tier.

Two top tier. Yeah, you got it. two top tier. Christ, making my own tongue twisters. In 1991, facing arrest and extradition to the US, Pablo bargains with the Colombian government to take him in and let him serve time at a massive special built prison called La Catead, on the hills overlooking Medellin.

According to Escobar's son Juan Pablo in his biography, My Father, quote, he invested a fortune in it, installing a drainage system to make sure the playing field wouldn't get soggy, and light so powerful they were visible from a large, part of Medellin, although I guess like any light is visible. Once the field is constructed, Pablo invites a constellation of stars to play against him and his henchmen, and of course for his amusement.

Pablo always plays as a striker. That's the most glamorous position on the pitch. Goalkeeper René El Loco Higita plays there. So does hard man midfielder Lionel Alvarez and explosive striker Faustino Aspreya. even Matarana comes to La Cate d'Al a couple of times. Alvarez in particular is this real scrapper, defensive midfielder, goatee, flowing black hair, and he's a draftee, right, from Independiente to Nacional. Says Juan Pablo again, quote,

At one of those matches, I noticed that Lionel Alberes was playing really aggressively against my father. He was being tougher on them than anybody else, but my father wasn't reacting. Alberes was obviously a very play of player until crud. I don't know. That's one of Pablo Sicarios, by the way. Pulled him aside on the field and told him,

ease up on the boss. The man never says anything, but he's already glaring at you. Bro, I mean, you got to respect that dude who's playing with Pablo and just still going hard. I mean, that's a competitor right there. Yeah, I mean, I've got a lot of respect for the guy that, like, two foot tackles Pablo Escobar.

I mean, that is probably. is probably enough for me to pull out of the next challenge against him. And Alvarez wisely does just that. Matches at La Catebral and they end only once Pablo's team win. And he'll cheerfully steal players from the opposition until he does. There's a referee dress all in black, one Pablo says, but that doesn't change the objective. Quote, the length of the game depended simply on whether my father's team was winning.

So he's basically like a five-year-old. You know, he's probably, He's probably playing monopoly in jail. And when he starts losing, he just flips the board. Just a straight up board flipper. Yeah, he flips the board. Then he, like, gets someone to murder everyone in the room. Pablo piles cash into Nacional and even independiente as part of a rivalry with the Cali cartel,

whose leading Rodriguez brothers runs its top side America de Cali. Pablo's name is never on the director's office door at Nacional, but few think he is pulling strings everywhere and laundering vast sums, of course, through the club. When Aspreya, the striker, is offered a lucrative deal to sign for Italian-side Palmer in 1992, Escobar must allegedly rubber-stamp the move. Here's a 1994 Esquire article, quote, For four successive years until 1993, Medellin and Cali battled each other for the national championship.

The stakes were high. There were rumours that referees were routinely intimidated and bribed, sometimes receiving as much as $180,000 to influence the outcome of a game. In 1989, a linesman was murdered after he disallowed a goal in what was a scoreless tie involving teams representing Medellin and Kali. The murder was tied to a $750,000 bet that was placed on the game in Medellin. In February 1993, the body of Renéhigita's teammate, Omar Dario Canyas, A promising striker was found bound and shot at close range.

Police believe Canyas was the victim of Los Pepe's. I mean, I didn't realize they actually had gone after players before the Escobar situation. Like, that's pretty, I thought there was like a, like, you know, kind of like a code that they wouldn't go after players, but that's pretty dark. Yeah, and there's more stuff to come as well. Like, first, let's get into the Pepe's, right? I think a lot of people will probably know who they are, but it's short for Pesigieg. for Pablo Escobar, or people persecuted by Pablo Escobar. It's an amalgamation of ex-narcos, far-left, far-right paramilitaries,

who are basically out to get Pablo, with backing from the Cali cartel, and even at times the CIA. Many of its men have been given a join us or die ultimatum. And they carry that brutal motto into a drug war that's dropping thousands of Colombians each year, including politicians, cops, and judges. Again, I think Toby Muses' book, Kilo, gets into a little bit of this. Yeah.

And we actually talked about the right-wing death squads, I think, that come out of that as well, a lot in our episode on Columbia's most, I think, deadliest or whatever we called it, our most dangerous narco who was just captured Otoniel. Yeah, yeah, we'll kind of, you know, we'll breeze past them. But, I mean, it says Matarana of the time, that's the coach, right, of Nacional. quote, the introduction of drug money into soccer allowed us to bring in great foreign players. It also kept our best players from leaving. Our level of play took off.

People saw our situation and said Pablo was involved, but they couldn't prove it. On May 10, 1989, Athletico Nacional meet Danubio of Uruguay in the semi-final of the Coppa Libertadores, at South America's Champions League. No Colombian side has ever won the prestigious. tournament. But with an all-Columbian side peppered with stars like Higita, Alvarez, Luis Perea and Andres Escobar, Nacional have squeezed through a group with compatrious millionarios and two Ecuadorian teams. And then they beat Argentina's Racine and Millionarios another time to make the semi-final. The Nubio, they're a solid team, but they're unspectacular. The first

that in Monteverille ends in a nil-nil-drawera. A week later, Argentine match officials, that is, the referee and his two linesmen, they arrive in Medellin ahead of the second leg. Things begin to go wrong as early as the drive from the airport. Says referee Carlos Esposito, quote, We were going down the Montanieta Road when they told us, here they killed a referee, here they shot a linesman. After a long wait, we went to the hotel.

Not really subtle. Soutalty has never been a narco strong point. It's not really attacking that they're. they employ. No, and they're going to get a lot less subtle, actually. When Esposito calls down to reception for a bottle of water, four men turn up, one with a machine gun. That's not very simple.

There you go, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Lionsman Abel Nieko has a 9mm pistol held to his head. Esposito continues, quote, and behind came the famous Popeye, well-dressed, suit, tie. He had a briefcase. He opened it up and said, here's 250 grand. Take it with you. Don't worry. You're going to leave Columbia without any problems. We replied that we've gone to work accordingly. He closed the briefcase and told us,

your life here is worth nothing. And in Buenos Aires, it can cost us $1,000 for each one. And there they went. We should explain that Popeye, I think, was, who was Escobar's most famous hitman or most prolific? One of the two. He's like a very well-known Sicario. Yeah, yeah. His name's John Gairo Milaski. Vascus, nicknamed Popeye. And I think he was sent down in the end

for like 300 murders. Yeah, something insane like that. Pretty insane. But he did get out. And then he kind of posed on social media with guns and then got sent down.

So that's a, yeah, another, don't Instagram me crimes. Wasn't he doing like some sort of, like, I don't know,

underworld Columbia tour? Or is that like Escobar's brother or something? Yeah. Wasn't there like a big piece by John Lee Anderson about that years ago? Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Anyway, this guy is a bit of a bad bitch. And it's, so now it's the night before the match in Medellin, right? The trio, that's the referee and his two linesmen. They think of making a run for the airport. But the hotel, it's surrounded. The next day, minders dropped the official's car 300 meters from the stadium, and they're surrounded.

Esposito again, quote, The Medellin police chief arrived, and I explained to him that as soon as the game was over, we had to get to the airport. He explained to me that if Nacional won, it would be difficult because of the party. I think that's supposed to be some kind of veil threat, but anyway, there's no real need for any worries on the referees part because Nacional do win 6-0.

People die as guns are fired into the Medellín sky. On the way to the airport, the officials meet the president of Danubio. Quote, he asked me if we had a bad time, says Esposito. They knew everything, the same thing had happened to them. On May 31st, 1989, Athletical Nacional beat Paraguayan champions Olympia in Bogota, canceling out a 2-0 loss in Asuncione the week before. And then they beat the Paraguayans on penalties. Nacional have made history.

Even their shadow owner, ordinarily poker-faced, he hits the roof. Pablo was a block of ice, says Hitman Popeye. But he adds, that night in. Bogotar quote, Pablo jumped and screamed with every goal. The players are invited back to Escobar's ranch to celebrate, but the well-wishes don't last. At October, 1989, Pablo orders the death of Alvaro Ortega, a referee from Barranquilla in Colombia, who he thinks has called a game between America de Cali and Independente, badly.

Narcos are betting massive sums on these games, says Popeye, quote, on that day, I was next to the boss at America de Cali, Medellin with the referee's hand. Pablo was very offended and ordered Chocco, that's one of his hitmen, to look for Ortega to kill him. At 10.30pm, after a following match

in Medellin, Ortega is standing outside his hotel when a gunman shoots him nine times, killing him on the spot. It makes global headlines. The 1990 World Cup in Italy is just around the corner and the Italian Football Association calls for Colombia to be banned. The best summer memories are made outside, and LL Bean has the clothing and gear you need to make these memories.

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Comfort in. It's calling your name. Save on the stay. Oh, and free waffles are yours to claim. We'll direct at sourceotels.com. It also wants to withdraw A.C. Milan from the Intercontinental Cup against Athletical Nacional in Japan that winter. That is the cup between the winners of the Champions League in Europe and the Libertadores.

Yeah, I mean, the corruption is. is usually pretty A-OK, I feel like international football. It's just the murder is not so much. It's just that. Like mid-90s in Colombia is insane. Like, anyway, none of these threats from the international bodies come to fruition. Coach Maturana, who's by now moonlighting for the national team as a coach, while still national coach, he leads Colombia to Italy and they disappoint.

They get a draw against West Germany, and that's the only flicker in a failed tournament. Colombia are a reactive team. Too reticent and afraid to play silky South American football. Maturana wants to change that. He wants to make the team something the country can truly be proud of in the next World Cup in 1994. And he's got the team for it. Their star turn is Carlos Valderama, a blonde Afro de Taki Mifilda who's played in France and Spain

and won South American Player of the Year twice. Yeah, I remember that guy. That guy ruled. Yeah, I mean, he barely fit on a Panini sticker. And then there's Aspreya, who I mentioned before, and he's been banging in goals for fun for Palmer, and he's soon going to sign a big money deal for Newcastle United in England. Freddie Rincon is a kinetic forwarded Brazilian side, Palmyras. And then there's Andres, the stalwart, well-spoken, middle class,

run scholarships for disadvantaged kids. He had a short, failed stint in Switzerland, but he's soon to join Milan, the European champions, the gentlemen. We are all working for a common cause to make our country proud, he says, ahead of the cup. I find motivation in the good things to come. Says newspaper El Colombiano, quote, at the slightest offence against the rival, he didn't hesitate to apologize. He was a great friend, an excellent companion, friendly with people and above all with children.

Add's friend, journalist and diplomat, Cesar Maricio Velasquez, quote, Escobar saw soccer as a school of life. to teach values and tolerance, to learn to win, to lose, to embrace sport as a sanctuary of unity. Andres always stayed true to that belief. I mean, are you getting the message? People love this guy. Yeah, he seems nice. I like him.

Yeah, he's a cool guy. He's a cool guy. Yeah. writes Barry Glenn Denning in The Guardian, quote, The Colombian's coach, Francisco Matarana, insisted his players expressed themselves, and their natural flamboyance yielded rich on the world. filled dividends, courtesy of splendidly gifted individuals such as Valderama, Rincon, Alexis Garcia and Faustina Ospreya, to name just a quartet from a squad that, at the time,

remained largely unknown outside of South America. This was the mid-90s, when the notion of blanket football coverage, courtesy of niche blogs, satellite TV channels and internet streaming, was as hopelessly as exotic as the names of Columbia's many wonderfully talented players. Jesus Christ, calm down, Barry. Why do English journalists write like this? I mean, there's nothing we like more than waxing Lyrrippur about fucking football. This talented team, it reaches its summit on the evening of September 5th, 1993. Buenos Aires is Estadio Monumental.

I've been there. It's an insane place. Literally rocks when the crowd go wild. Diego Maradona, the Argentine talisman, he's gone on TV before the match to taunt his reasonable rivals. You can't change history, he says. Argentina up, Colombia down. Colombia don't just beat Argentina that night.

They demolish them. Rincon and Aspreya score a pair each. Argentine sports magazines call the night Begwrenza, the shame. Even Maradona applauds the Colombians for minutes after the final whistle blows. And for Maradona, this is a watershed moment. For years, he's been wrapped up in a very different kind of mob, the Commorra in Naples. In 1984, he moved from Barcelona to Napoli,

a surprise move, given the Neapolitan's club standing compared to the Catalunians. Wait, what is that? What does that mean? I mean, Barcelona are one of the biggest clubs in the world, and they always have been. And Napoli, at the time, they're like from a poor city, overrun by the mafia. They weren't really challenging for much,

so it was a bit of a surprise move for him to sort of take a step down. And that's also given Diego's taste, right, in Bling and sex workers. In a city ruled by the mafia, it was a perfect fit. Whoa, whoa, whoa, not the mafia, right? It's the Camorra.

I think we use mafia as like a catch-all. Dude, this is an organized crime show. I mean, this is like grounds for firing. Okay, okay. The Camorra. This could, like, totally be another episode, by the way, Madadonna. And if you haven't already,

you should definitely watch the HBO doc from a couple of years ago about Madadona in Naples. Anyway, at the same time, that Columbia's players are struggling to get themselves away from the drug trade, Diego is knee-deep in it. He's hanging out with Mafiosi, he's drinking, taking drugs, he's

fathering up to six different kids with his many women, some of whom have procured for him by the mob. At one moment, he's up at 3.40 a.m. in a hotel, addicted to cocaine, and he calls a Commorra associate to order up two sex workers to his room, as you do.

Midway through the call, one of the women insists that Diego speak to her son, a massive Napoli fan, says the docco's director Assis Capadia, quote, if you put that in an episode of the Sopranos, you'd think it was funny. But you think that would never happen, but it did. That was how Diego's life was. This slow, painful decline of Maradona is happening in exactly the same time as Columbia's stars are in their ascendancy.

After the 5-0 loss, Maradona claws his way back into the Argentine squad for USA-94. but he'll be sent home in disgrace, having failed a drugs test. Two years after the World Cup in 1996, Maradonna's close friend and manager, Guillermo Coppola, is arrested when cops find 500 grams of coke in a vase in his Buenos Aires apartment. Says an opposition politician to the New York Times, quote, You can't imagine Pablo Escobar leaving 500 grams of cocaine inside a flower base in his apartment for the police to find.

It's like a bad third-rayed narco movie. And from what we know of Maradona, they could probably get off on a, you know, for personal use situation there instead of intent to distribute. And I was thinking about the cop who has the balls to go into Pablo Escobar's homes, smash up the vase as well. And if you, I mean,

like we've done loads of stuff about sports and organized crime already, right? There's Danny's episode on the NHL and the Russian mob. And I've done an interview with James Montague on the Patreon on what we talk about, Buenos Aires, drug kingpin ultras, the Balkan Mafia. There's all that stuff and it's well of checking out. Anyway, slight diversion, but Maradonna in Italy, it's a fascinating subject.

So back to Colombia now. Spirits are high after this Argentine drubbin, and people across the world are just starting to wonder if Colombia might just lift the trophy the following summer. But like coffee that is by then only Colombia's second most lucrative export, trouble is brewing. I just, I can't with you. Oh, come on, come on.

That was my daily mailman. Mid the 5-0 celebrations, dozens are killed and many more wounded, highlighting just how Fibiral the situation is across the country. What is, what is Fibrile? This is a crime podcast, bro. This is not the Paris Review. Pop like a human being. It's just, you know, tent to hooks.

Is that a thing? I don't know. Like just really fucking tense. Things are really fucking tense all over Colombia. In 1993, Medellin's murder rate is staggering. Over 5,000 people are killed in the city of 1.6 million that year, including Pablo, of course, which puts the rate at 309 per 100,000 people. I mean, the closest anything comes today, as far as I could found, is Los Cabos, Mexico,

and Caracas, Venezuela, and they're three times lower. In 1993, in Medellin, you're about as likely to be murdered as you are robbed. I think Acapulco was up around 100 when it was number one for a couple years and then El Salvador the country had a year El Salvador the country had a year when it was like 105, 107

something like that but 309 is insane Yeah, isn't that that place in Honduras as well that's like San something to talk about? San Pedro Sula, yeah, it's been up there as well but not for a couple years Yeah Anyway, in December that year the Pepe's and the CIA

finally corner Pablo in Medellín and kill him. Thousands attend his funeral, thanks to his having cultivated this Robin Hood persona, building for the poor, and literally murdering the rich and powerful. Biba Pablo screamed some. Others can only think of their own drug war casualties

and quietly celebrate his death. With its biggest kingpin gone, things don't get better. Medellin killings continue, and it becomes totally normal for kids to walk past bullet-ridden bodies on their way to school. Some Pepe's go on to form the Alto Devenza Zunidas de Colombia, the AUC, which is a far-right paramilitary group that fights the cartels and the FARC, that's Marxist-Leninist guerrillas, that are founded in the 60s. And they're also deep in the drug trade themselves, because, of course they are.

All this madness is filtering into the Colombian national team squad too. Renéhigita, Al-Locco, the keeper who led Nacional to its 1989 Libertadoia, this win, he is a cult hero worldwide for his mad scorpion kick. I've actually put a link here, so you can look at this. Yeah, it's wild. I mean, it seems kind of risky, though. Like, what's the point just because it looks really cool? Yeah, I feel like when that happened, because that was in London, right? And when that happened, I feel like the whistle would already blown, because it was a bit of a cheap shot, but he does that a lot, apparently. I was reading this really cool Esquire piece that I've put on the reading list, and he's known for this in South America.

so. It's pretty, it's pretty ballsy. Anyway, Hegita, I mean, he could also be a completely separate pod. He's not just axed from the squad before USA-94. He's in jail. In 1993, Pablo Escobar kidnaps the daughter of drug rival Carlos Molina Yeppiz, who turns to, who else, a local, Hegita, and gives him 300 grand in a suitcase to be exchanged for the girl. And that's hardly an offer you're going to turn down, right?

Egita calls this go-betweening, quote, a mission from God. And that angers the state, which then charges the goalkeeper with being accessory to the crime. Wait, what? I'm unclear. Does he give him $300,000 in the suitcase to be given to Escobar? Or is he getting paid $300,000 to get the girl back? He's given the $300,000 to give to Escobar to get the girl back for the other drug lord. But, like, I guess at the time the state is just,

just completely powerless to go after the actual narcos. So he's like a certain duck. Yeah. Yeah, but he's not the bad guy here. He's doing God's work, yeah. Yeah. He's a cool guy. I mean, he does a school.

He shouldn't be in jail. To hell, man. Yeah, yeah. But Hegeeta spends seven months in jail, just as his teammates are qualifying for World Cup USA 94. And as the squad's being picked, having somebody so wrapped up in the exact drug war, the Colombian government wants to shield from the world,

is too much, so he doesn't make the final cut for the tournament itself. If Higita is called to the team, Miguel Sibaba Pinson, the chief of staff to President Cesar Gavaria Trujillo, tells an Esquire reporter, quote, it will be considered a narco team. The American press will seize upon it, and they would have a lot to go on. And I'm concerned not only about international cosmetics, would be very bad internally. Egita crossed the line and became an apologist for Escobar. I'm still kind of missing that, right? Because it doesn't sound like he's an apologist.

It just sounds like, I mean, he seems like he's helping out the other narco who got his daughter kidnapped, right? Yeah, I mean, I think he had a bit of a scarletters slapped on him because he'd done a bunch of these games at La Cata da as well before. So he was kind of known for, you know, hanging around El Patron. Narco associations, yeah. Yeah, so, you know, once he's got a big suitcase with a shitload of cash in it, that's, that's kind of. that's breaking the camel's back. And this is not the only trouble, right? There are rumours of a riff

between the aging Valdarama and Aspreya. Writes Henry Manson 442, quote, what the players but not the media could see was that the key figures were not at their peak. The aging Carlos Valderama was recovering from injury. The ever erratic Tina Aspreya was exhausted after a long season at Parma

and Freddie Rincon, then of Palmyras, was out of form. Other players had their own problems. Two days before the US game, right back Chonto Herrera found out his brother had died in a car crash. I mean, none of these are good omens ahead of a desperately contested World Cup. And right off the bat, it begins to go very, very wrong for the Colombians. In the first game, played in the heat of the Rose Bowl, they go down 3-1 to Romania, half of whose team nobody's even heard of, but whose top player, Georgie Haji, is considered one of the

best in the world, won a few to play for Barcelona and Real Madrid. He loves replacement goalkeeper Cordoba, the game's second goal, so maybe a scorpion kit would have been worth it, and suddenly all the exuberance has been sucked right out of the Colombian team. Perhaps even they know what's coming. Gamblers and Narcos have put millions on this game, and they're out of pocket. Somebody hacks the team hotels' televisions, and players of coaches return to death threats flickering on their room sets. This is scary shit. Says one of them, quote,

many gamblers lost big money and there appeared a sort of dark hand that was very upset with the team's performance. I mean, that's not a particularly dark hand that's just telling them they're going to be fucking shot. And one of the threats says the entire squad will be murdered if Gabriel Gomez Barabbas, a central midfield teamer of Escobar at Nacional,

that's Andres Escobar, plays the next game against the hosts USA. says coach Francisco Matarana later quote I couldn't put another's life in danger Brabass was a key player but they had me beat I pulled Barabbas we all called home

there were riots complete chaos and that is how we entered the pitch it's just it's nuts man I mean Narcos just in fact like every segment of society they're really just like a plague it is it is it's like that CGNG one so dark it's fucking horrible

yeah if Columbia lose their second game against the USA, qualification from their group will be out of their hands. The US are minnows, right? I mean, despite home advantage, they've got players playing their trading like lower leagues in England. And the low standard major league soccer, it's not really cutting it.

I mean, surely they're not going to pull it off. For half an hour, the Colombians are all over the Americans like cheap suits, but they've lost their edge. They just can't put the ball in the net. And then John Hark's ball comes in, Escobar slides, and it's 1-0 to the home team. Disaster. Minutes later, it's 2-0. Despite a late consolation, the USA win 2-1.

It's absolute mayhem in the stadiums. The Americans can't believe it. Nobody can. Says Escobar's nine-year-old nephew to his mother, Escobar's sister, quote, Mommy, they're going to kill Andres. No sweetheart, she replies. People aren't killed from a son. stakes. Everyone in Colombia loves Andres. On the field, no one's blaming him either. They do love him,

but they are worried. I saw Andres's face and felt deep pain. It was like a premonition, says midfield teammate Alexis Garcia. The following match, Colombia defeats Switzerland 2-0, but Romania beat the Americans, and that means that Colombia are out of the tournament. Around the footballing world, there is shock. One loss in 26. and now two losses in three matches and it's an early ticket to Bogota. Our team could not fulfil its expectations and Reyes tells the media. He writes a chillingly foreboding message in Bogota newspaper El Tienpo after the team elimination.

Quote, Life does not end here. We have to go on. Life cannot end here. No matter how difficult, we must stand back up. We only have two options. either allow anger to paralyze us and the violence continues, or we overcome and try our best to help others.

It's our choice. Let us please maintain respect. My warmest regards to everyone, it's been a most amazing and rare experience. We'll see each other again soon, because life does not end here. God, that's dark, man. It's so dark, man.

It's so dark. Escobar's actually got relatives in the US, and they plead with him to set out the result in chaos with them. But he ignores them. Andres and his team returned home on June 28. Coaches and loved ones beg him to stay home. But on July 2nd he heads out for dinner at the El Indio restaurant in Medellín's Via de los Palmas, having a few drinks and chatting with relatives.

Says Andres' fiancé Pamela, quote, He forgot his worries. There were warnings, but Andres was young and alive. He wanted to live his life. life. Had I known, I had kept him at home that night. A few diners begin insulting under this, but the gentleman doesn't snap back. Later in the parking lot, though, the abuse doesn't stop. Four men pursue Escobar. One of them calls him a fagot.

Should we say that? Should we say that word? I think it's okay. Yeah, all right. I think it's okay. Yeah. Yeah. One of them calls him a faggot. Escobar drives across the lot to try settling things down. He tells them the own goal was a quote, honest mistake. One of the men pulls a gun and he fires it six times, getting Escobar in the back as he sat at his car's wheel. Some say the gunmen shout, Goal, goal, on every shot.

There he dies. 30 minutes later, despite an ambulance being called to the scene. Ten days after the own goal in Pasadena, andres Escobar, age 27, is dead. Despite the terror, two witnesses, give cops the license plate of one of the vehicles the killers used that night. It's registered to a pair of brothers, Pedro and Juan Geyon, former members of Pablo Escobar's cartel who recently left to join Los Pepe's.

They're riding high after Pablo's death, so high, in fact, that it seems they're above the law. It doesn't take cops long to capture the culprit, as the Gaon's brother's driver, Humberto Munoz Castro, who drives himself to forge an alibi, by falsifying the armed theft of his truck at that time. But even this whole thing might be a red herring. According to Popeye, who died into 2020, having admitted to over 300 murders, as we mentioned before, Munoz Castro is just the full guy.

After the murder, the Gaions allegedly paid Pepe's leader Carlos Castagnor $3 million to bribe the prosecutor and get him to focus solely on Munoz Castro, and forget the Gaions were even there. For his part, Munoz Castro claims he never even knew who he shot that night at the El Indio restaurant. He's jailed for 43 years,

but he gets out after just 11. The Gaons are never convicted. Years later, prosecutor Jesus al-Bairro-Yepez admits the brothers should have at least been tried as accomplices. What's more, the accepted story is that the murder was premeditated, revenge for the Gaon's huge gambling losses after Escobar's own goal.

According to the hitman Vasquez, Popeye, the reason is very more mundane and way more evil. Quote, Andres' mistake was talking back to those guys. The Gaon's egos were so inflated after taking down Pablo Escobar. They weren't going to allow someone to talk back. Not even Andris. It had nothing to do with betting. It was a fight.

That's all. Isn't that like, I think the two Escobar's goes into that, right? Yeah, it does. Yeah, that's a little bit from that. It really is a great film. It's all over the world. I think it got syndicated on all kinds of channels. It's really cool.

Andres Escobar's death elicits a crazy outpouring of emotion across Colombia. In Madagin, over 100,000 people filed past his casket, draped in Athletical Nationals Green and White Standard, in a local basketball stadium. Hustisia, hosticia, cried the crowds. Colombian president, Cesar Gavria, a man equally praised for his fright against the cartels and criticized for giving free license

to the murderous Alta Defensas, he decries the, quote, absurd violence of Colombia's ongoing drug war. Francisco Matarana, the team coach, later says that Escobar was killed not by sport. Quote, Andres was a soccer player killed by society. Wishing you could be there live for the big game,

soaking up the atmosphere of the crowd. But too often, life gets busy. Or the price holds you back. Priceline is here to help you make it happen. With millions of deals on flights, hotels, and rental cars, you can go see the game live. Don't just dream about the trip. Book it with Priceline.

Download the Priceline app or visitpriceline.com. Actual prices may vary, limited time offer. your thing. It could be anything. Canva helps you make that thing a thing. Canva is a simple online tool thing. It's a way to design with our magic AI tool things. You can social media your thing, generate images or videos of your thing, make decks for presentations to show your thing. Whatever needs to be done for your thing, Canva can make it an even better and bigger thing. Canva, the thing that makes anything a thing. But Colombia's narco football doesn't end there.

As the Cali cartel rises to become the country's biggest trafficking group in the 90s, its own control of America to Cali becomes ever more controversial. When America's star player Anthony De Abila scores the goal that qualifies Colombia for the 1998 World Cup, he dedicates it to, quote, those who've been deprived of their liberty, especially Miguel and Hilberto Rodriguez, the leaders of the cartel. Even when the Cali cartel is broken up, US Treasury officials still think America is funded by drug money and adds the club to its 1996 camping list,

a title it shakes off only in 2013. Now, the Rodriguez brothers pour an eye-watering amount of cash into America in a 20-year period and make it one of South America's best. America win Colombia's league title eight times during this period, but it never wins the big prize to Libertadores, just like Nacional. According to Columbia reports, quote,

the designation, that's the kingpin list, meant that American companies were no longer allowed to do business with America de Cali. Its assets were frozen and visas were revoked. The club was not even allowed to keep prize money for international tournaments.

In effect, America became toxic. Sponsors stayed away and left the club only with the revenue of ticket sales to survive and the selling of some of their best players. The consequences were disastrous. Despite the huge pool of local talent, America slowly sank into oblivion,

and in 2011 were relegated to the second league. And this happens all over the continent as well. Over in Mexico, Tirissor Martinez-Sanche Al Footballista, he laundered millions of dollars for repair transfers in addition to sending over 70 tonnes of cocaine across the border. And we've already spoken to James Montague about Buenos Aires' notorious badass bravas. Lionel Messi's dad, that's like one of the biggest stars in the world.

His dad has been accused of laundering drug money through football initiatives. And in 2009, Spanish cops arrested 11 people from using ties in the sport to ship cocaine from Argentina to Europe. And it's not even confined to South America. I mean, Europe's top sides aren't much better, I must say, like being wrong. by Middle Eastern dictators and Russian oligarchs and corrupt Asian politicians. Newcastle United, for example, as the team Tino Espria

achieves cult status out after 1994. Just last year, they were bought by an investment vehicle to Saudi regime, which is bombing Yemen into the dirt and doing all sorts of crazy stuff. So you can't really claim the higher ground if you're in Europe about this stuff. And match fixing, that goes on everywhere too.

And Danny's into it, I think, as far as I understand. In an African Nations Cup a few weeks ago, one of the referees made a string of weird decisions, and then he ended the game before the 90 minutes was up, which was pretty nuts. Less than a month ago, authorities leapt into action after over half a million dollars was bet on a single yellow card, the Granite Jacker against Leeds United for Arsenal in the Premier League. And I mean, this doesn't even get to FIFA, bribery, the Qatar World Cup that's going to be played later this year, FBI stings, football leagues.

it's opening up all kinds of grimy wounds at the top of the game. Professional football is an absolute swamp. And, by the way, you know, lifted the lid on all the FIFA corruption back in 2010. British by Christopher Steele. And that's the same guy who supposedly had Trump's peat tape. Crazy. I don't think he had it. I think he was the one who brought its existence into like the public consciousness.

So he didn't actually get it himself. He just like sort of blew the whistle. No, no one got it. It hasn't been, um, no, no one's, we would have fucking seen that. Yeah. Yeah. If you do, if you do it, wait, wait, hold on. If you do have it, give it to me and Sean.

Yeah. We could actually make some money that way. Yeah. Yeah. But nothing has quite reached in all of soccer, the lows of Colombia's narco football era and the death of Andres Escobar, the gentleman in his absolute prime captain of the nation, cut down over a gambling dispute or even nothing at all. Just another statistic in Columbia's blood-soaked 90s

and a hangover from the death of his drug lord namesake that still rocks Columbia today. Wow, well done, man. That was great, for sure. Thanks everyone for tuning in. I actually want to thank a couple people, you know, when I went down to St. Louis, I posted about it and a couple of listeners from the show

hit me up and tried to help me out with some stuff. and I really appreciate it. There's a couple of them. They know who they are. So thank you for that. I also want to thank the top tier Patreon folks, Noah Brandon, John Simon, Patrick Rowland, Tanner McLeve, Sam Ransy, Juan Ponce, P. Thomas,

Mike Ulrich, William Wintercross, Trey Nance, Matthew Cutler, Ross Clark, Jeremy Rich, and Doug Prendiville. Thanks so much, guys, for your support. Yeah, I think that does it, yeah? I think it does. Yeah. All right. To wrap until next week.

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