After a politician pushing for Pablo's extradition was murdered, Lara made an announcement that upset the traffickers: "The more I learn, the more I know of the damage that the narcos are causing this country. I will never again refuse the extradition of one of these dogs. So long as Colombian judges fear drug traffickers, the narcos will only fear judges in the US."
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Lara suspected that Pablo's guys were shadowing him. When he answered his phone, his own conversations were played back. He rebuffed offers of large sums of money. Death threats against him increased.
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He hit back by busting cocaine labs across the country. With the help of the DEA, the Colombian authorities located a giant jungle lab called the Land of Tranquillity, which was mostly owned by the cartel leader, Gacha. Over two years, it had produced cocaine worth $12 billion. Almost 200 people lived there. The authorities knew about it, but had been reluctant or unable to find it, lying some 250 miles from the nearest road.
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The DEA had discovered that a Colombian working for Pablo was trying to make a $400,000 purchase of ether, an ingredient in the traditional method for processing coca paste to coca-hydrochloride. The two sellers recommended to him were undercover agents. Before the first seventy-six barrels of ether left for Colombia, DEA technicians cut two open and concealed battery-powered transponders inside. Pablo had no idea that when the ether left the plant it could be traced all the way to Colombia. Signals from the transponders were picked up by a spy satellite as the ether moved south through New Orleans and Panama to Colombia. The signals indicated a spot near the Yari River, deep in the densest part of the jungle, where Gacha and his partners had built the Land of Tranquillity.
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Tipped off by the DEA, the anti-narcotics unit of the Colombian National Police was on standby to raid the location with a lone DEA agent. Out of fear that Pablo would receive inside information about the raid, the men in green military garb didn't know the nature of the operation until they were airborne.
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On March 10, 1984, helicopters took off from Bogotá at 6 am. An hour later, they started monitoring the transceiver, homing in on the tones. By noon, they were skimming jungle treetops and almost out of fuel when they spotted an airstrip and smoke rising from the trees. The helicopter attempted to land, with a second helicopter giving it cover. Armed with submachine guns, the troops getting off the first helicopter came under sniper fire. After the shooting stopped, they were attacked by tiny gnats and mosquitoes.
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Putting up no resistance, dozens of impoverished workers waited to be arrested. Some fled into the jungle. The troops found a giant jungle complex of nineteen labs and eight airstrips. Worried about retaliation, they called for immediate reinforcements. The next day, they filmed more airstrips and labs. It was the biggest cocaine manufacturing plant in world history.
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Colombia's head of anti-narcotics, Colonel Ramirez - an early nemesis of Pablo - arrived. Feisty and proud of his country, he was clean shaved with a square solid face and thick lips. Men from Medellín showed up at his brother's house with a message for the colonel: if he would cease all operations in the Land of Tranquillity area and withdraw his forces, he'd receive a multi-million-dollar payment.
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Colonel Ramirez responded by ordering gallons of ether to be thrown into each room, many of which contained chemical barrels. When the soldiers lit the ether, it exploded, almost setting them on fire and burning the trees. Multiple explosions throughout the Land of Tranquillity sent thick black plumes up through the jungle trees and into the sky.
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The cartel lost 12,000 drums of chemicals and all of the cocaine that was being processed. The colonel's integrity endangered his family. His kids guarded their house with sub-machine guns.
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Paperwork found at the site- waybills, receipts and accounts - helped the authorities piece together information about the cartel. It revealed that the biggest players were combining their raw materials. Some of the evidence alerted them to Gacha's importance. Prior to the raid, the authorities had believed that Gacha worked under Pablo. On a jungle airstrip, they found a crashed plane registered to Gacha's brother. Sources told them that out of all of the investors in the Land of Tranquillity, Gacha had suffered the biggest loss, from which they inferred that Gacha was a senior partner.
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Pablo issued a statement to the US ambassador denying any role in the Land of Tranquillity: "I can only characterise your statements as tendentious, irresponsible and malintentioned without any basis in reality; they denigrate the good faith of public opinion. My conscience is clear." He accused Lara of being "the representative of your government in the Colombian cabinet."
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After the raid on the Land of Tranquillity, the Medellín Cartel decided that it was time for Lara to go. The $500,000 contract went to Los Quesitos, a gang controlled by Pablo. Three of the gang's field commanders took a green Renault, loaded with guns, grenades and bullet-proof vests from Medellín to Bogotá. After settling into a four-star hotel, they discussed the hit over food in the company of the Snore, a Medellin hitman with lots of kills under his belt who was ready to serve as backup if the others failed. The hit would be performed on a motorbike, with Iván, a thirty-one year-old drifter, as the shooter. Iván had a history of murder, robbery and assault. The driver would be a teenager called Byron, who was looking to earn a reputation among the big boys. Teenagers like these - poor and with nothing to lose - were easily recruited to perform hits. Unemployed or working jobs that paid $1 a week, they could earn thousands for each murder. For several days, the team waited, made calls back to Medellín and dined out.
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The US emissaries encouraging Lara to extradite Pablo showed up with a bullet-proof vest. "You should be more concerned. You should take more precautions." Lara declined the vest, but they left it with him.
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