Javier Pena (1958-) was an American Drug Enforcement Agency agent and the partner of Steve Murphy. During the 1980s, Pena and Murphy were sent to collaborate with the Colombian Search Bloc in its war against drug traffickers such as Pablo Escobar, often contacting the CIA and Colombian police to help in their operations. Pena had a long career, and he retired in 2014 after serving as the head of the Houston Division of the DEA for three years.
Biography[]
Pena and his partner, Steve Murphy
Javier Pena was born and raised in Kingsville, Texas to a Mexican-American family. He came to work for the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) as an agent in 1984, and he was posted to Colombia to help in tracking down drug lords and weakening their operations, working closely with the Search Bloc police unit to hunt them down. Pena used tactics such as having sex with prostitutes that cartel members frequented, and he extracted information from them. One of them, Helena Sotomayor, began a real romantic relationship with Pena, who used her as his main source of information on the cartels. In 1981, he tapped Pablo Escobar's radio and found out about the kidnapping of Martha Ochoa and the whereabouts of the cartel bosses, who were heading to a meeting at Las Margaritas. Shortly after finding this out, he met with his new partner Steve Murphy, taking him to the American embassy in Bogota and introducing him to the men there. Pena and Murphy met up with Colonel Horacio Carrillo, and they headed to Medellin to photograph the associates of the Escobar at the Las Margaritas hotel, where they formally wounded the Medellin Cartel. Pena saved Sotomayor from being raped after Jose Rodriguez Gacha beat her up and claimed that she had overheard the cartel's conversation, but Murphy, whom he had left behind with other Search Bloc soldiers, demanded that he be let in on the DEA's operations and not excluded.
Fighting Escobar[]
In 1982, Pena and Murphy set out to sabotage Escobar's political campaign when Escobar ran for public office, and they attempted to make contact with people that knew of Escobar's past. Escobar bribed policeman Alberto Suarez to reveal the names that the DEA agents had, and Escobar assassinated the people that knew about his past. However, the man who took his 1976 mugshot entered witness protection and worked with the DEA agents. Minister of Justice Rodrigo Lara used this to boot Escobar from politics and launch a crusade against the nacros, which led to his 1984 assassination. However, the US-Colombia extradition treaty was a victory for the DEA, as the criminals could now face serious jail time in America; they responded by forming "The Extraditibles". Pena and Murphy would help Colonel Carrillo in being appointed the new head of the anti-Escobar task force, and they helped in the Tranquilandia raid and the capturing of "Blackbeard" and Carlos Lehder in raids. Pena was forced to give shelter to M-19 guerrilla Elisa Alvarez when she left M-19 to warn the DEA about the Palace of Justice siege, which led to the DEA losing all of its 6,000 files on Escobar.
Formation of Search Bloc[]
Pena at the ranch in Cartagena, 1989
Pena succeeded in convincing Murphy to take care of Elisa, and he secured false documentation for her so that she could leave the country under an alias. In late 1989, he worked with the newly-formed Search Bloc under Colonel Horacio Carrillo to hunt down the Medellin cartel leader Jose Rodriguez Gacha, and Carrillo and Pena tracked Gacha down to a ranch in Cartagena with the help of his associate, Navegante. Pena would later take part in the important Tolu raid on 15 December 1989, where he told the helicopter gunner to kill Gacha, taking him and his son out.
Escobar's surrender[]
Pena and Murphy in 1992
In 1991, Pena and Murphy could only watch as Escobar accepted a surrender deal from Escobar after the failed rescue of journalist Diana Turbay, who was accidentally killed by the Search Bloc troops. Escobar would surrender in exchange for the ability to build his own prison (which was more of a villa), to be guarded by his own men, to have a no-fly zone over the "prison" enforced by Colombian Army anti-aircraft guns, and to be charged only with drug trafficking. Pena and Murphy felt that Escobar had won, as Carrillo was posted to Spain. They decided to prove that Escobar had violated the terms of his surrender, having the assistance of Colonel Wysession and both the CIA and DEA. Pena and Murphy planted a camera in the truck of Escobar's delivery truck driver La Paisa to monitor his shipments, which usually consisted of prostitutes. However, they discovered the murders of Gerardo Moncada and Fernando Galeano, leading to the La Catedral siege and Escobar being forced from his fortress, although the two agents were suspended by Ambassador Noonan. Pena decided to work together with the Cali Cartel to defeat Escobar, giving them information on Murphy's involvement in the La Dispensaria raid so that they could coerce him into getting the DEA to assist Cali against the Medellin Cartel. Murphy angrily confronted Pena after he was released, and Pena did not deny his role in the kidnapping.
Los Pepes[]
Pena would continue to work with the Cali Cartel against Escobar, even though Pena and Murphy's actions were limited by the arrival of a new boss, Claudia Messina, in late 1992. Pena and Murphy both worked with ambassador Arthur Crosby, Colonel Hugo Martinez, and Centra Spike surveillance team leader Edward Jacoby to track down Escobar, who fled to the barrios of Medellin and gathered a large army in the city. Pena decided to leak information to his friend Don Berna, who was protecting Judy Moncada, the widow of Gerardo Moncada. Berna and Moncada were allied to the Cali Cartel, and they would form the "Los Pepes" anti-Medellin alliance with the paramilitary leaders Carlos Castano Gil and Fidel Castano Gil.
Whenever the Search Bloc acquired information on the whereabouts of Medellin hitmen, Pena leaked the information to Los Pepes, as Los Pepes acted instantly and with force, while Search Bloc took a week to verify the location of their targets and coordinate an operation. Pena and his Search Bloc partner Trujillo helped in the capture of Velasco, the murder of Jairo, and the attempted capture of Blackie, but Pena fell out with Los Pepes when they asked him for his help in killing Fernando Duque, Escobar's connection in politics. Pena attempted to rescue Duque and make him turn states against Escobar, but Trujillo leaked the information to Los Pepes, who killed him, his son, his ex-wife, and his innocent mother. Pena was eventually forced to help Moncada in her war with Cali so that Moncada would not rat his leakage of classified information to the press, but Don Berna did not like Moncada betraying narco honor. He had her exiled to the USA, where she gave an interview to The Miami Herald about Pena's corruption. Pena was recalled to America in late 1993, and he was unable to take part in the finale of the war with Escobar alongside Murphy.
However, Pena was not subjected to a review board, but a group of operations leaders. They were interested in how much he knew about the Cali Cartel, as cocaine production in Colombia had gone up as Escobar fell from power. Pena was not to be fired, but to be sent back to Colombia to continue the fight against the narcos.