Search Bloc troops posing with Pablo Escobar's body
The Search Bloc was a special operations unit of the Colombian national police that was formed with the goal of capturing or killing narcos (drug lords) and other dangerous people in the country. Trained by the United States' Drug Enforcement Agency and Central Intelligence Agency, the Search Bloc was led by the famous colonel Hugo Martinez during the 1990s, when they succeeded in bringing down Pablo Escobar.
History[]
Search Bloc troops training in 1989
The first incarnation of Search Bloc was formed in 1989 when Colonel Horacio Carrillo, backed by the United States, created a force of incorruptible and elite soldiers whose goal would be to fight the drug cartels that ran Colombia. The bloc was trained by the Colombian Army, and its goal was to hunt down and bring to justice the leading narcos (drug traffickers) and communist rebels. Search Bloc was responsible for taking down drug lords such as Jose Rodriguez Gacha and Gustavo Gaviria in 1989 and 1990, respectively, but the first incarnation was disbanded in 1992 as a part of Pablo Escobar's surrender terms when he built his own prison to stay in. Carrillo was transferred out of the country to Spain, but he would be recalled when Escobar fled his prison.
President Cesar Gaviria created the second incarnation later in 1992, the first one known to the public. The Search Bloc collaborated with anti-drug vigilante groups such as Los Pepes, leading to the suspicious deaths of drug lord Pablo Escobar's subordinates, so Escobar sent spies to infiltrate the Search Bloc and help him with stopping their intrusion into his affairs. After the fall of Escobar and his Medellin Cartel in 1993, the Search Bloc dismantled the Cali Cartel, being disbanded soon after.
In 2004, the Search Bloc was revived to root out southwestern Colombian cocaine and heroin traffickers. The Search Bloc took down the Norte del Valle cartel, and in 2007 the next generation of Search Bloc policemen was sent to hunt down and destroy The Black Eagles, a right-wing drug cartel that consisted of counter-revolutionary former paramilitaries.