Steve Murphy (1957-) was a Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agent from the United States who was assigned to Miami in the late 1970s-early 1980s and to Colombia during the late 1980s-early 1990s. Murphy was the partner of Kevin Brady until he was killed by a Medellín Cartel hitman during a sting operation in 1981, and Murphy was angered when the killer was released on bail. Murphy decided to take up an assignment in Colombia to avenge his partner's death, while his wife also had a hatred of the cartels after she had to deal with the death of a female drug mule and her unborn child.
Biography[]
DEA career[]
Steve Murphy in 1979.
Steve Murphy was born in Tennessee and raised in Princeton, West Virginia, the son of a World War II veteran who served in the military after Pearl Harbor. He was partnered with Kevin Brady upon joining the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) in the 1970s, and Murphy decided to choose Miami as his posting for the fun and women there. Murphy and Brady successfully busted two hippie marijuana dealers there in 1979, and they decided to celebrate their likely promotion by heading to a bowling alley with friends. There, he met a blonde woman named Connie, and she gave him her phone number, which she claimed was fake. Murphy called her later that night, and they began a romance that would lead to their marriage.
Murphy and Brady continued to work together into the early 1980s, when the Miami drug wars began and Colombian bodies piled up in the streets. Murphy's first kill was in 1981, when he had to shoot the teenaged smuggler Cristian Zegarra after he fired on Murphy. That year, Murphy lost his friend when their sting operation against German Zapata was interrupted by Medellín Cartel hitman Juan Diego Diaz spraying the deal with Uzi fire, killing both Zapata and Brady. Murphy succeeded in capturing Diaz, who was brought to justice in a courtroom, but was angered when Escobar paid Diaz's bail, allowing him to return to Columbia unpunished.
Colombian drug wars[]
Murphy taking pictures after the La Dispensaria raid
Murphy decided that he would be like his father and fight against an enemy that had attacked US soil, and Murphy and his wife flew to Bogotá, Colombia. Murphy would work with other DEA agents and CIA agents in tracking down drug lords, and he was partnered with fellow DEA agent Javier Pena. DEA spy planes intercepting satellite phone communications would pass information to Murphy, who would then contact the Colombian national police's "Search Bloc" unit; the Search Bloc would move in and illegally assassinate their targets in massacres that left many innocents and gangsters dead. Murphy and his wife were allowed into Bogotá with their cat despite not having his paperwork, but the customs officials scanned his passport information and sent it to Pablo Escobar when Murphy claimed that he was working on the janitorial staff of the American embassy, an often-used excuse for many DEA agents in the country. Murphy and his wife's sex that night was interrupted by machine gun fire outside, and they realized that life in Colombia would not be peaceful.
Murphy and his wife after arriving in Bogotá.
Murphy met his partner Pena at the American embassy in Bogotá, and the two of them were sent to Medellín to take pictures of Pablo Escobar and his associates as they met at the Las Margaritas hotel. Murphy took several useful pictures, but he was left behind with some soldiers as Colonel Horacio Carrillo and Pena headed to rescue their contact, Helena Sotomayor, who was embedded with the cartel bosses. Pena and Carrillos rescued her, but an angry Murphy demanded that he be let into Pena and Carrillos' circle, as he was angry at being excluded from their operations against the cartels.
Deposing Escobar from Congress[]
Murphy and his partner, Javier Pena
In 1982, Murphy and Pena were sent by ambassador Danielle Noonan to derail Escobar's political campaign, as Escobar decided to run for public office as a New Liberalism candidate. Murphy and Pena contacted the policeman Alberto Suarez, who gave them the names of people that knew about Escobar's past; Suarez was a double agent, having stopped their attempt to arrest hitman Roberto Ramos in the past. Suarez gave the names to Escobar as well, and Escobar successfully had the people assassinated. However, Murphy and Pena successfully kidnapped the photographer who had taken Escobar's 1976 mugshot, and they entered him into the Witness Protection Program as they interrogated him. Minister of Justice Rodrigo Lara used this to have Escobar fired from the Congress, and Lara's crusade against the narcos weakened them, although it led to his assassination in 1984. This, in turn, led to the US-Colombia extradition treaty, a victory for the Americans against the criminals, who formed "The Extraditibles" to fight back.
Late 1980s[]
Carlos Lehder being arrested
Ultimately, Colonel Patrick Wysession convinced the CIA to allocate most of its funds to fighting the communist rebels and not the cartels, giving a mere $100,000 to the DEA. They used it to bribe General Augusto Jaramillo to make Horacio Carrillo the new man in charge of the campaign to capture Escobar, and Murphy and Pena succeeded in raiding Escobar's villa later that year. While Escobar and his family had escaped on a helicopter, the DEA found the address of a nondescript warehouse where they arrested several of his henchmen, including his accountant Blackbeard, scoring a major victory for the DEA. In addition, he tracked down Barry Seal, a drug smuggler working for the cartel, and he was able to get proof that communist governments such as Nicaragua allowed smugglers to use their airfields. This led to Seal's death at the hands of the cartel, but Reagan gave the DEA unlimited amounts of money to fight the narco-communist threat. The Tranquilandia raid and the capture of Carlos Lehder were both blows to the cartels and victories for the DEA. Unfortunately, Escobar struck back and burned down all the DEA files on him during the Palace of Justice siege in November 1985, and Murphy had to give shelter to M-19 guerrilla Elisa Alvarez, who could trace Escobar to the siege. Murphy's wife managed to smuggle Elisa out of the country under the guise of an American embassy worker, and Murphy continued the hunt for Escobar.
Escobar's surrender[]
Pena and Murphy in 1992
In 1989, Murphy helped with the La Dispensaria raid, killing three important Medellín sicarios (hitmen). Murphy also helped the Colombian presidential candidate Cesar Gaviria in avoiding assassination attempts, warning him not to board Avianca Flight 203, which was bombed by the Medellín Cartel. Murphy and Pena both worked hard to fight against Escobar, who waged war on the government upon returning to Colombia from Panama that year. In 1992, however, Murphy and Pena could only watch from a distance as Escobar made a surrender deal with the government at his villa, in which he would be allowed to build a villa where he would be "imprisoned", extradition would be struck down, and he would be guarded by his own men and protected by an exclusion zone of three kilometers for policemen and a no-fly zone for CIA planes.
Taking down Escobar's fortress[]
A camera in La Paisa's truck showing his "delivery" to La Catedral
Murphy and Pena felt that Escobar had won, and Colonel Carrillo was forced to leave the country as his elite Search Bloc police force was disbanded. Murphy and Pena decided to work with Colonel Wysession to prove that Escobar violated the terms of his surrender, and Murphy and Pena headed to the area near his villa, La Catedral, where they shot down a carrier pigeon carrying a note that said that a shipment was arriving at the tunnel. Murphy and Pena forced Escobar's delivery truck driver La Paisa to put a camera in his truck's trailer to monitor his shipments, which usually consisted of prostitutes. The two discovered the murders of Gerardo Moncada and Fernando Galeano in 1992 and leaked this information to the press, leading to the La Catedral siege and Escobar being forced from his stronghold, although the duo were suspended by Ambassador Noonan for the unauthorized leakage of the news. Murphy was later kidnapped by the Cali Cartel as he entered his garage, and Pena worked to find where he was being held. Murphy was unmasked by Navegante, a former henchman of Jose Rodriguez Gacha who joined with the Cali Cartel under Helmer Herrera. Murphy discovered that Pena had given the Cali Cartel an audio tape tying him to the massacre of the La Dispensaria raid, which could lead to him being arrested for helping an American-backed death squad in Colombia. Herrera asked Murphy to get the DEA to help him in fighting Escobar, but Murphy warned him that the DEA would come back for Herrera once Escobar was taken down. Murphy returned to the embassy, where he met Ambassador Noonan and told her of the predicament that he faced, and he angrily confronted Pena, who confirmed his role in his kidnapping without verbally saying it.