Manhunters: How We Took Down Pablo Escobar

by Stephen E. Murphy, Javier F. Peña

For the first time, legendary DEA operatives Steve Murphy and Javier F. Pe�a tell the true story of how they helped put an end to one of the world's most infamous narco-terrorists in Manhunters: How We Took Down Pablo Escobar--the subject of the hit Netflix series, Narcos.



Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar's brutal Medell�n Cartel was responsible for trafficking tons of cocaine to North America and Europe in the 1980s and '90s. The nation became a warzone as his sicarios mercilessly murdered thousands of people--competitors, police, and civilians--to ensure he remained Colombia's reigning kingpin. With billions in personal income, Pablo Escobar bought off politicians and lawmen, and became a hero to poorer communities by building houses and sports centers. He was nearly untouchable despite the efforts of the Colombian National Police to bring him to justice.

But Escobar was also one of America's most wanted, and the Drug Enforcement Administration was determined to see him pay for his crimes. Agents Steve Murphy and Javier F. Pe�a were assigned to the Bloque de B�squeda, the joint Colombian-U.S. taskforce created to end Escobar's reign of terror. For eighteen months, between July 1992 and December 1993, Steve and Javier lived and worked beside Colombian authorities, finding themselves in the crosshairs of sicarios targeting them for the $300,000 bounty Escobar placed on each of their heads.

Undeterred, they risked the dangers, relentlessly and ruthlessly separating the drug lord from his resources and allies, and tearing apart his empire, leaving him underground and on the run from enemies on both sides of the law.

Manhunters presents Steve and Javier's history in law enforcement from their rigorous physical training and their early DEA assignments in Miami and Austin to the Escobar mission in Medellin, Colombia--living far from home and serving as frontline soldiers in the never ending war on drugs that continues to devastate America.

352 pages, Paperback

Published November 17, 2020

About the author

Stephen E. Murphy has lived and traveled “south of the border” for decades. He enjoys long lasting friendships in Cuba, Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, Chile, Panama and El Salvador. He has held executive positions in the Bank Boston, Paramount Pictures, and the Inter-American Development Bank. For the first Bush administration, he was appointed Worldnet Television director U.S. Information Agency. Under President George W. Bush, he served as Regional Director, Inter-Americas, for the Peace Corps.

As a volunteer, he taught economics at Miami Jackson High School. The Miami Herald and the Wall Street Journal recognized his efforts to teach inner city students about the stock market and how their picks beat the S&P 500 in 1995. He left Miami for hometown Seattle, where he has taught “Latin America Business” at Seattle University and consulted for firms expanding to the Americas. He has published articles on Cuba and Brazil for the Puget Sound Business Journal and for Seattle’s Trade Development Alliance Quarterly.

Murphy mentors students and young professionals in Miami, Seattle, Havana and Rio de Janeiro and serves as chapter advisor to the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity, University of Washington. He loves swimming in open bodies of water all over the world.

Encouraged by UW alumni, he self-published a 2016 memoir, On the Edge: An Odyssey, about “the turning points in life.” The author has presented in three countries in 60 different venues, including Books & Books (Coral Gables, FL) and La Biblioteca Nacional de Cuba. The book has sold in excess of 1,000 copies and garnered more than 90 Amazon reviews. Murphy is researching a new book, Brazilian Odyssey, and is fluent in Spanish, Portuguese and French.