PHOTO: Peter (right, in white shirt and black shorts), leads the mercenary team in a live-fire rehearsal of the raid. The photo shows the gear the raiders would wear during the mission.

PHOTO: Peter giving a pep talk to the team of mercenaries , just prior to the events Operation Phoenix, 1989.

“Nobody can touch us! He (Escobar) cannot fuckin’ do us!”

The following is an excerpt “Op Order” for Operation Phoenix in 1989, laying out the the ground work for the attack on Hacienda Napoles, the villa of the notorious cocaine baron, Pablo Escobar. The orders are written as they would have been recited verbatim to the mercenaries at La Gagua.


B. SITUATION

  1. Enemy

    a) Guards - Estimated total 80, split up on following tasks:

    1. Static Guards in ones and twos on road,

    2. Group of 7 occupying main gate of villa,

    3. Group of 18 on mobile patrol outside villa grounds,

    4. Group of 8 in guards’ quarters - stables,

    5. Group of 8 in white 3,

    6. Group of 8 in white 1 area of villa

    Estimate no group inside villa bigger than 7 or 8

    b) Dress - Civvies: jeans, shirts, belt webbing

    c) Weapons - AR15s, pistols, Uzis, Ingrams, GPMG or M60. Never seem to carry more than 3 mags

    d) Morale - They thing they’re untouchable. Heavy boozing. Bullies. Said to be fairly lax attitude because the whole area in Escobar’s payroll, including local police.

    e) Enemy Leadership - Pablo Escobar

2. Own Forces

a) Command Group - C/S* 0: GPMG on pintle in Hughes. M16s and 9mm Interdynamic SMG. PE charges.

b) Assault Team

  1. House Clearance C/S 1:

    a) Composition: 2 x entry men, 1x bomber, 1x lookout

    b) Weapons: M16s, 9mm pistols, grenades, white phosphorus, coloured smoke, bunker bombs.

  2. House Clearance C/S 2: Ditto

  3. Support Group C/S 3: G3 on auto, G3 rifle grenades, 66mm LAW rockets, grenades, 9mm pistols

c) Dress

  1. Military: all to wear assault vests, combat camouflage uniform, boots, black balaclava with phosphorescent yellow cross on top for ID from air.

  2. Civilian: changes of civvies, escape money, day’s rations, water bottle, in small bags.

d) Comms - Each man carries personal radio with earpiece and mike.

3. Atts and Dets

a) Command and Assault Teams. The following are attached to these groups:

  1. Helicopters: 1 x Hughes 500 and 1 x Bell ‘Huey’ 204 fitted with a Bell 205 engine which gives it greater lift capacity.

  2. Personnel: 2 x heli pilots, Pablo and Tiger; 2 x interpreters, Almaro and Ramon

b) Air Support. The following extra air support is required:

  1. 1 x Caravan fixed wing

  2. 1 x Cessna fixed-wing, with Telstar radio rebroadcast equipment with Colonel Ricardo as interpreter

  3. 1 x Bell 214 Jetranger helicopter ambulance

Notes: All rotary-wing and fixed-wing lift capacity, fuel-weight ratios, range calculations, take-off times from different airfields, and rendezvous time are pre-planned.

C. MISSION

To kill Pablo Escobar. To kill Pablo Escobar. **

*C/S stands for “Callsign”, the radio identifier of each team element involved in the mission
** This part is intentionally repeated twice, a common practice during readings of military operation orders to emphasize the exact parameters of the mission