The story of the Scottish hitman hired to kill Pablo Escobar

In 1989, a team of British mercenaries, led by Scotsman Peter McAleese, traveled to Medellín with clear orders to assassinate the world’s most wanted man in drug trafficking, Colombian Pablo Escobar. At that time, he was the head of the Medellín cartel and one of the richest men of the time, moreover, responsible for up to 80% of the global cocaine trade in the world.

To end Escobar’s business and for it to cease to exist, the Cali Cartel hired McAleese, a former SAS agent – an elite group of the British Army – so that, through his experience , he is in charge of the assassination of Pablo. Escobar.

Filmmaker David Whitney, creator of a new documentary, Kill Escobar (Kill Escobar), was responsible for telling the story of this mercenary and how the man negotiated to get to the Hacienda in Naples and thus attempt to kill the Colombian drug dealer.

Whitney described McAleese as a “Complex man”, He grew up in Glasgow’s Riddrie neighborhood, in the shadow of Barlinnie Prison, where his father, “A very hard and violent man”, as the man described it, some time has passed.

According to McAleese himself, in the documentary,

“I was trained to kill by the army but the fighting instinct came from Glasgow, I left the city, I joined the army at 17 to find a way to channel my aggressiveness, I enlisted in the parachute regiment and then became a member. 22nd SAS regiment ”, he assured.

He served in Borneo with the SAS, where he fought in a war in the British jungle. In 1969 he decided to withdraw from the British army and from that moment he was adrift, moving from one job to another, “Leaving the army was the worst decision I made, I couldn’t fit in anywhere, I felt lonely and my aggression got worse, to the point that they put me in jail for having assaulted my girlfriend. “

Upon his release from prison, McAleese decided to become a hitman in the civil war in Angola and later Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), as well as South Africa. According to him, he needed violence to be able to feel alive.

There he met Dave Tomkins in Angola in 1976. Tomkins was no ordinary soldier who was corrupt and sold weapons.

The two began to work together and it was Tomkims himself who offered McAleese the mission to participate in the mission to kill Escobar. Jorge Salcedo, one of the Cali Cartel members, was in charge of coordinating Escobar’s assassination plan, it was Salcedo who hired Tomkins and asked him to recruit a British team to carry out the mission.

“They are not asking you to assassinate Pablo Escobar unless you have the required experience,” said McAleese… He had no moral conflict about his murder. I never considered it murder. I saw him as a target, ”said McAleese.

The Cali Cartel believed that Escobar could be assassinated at the Hacienda Napoles, they said it was easier to do it that way. This is how McAleese landed in Medellín and flew over the hacienda to recognize the place and thus plan where to enter to kill the leader of the Medellín cartel.

Tomkins recruited a team of 12 mercenaries, Jorge Salcedo helped them go through customs checks and the Cali Cartel funded his days in Colombia, each of the men received US $ 5,000 per month plus expenses, but Tomkins charged 1 US $ 000 per day.

When the men arrived they stayed in the town of Cali, from there they moved a farm in a rural area where they received a large arsenal weapons.

“It was like Christmas. Everything we needed in terms of weapons was there, we all worked hard and trained for combat, but only Tomkins and I knew the target was Pablo Escobar … when we confessed we were in made in Colombia to kill the most dangerous man there is. world, one of the band members decided to go home. He sold his story to newspapers, but did not reveal names or provide details of the transaction, ”says McAleese

As part of the plan to attack Escobar, two helicopters were to be used to fly into Hacienda Napoles, where the men were to pass through Escobar’s safety, killing all the men guarding it. The idea was that after killing them and hitting Escobar, rip off his head and wear it like a trophy.

When the men were informed that Escobar was at the hacienda, they left by helicopter, but they never arrived at the scene.

The helicopter carrying McAleese and Tomkins crashed into the Andes, he and his companions were left alive but the pilot was killed. In McAleese’s case, he was very badly injured and couldn’t escape with his companions, so he spent three days lying on the mountain promising God to get them out of there.

By this time, Escobar was already aware of the Cali cartel plan and sent his men to find the army that was going to assassinate him.

“If Pablo had caught me I would have had a long, prolonged and painful death, instead I escaped and tried to keep the promises I made to God while I was lying on it. the side of the mountain, I was a dirty, shameless man; trash. I had to go through this to change, ”McAleese said.

The man escaped the jungle and returned home, now, according to his account, he has recovered from the rage and laid down his weapons.

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