Colombia Drug Cartel Mercenaries

Ryan Ross:

[00:00:30] This is the heart of cocaine country in Colombia. And when these pictures were taken, this was a luxurious hide out for the drug bosses, a place they called Fantasy Island. On this day on Fantasy Island, a boat load of prostitutes were sent in by the drug bosses to entertain at a party for some very important foreign guests. The guests, 10 highly paid British and Australian mercenaries and experts in assassinations and explosives led by a former British Special Forces Sergeant Major, Peter MacLeish and all brought to Colombia to work for the cocaine cartel. This video tape was purchased by NBC news from one of the mercenaries who made the tape and smuggled it out of Colombia.

Ryan Ross: [00:01:00]

[00:01:30] The next day, the prostitutes were sent back to the mainland and the smuggled tape shows the mercenaries at work, teaching units of Colombia's drug army how to kill using the sophisticated weapons and equipment the drug bosses had bought in great quantity. The drug assassins were shown how to use Israeli and American made night vision goggles. There was a class on how to fire a rifle grenade launcher, similar to the kind used in recent attacks on the American embassy in Bogotá. And at a cocaine processing lab deep in the jungle near the border with Ecuador, former Sergeant Major MacLeish taught the drug soldiers how to set up grenade booby traps to stop any Colombian or American drug agents who might come here.

Ryan Ross:

[00:02:00] This is the mercenary who took the pictures in Colombia, Terry Tangney, an Australian who talked with NBC news last week in London. Tangney says he and the other men were told they were going to Colombia to help fight communist guerrillas, but soon realised they were working for the drug bosses.

Terry Tangney: The guy who was employing us, Mr. Escobar was wanted, it was on the front page of the El Tiempo.

Ryan Ross: At the end, did it bother you that the people who were paying were the Medellín Cartel bosses?

Terry Tangney: I'd never really given it much thought, you know?

[00:02:30]

Ryan Ross: Tangney was not allowed to have his camera out when the drug bosses were around, but he was able to get pictures of the son of one of the drug bosses, Rodriguez Gacha. The son, called Freddy, has since been arrested by Colombian police.

Ryan Ross:

[00:03:00] When the mercenaries were working near Ecuador, Tangney was able to get pictures of the boats bringing barrels of raw coca from Ecuador up the San Miguel river to processing plants in Colombia. And when Colombian police came looking for the mercenaries, they were able to escape on a private cargo plane provided by the drug bosses. According to Tangney, with help from the Colombian Military.

Terry Tangney: They always had someone from the Colombian army with us at all times as an interpreter, guide and just keeping an eye on us.

Ryan Ross:

[00:03:30] Colombian and American authorities say the mercenaries, the British, the Australians and before them the Israelis have trained the very men who are responsible for much of the killing and the bombing in Colombia in the last several months. The mercenaries were told this 14 year old boy had already killed three Colombian officials when these pictures were taken.

Ryan Ross: One of the final scenes of the mercenary's tape is pay day in a Bogotá hotel room, as each man counted his cash, all American $10 bills. In all, the mercenaries were each paid $20,000 for three months work, teaching the men and the boys of the drug armies how to be better killers.

Ryan Ross: Ryan Ross, NBC news, London.