SAS veteran sent to kill Pablo Escobar is coming to Hereford

In 1989 a team, led by Peter McAleese, travelled to the criminal empire of the world's biggest drug baron in order to assassinate him.

The operation was known as Operation Phoenix.

The attack plan involved two helicopters flying into the compound at Hacienda Napoles as the mercenaries shot their way through Escobar's massive security operation to kill the drug lord.

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The helicopter carrying him crashed as it flew low through the clouds over the Andes, killing the pilot.

The mission would end up being called off.

He had received serious injuries to his ribs and lay near the crash site for three days whilst his men searched for help.

Ahead of his speaking tour across the country Mr McAleese spoke to the Paul Stansby podcast on video sharing platform YouTube about the mission.

He said "The team had trained for 11 weeks prior we had dry runs and rehearsals."

He spoke about how it ended up going wrong, with the helicopter they were travelling in getting caught in a so-called 'sucker hole', a small break in cloud cover followed by another pocket of cloud that caused the helicopter to crash in the Andes.

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He said: "I found myself thinking 'How did I get into this mess?'"

The events were told in the 2021 documentary film ‘Killing Escobar’.

Peter McAleese will be at HR4K in Rotherwas on Saturday, October 29.

For more information visit HR4K's Facebook page.