Narcos - Who was "Blackie" in real life?

The character "Blackie" is portrayed as one of the most trusted guys of Escobar. In this post I'll detail some information around the man I believe "Blackie" is based on. We know the show took many artistic liberties and there's the possibility of being a completely fictional character, with that said though, you'll learn about one of the most ruthless terrorist leaders inside the Medellín Cartel infrastructure.

Side note: Some may argue that "Blackie" was based on "El Negro Pabón". The latter was also a very close confidant of Pablo but since he was killed by the Cali Cartel in 1988 I don't think it makes much sense. Pabón was one of the reasons why the war between Medellín vs Calí started, some versions also claim that at the end he was becoming very close to the Cali Cartel but Pacho Herrera decided to kill him but it if it wasn't for this Pablo would kim him anyway. But anyway, story for another time.

Moving ahead...

Brancys Alexander Muñoz Mosquera - "Tyson" - (supposedly had this alias due to his resemblance to the GOAT Mike Tyson), was a terrorist leader inside the Medellín Cartel's infrastructure. Tyson headed most of his criminal groups in the barrio Castilla in Medellín but had control and connections with other combos in the city and other municipalities. Numerous groups of 'pistoleros' and chiefs of combos worked under his wing. Some of the most known ones are La Quica, Tilton, Emilio (all his brothers) La Chepa, Ñato, Tigre, Diablo and many others.

Originally, Brancys, La Quica, Tílton and other 'trabajadores' from their associated gangs worked under orders of a man called "Chiruza", an extremely important member of the cartel who controlled many operations for Escobar. Examples: assignments of 'works' for gangs, organization of groups of escorts for connected members of the cartel when they were in regions of interest, coordination of payouts and more. After the death of "Chiruza", most of the leaders of sicarios that provided "services" started controlling more independently their groups and answering to other important leaders of the cartel or directly to Pablo.

Tyson's personality was described to be a chipper and friendly person, the same with his brother "Tílton" who also was had an advantaged body build, and "La Chepa", worker who was deep tied with the brothers and controlled some combos of 'pillos' in the Castilla neighborhood. "La Quica" however based on many testimonies, was believed to be "malacaroso"(grotesque). Tyson and others are believed to have taken "lessons" from the Israeli mercenary Yair Klein, who trained paramilitaries/sicarios for Rodríguez Gacha as well as other terrorism alike activities with other shady figures.

Tyson's family was quite big. More than 10 brothers and sisters. His parents were strongly religious, a cultural tradition in the majority of families in Colombia. In the neighborhood, football matches after mass and helping the community was one of the things they used to do when he and his group weren't killing or putting bombs in different districts.

After the bombing of Monaco building where the Cali Cartel almost killed Pablo's wife and children, the offensive response was brutal from Medellín. Along with other jefes, he coordinated many actions for the Cartel. Some examples are the attack in hacienda Los Cocos, situated some kilometers away from Cali. The sicarios entered the hacienda killing anything that moved. 19 people were slaughtered. This attack is shown in "Narcos" when Pacho Herrera was playing football and is surprised by Pablo's hitmen. There were ex-members from "América de Cali" coordinating the team "Los Pachos" who were playing a friendly match. Supposedly, Pacho and Gilberto Rodríguez would attend to this event.

There's also a supposed story regarding one day, the most important chiefs of sicarios went to Cali and managed to locate all the bosses having lunch in a restaurant. Tyson and "Enchufe"(other chief of sicarios) entered the restaurant as locals, had lunch there, looked over the place as normal citizens. However, they didn't killed them at that place because Pablo wanted to use a car bomb to kill all of the Cali bosses, something they couldn't arrange at that time. This is a supposed version, while I've heard more than one people say it, I wouldn't count much on its veracity.

Beyond, there were many bomb attacks in Cali attacking Miguel and Gilberto's business such as pharmacies, radios, banks etc... F. Helmer Herrera (Pacho) almost got his fate sealed in these attempts, but managed to survive.

It is said that Tyson controlled some 'oficinas' in Cali where they would organize the attacks and bombings targeting the capos from that area.

After Pablo's "surrender", Tyson and other chiefs who hadn't turned themselves in controlled Medellín. If a gang wanted to do something, the maximum leaders of the combos needed to be on pair with it. The Police suffered because there weren't much information about these guys. Even in the documents used by the DEA, CIA the scarcity of information was very evident. In the case of Tyson, he was known by the police since the late 80's, however they often confused his name and the brothers. Ex: Called him "Francys" or confused "Tilton" with him and so on.

Lack of resources and the insane infrastructure the cartel had made it difficult for the law. But he was already a feared criminal. When intelligence agencies identified his presence in Bogotá, Cali or anywhere else the newspaper would often have headlines like:

"Tyson is in Bogotá coordinating terrorism for Escobar!"

"Tyson was seen in Cali with a group of sicarios"

When Pablo escaped he decided to build another terrorist offensive against the government/people. The Colombian police had seized numerous hideouts in Cali loaded with guns and hidden dynamite, all of them based on their investigations were linked to Tyson. In Medellín, Brancys also put a lot of bombs targeting different agencies/business etc...

With the appearance of "Los Pepes" and the vital persecution done by them alongside the Colombian agencies, many strikes were done in the Cartel's terrorist wings. With key members forced to surrender, gunned down and the utilization of reward posters/commercials it started to get more difficult for certain members to fly low unrecognized.

The Police was already following Tyson's steps very closely although he always managed to find a way to escape. In one occasion, the police set up a gigantic operation after intercepting calls from Tyson's mother talking to him when he said he would visit her. With hundreds of undercover officers and teams closing routes, they monitored the house the whole day and had no success. The day after, in another intercepted call they were heard talking and his mother was very grateful that he went to visit her. It is unknown how did he manage to pass by the insane amount of surveillance in the neighborhood.

In the October of 1992 one citizen called the Police pointing the location of Tyson. The agencies organized a team and surrounded the house where he was hiding. After exploding dynamite on the door, the Police tried to advance but Tyson fired many shots with an MP5. As he was trying to escape through the back door he was gunned down. They had trouble identifying him due to him being overweight and losing a finger in the battle, according to the police he had the appearance of a Chinese person, but it was later confirmed. The informant received an equivalent reward of U$ 120.000, an insane amount for that time.

"We know that the version of the police is a lie, we know that he was tortured and ratted by the women who were with him at that night. Brancy was debilitated due to an accident that he suffered a few months earlier, he had to move with a wheelchair and they abused him." said one of his sisters.

The cartel responded with murders of officers, the bounty hunting season that was already reopened by Escobar was in full force filled with anger by people close to Tyson. His brother Tílton took the management of gangs and operations but the power had been reduced with his death.

Paul Daniel "Tílton" ended up sold by his own men, tortured and killed by Los Pepes a few months later.

Herethere's a few images of Tyson, Tílton, La Chepa and La Quica(a bit NSFW).

edits: grammar reviews and additional information added.