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{{Short description|Colombian special operations unit}}
{{redirect|Bloque de búsqueda|the TV series|Bloque de búsqueda (TV series)}}
{{more citations needed|date=March 2013}}
[[File:Death_of_Pablo_Escobar.jpg|thumb|right|300px|Members of Colonel Martinez's Search Bloc celebrate over [[Pablo Escobar]]'s body on December 2, 1993. Escobar's death ended a sixteen-month effort that cost hundreds of millions of dollars.]]
{{Colombian National Police}}
The '''Search Bloc''' ({{langx|es|Bloque de Búsqueda}}) is the name of three different [[ad hoc]] [[special operations]] units of the [[National Police of Colombia]] (Policía Nacional de Colombia). They were originally organized with a focus on capturing or killing highly dangerous individuals or groups of individuals.<ref>Killing Pablo, Mark Bowden, Atlantic Monthly Press, 2001, {{ISBN|978-1-84354-651-1}}</ref>

==First Search Bloc==
The original Search Bloc was created in 1986 by [[President of Colombia|President]] [[Virgilio Barco]] with the sole objective of [[arrest|apprehending]] drug lord [[Pablo Escobar]] and his associates. Its original commander was Colonel [[Hugo Martínez (police officer)|Hugo Martinez]].<ref>Killing Pablo, Mark Bowden, Atlantic Monthly Press, 2009, {{ISBN|978-1-84354-651-1}}</ref><ref name="PBS1">{{cite news|url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/drugs/archive/godfathercocaine.html |date=March 25, 1997 |title=The Godfather of Cocaine |work=Frontline (#1309)|publisher=PBS |author=Cran, William |author2=Tepper, Stephanie}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Carlos Castaño Gil – TRIAL International|url=https://trialinternational.org/fr/latest-post/carlos-castano-gil/|website=trialinternational.org|publication-date=|access-date=2020-09-27|archive-date=2016-07-08|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160708235551/https://trialinternational.org/fr/latest-post/carlos-castano-gil/}}</ref>

Over 600 Search Bloc members received [[training]] from the Colombian army and were specially selected to be impervious to [[police corruption]] from the [[Drug cartel#Colombia|drug cartel]]s. Throughout its mission, Search Bloc faced many obstacles, including a [[spy]] within the group. There were claims that the Search Bloc collaborated with anti-Escobar [[vigilante]] groups such as [[Los Pepes]], including vigilantism in the suspicious deaths of Escobar's subordinates.

Escobar was killed on December 2, 1993, in a shootout with members of the Search Bloc.<ref>Killing Pablo, Mark Bowden, Atlantic Monthly Press, 2009, {{ISBN|978-1-84354-651-1}}</ref>

After dismantling the [[Medellin Cartel|Medellín Cartel]], the Search Bloc was transferred to [[Cali]] to locate and shut down the [[Cali Cartel]].

==Second Search Bloc==
The Search Bloc was revived in 2004 to root out cocaine and heroin traffickers in southwest Colombia. The new Search Bloc was tasked with taking apart the [[Norte del Valle Cartel|Norte del Valle cartel]] and arresting its leader, [[Diego León Montoya Sánchez]], which it did successfully in 2007.

==Third Search Bloc==
In 2007, the Colombian government again ordered the creation of a new Search Bloc against the [[The Black Eagles|Águilas Negras]], or Black Eagles, classified as a gang of former paramilitaries.<ref name=COLARMY>[http://www.ejercito.mil.co/index.php?idcategoria=192687 Captured nine presumed members of the Águilas Negras] [[Colombian Army]] Accessed 20 August 2007.</ref>

==In popular culture==
The original Search Bloc was featured prominently in the [[Netflix]] original series ''[[Narcos (TV series)|Narcos]]'', which portrays the rise and fall of Pablo Escobar. In the series, the Search Bloc is headed by a character named Colonel Horacio Carrillo, who critics have claimed is loosely based on [[Hugo Martínez (police officer)|Colonel Hugo Martínez]]; however, Martínez is introduced as a separate character in Season 2.

The Search Bloc was also the subject of a Colombian miniseries named ''[[Bloque de búsqueda (TV series)|Bloque de Busqueda]]'', the Spanish translation of Search Bloc. The show was broadcast in the United States by [[Univision]]'s sister network, [[UniMás]].

==See also==
*[[Pablo Escobar]]
*[[La Catedral]]
*[[Los Pepes]]

== References ==
{{reflist}}

== External links ==
* [[Mark Bowden]], ''[[Killing Pablo (book)|Killing Pablo]]'' (a copy of Bowden's serial articles in ''The Philadelphia Inquirer'' is available here: [https://web.archive.org/web/20090519052356/http://www.freedomtoexhale.com/kp.htm])
* [http://www.janes.com/articles/Janes-Terrorism-And-Security-Monitor-2004/COLOMBIA--COLOMBIA-has-revived-its-cartel-busting-Search-Bloc-police-unit.html Jane's Jane's Terrorism & Security Monitor March 01, 2004]

{{South America topic|Law enforcement in}}
{{Colombia conflict}}
{{Colombia topics|state=collapsed}}

[[Category:1992 establishments in Colombia]]
[[Category:Manhunts]]
[[Category:Medellín Cartel]]
[[Category:National Police of Colombia]]