Jungla's on NatGeo

ron_m80

ron_m80

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Natural Geographic showing an AWESOME documentary on the Jungla's on my DTV, the show is called "Shadow Soldiers" something other.

seeing them working you get a much better idea of why you'd want to run when these guys helo's were inbound. :)

Edit: I should have known it was dramatized, they had me for a minute :(
 
NatGeo was down a few weeks before us doing a similar mission. Also Ollie North was down 2 weeks before us doing a piece. You should be able to catch Ollie's piece on FOX sometime soon. I haven't seen any of the pieces yet, but I can assure you these guys are very high-speed. You don't want them coming after you. They have been trained by some of the best in the business and carrying the best gear money can buy. High speed all the way.
 
I'm watching it now. Colonel Ruiz was on our op also, as was some of the American agents shown (and some not shown). Almost exactly the same as the op we did. 2 Blackhawks, method of flying security, securing the LZ, and some techniques they didn't elaborate on.

One note about labs that most folks don't know: A lot of times informants come forth and say it's an HCL lab but it will be a base lab only. If it's an HCL lab (making pure cocaine) it will always have microwave ovens at the lab. That's one of the questions that is now asked to any informant when they come forth saying they know where a lab is. Naturally, base labs are not as important as HCL labs.

The HCL lab we hit was huge, and operating. DEA said it was one of the bigger ones they have hit this year.
 
R.A.T. said:
I'm watching it now. Colonel Ruiz was on our op also, as was some of the American agents shown (and some not shown). Almost exactly the same as the op we did. 2 Blackhawks, method of flying security, securing the LZ, and some techniques they didn't elaborate on.

One note about labs that most folks don't know: A lot of times informants come forth and say it's an HCL lab but it will be a base lab only. If it's an HCL lab (making pure cocaine) it will always have microwave ovens at the lab. That's one of the questions that is now asked to any informant when they come forth saying they know where a lab is. Naturally, base labs are not as important as HCL labs.

The HCL lab we hit was huge, and operating. DEA said it was one of the bigger ones they have hit this year.
Click to expand...

The crazy part i think you might have missed, they had a CIA field officer out telling him how the civilians destroy the crops, and they have to deal with IED's, they lost 1200 (?) civilian crop destroyers, in a few months after the program started, the Jungla's have to provide cover for them, with what cover on those hillsides?

EDIT: Wait I can't believe i just thought you missed something. You were there.
 
You should see some of the IEDs these narco are using. Manual Eradication is one of the most dangerous things you can do there. It's a freakin' war zone there and most folks don't even know about it.
 
Now I see why i thought it was real, (they re-ran the same episode an hour after the first) they had a dramatized dude dressed out in casualty dressings, and the medics actually inserted IV needles and bags into his arm. I thought they really got hit when filming.

But yeah, that has got to be one rough job.
 
R.A.T. said:
You should see some of the IEDs these narco are using. Manual Eradication is one of the most dangerous things you can do there. It's a freakin' war zone there and most folks don't even know about it.
Click to expand...

They probably made homemade explosives and detonators in the same labs they were making drugs in. Alot of the equipment, and sometimes even additives, are the same. It probably isn't hard to find military explosive on the black market there either. I wouldn't doubt the IEDs there are pretty ridiculous.
 
This is a mock up of one of the mines that they find a lot of around coca fields. Simple pressure mine made in a Pepsi can with explosive compound, ball bearings, detonator, battery and a simple electronic switch. They use both NO and NC switches and circuitry depending on what they're using the mine for. A 6 year-old kid could build one of these simple devices and they are extremely deadly.

pressuremine.jpg
 
That CIA field agent they called chris said the most demoralizing one for the eradicators was they would plant the coca on top of a pile of explosives, and when they uproot the plant they pull the pin. So i guess someone has to go in and actaully sweep those enourmous hillsides before they go to work.

The gringo in me has taken over in the years since i was in Cuba. I forgot that Jungla's would be pronounced Hungla's, So at least i got their name right now. :)

It was nice to see we are actually (maybe?) cleaning up some of our mess from the cold war, though I bet we could have helped them do it faster. At least we are still supporting them in some ways.
 
it's so easy to do, too. All it takes is a mouse trap for a trigger device, or even just a grenade with the pin pulled...
 
According to the guide on Direct TV it should be on the NGC channel tonight( Sun.) at 5pm, I'm really looking foward to watching this!
 
I thought it was a great show,one thing that caught my attention that I never thought of before were the locals who basically have no other means of income but to grow for the cartel's. It's a real shame.
Those guy's(jungla) are hard core! You could really tell the SAS guy's concern about landing on that hillside with the blades so close to the bank. I would be scared shitless.
 
Finally caught this today on NatGeo. Thanks for the heads up.

Yeah... landing those Blackhawks on those hillsides is nutso. He definitely needed some fresh underwear after that by the look on his face.

And they said they originally had 138 and now are down to 86 people. Is that because it is hard to find people good enough or because they can't get enough interest and funding? Or both?
 
On any given day there is an average of 600 Junglas in three separate companies. Training is 4 1/2 months long.
 
Our pilots landed our Blackhawks in a field with power lines within 50 foot of the blades. I was freakin' amazed. They just laugh about it. Those guys are good.
 
ron_m80 said:
That CIA field agent they called chris said the most demoralizing one for the eradicators was they would plant the coca on top of a pile of explosives, and when they uproot the plant they pull the pin. So i guess someone has to go in and actaully sweep those enourmous hillsides before they go to work.
Click to expand...

Didn't they say they only are able to sweep a fraction of the time? Too much ground to cover. And 60 days on, 15 days off is crazy. Makes me wonder how long they can keep that up before finding a surprise under one of the plants, getting mowed down on an open hillside by gunfire, or just going nuts.

R.A.T. said:
On any given day there is an average of 600 Junglas in three separate companies. Training is 4 1/2 months long.
Click to expand...

Ah. I must have confused the context. Perhaps it was just that unit at that particular time when the filming was done.
 
The Jungla numbers have risen since their beginning. Not sure when that documentary was done.
 
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