Pablo Escobar
Spanish Pablo Emilio Escobar Gaviria
Birth name: Pablo Emilio Escobar Gaviria
Occupation: Drug lord
Date of birth: December 1, 1949
Place of birth: Rionegro, Colombia
Nationality: Colombia
Date of death: December 2, 1993
Place of Death: Medellin, Colombia
Pablo Emilio Escobar Gaviria(Spanish: Pablo Emilio Escobar Gaviria; December 1, 1949 - December 2, 1993) - Colombian drug lord, terrorist. Pablo Escobar made a lot of money from the drug business. In 1989, Forbes magazine estimated his fortune at $47 billion.
Escobar went down in history as one of the most daring and brutal criminals of the 20th century, not only in Colombia, but throughout the whole world. Killing judges, prosecutors, journalists, destroying civil aircraft, police stations and personally executing his victims, he was popular among young people and the poor.
early years
Born on December 1, 1949, 40 kilometers from Medellin. Escobar was the third child in the family. His father was a poor peasant, his mother also came from the lower classes.
Like most of his peers, Pablo Escobar loved to listen heroic stories about the legendary Colombian "bandidos". About how they robbed the rich and helped the needy. Already as a child, he decided that when he grew up, he would become the same “Bandido”. At school, Pablo had to study among children from poorer families. In 1961, his family moved to Envigado, south of Medellin. There Pablo went to study at local school. He soon began smoking marijuana and was kicked out of school at age 16.
Start of criminal activity
Pablo began to spend most of his time in the poor neighborhoods of Medellin, which was a real hotbed of crime. At first, he began to steal tombstones from the local cemetery and, erasing the inscriptions, sold them again. Soon he created a small gang and began to engage in a more sophisticated crime: the theft of expensive cars for sale for spare parts. Then Pablo Escobar came up with another idea: to offer his “protection” to potential hijacking victims. Those who refused to pay his gang sooner or later lost their cars. This was already a real racket.
At 21, he already had quite a few followers. At the same time, Escobar's crimes became even more sophisticated and cruel. From ordinary car thefts and racketeering, he started kidnapping. In 1971, Pablo Escobar's men kidnapped the wealthy Colombian industrialist Diego Echevario, who was killed after prolonged torture. The murdered Diego Echevario aroused open hatred among the local poor peasantry, and Pablo Escobar openly declared his involvement in the kidnapping and murder. The poor people of Medellin celebrated the death of Diego Echevario and, as a sign of gratitude to Escobar, began to respectfully call him “El Doctor.” Pablo Escobar began to “feed” the local poor by building them new cheap houses. He understood that sooner or later they would become something of a protective buffer between him and the authorities. His popularity in Medellin grew day by day.
In 1972, Pablo Escobar was already Medellin's most famous crime lord. His criminal group was involved in car thefts, smuggling and kidnappings. Soon his gang expanded beyond Medellin.
Meanwhile, in the United States, the new generation of Americans of the 70s was no longer content with just marijuana, they needed a stronger drug, and cocaine soon appeared on American streets. On this Pablo Escobar began to build his criminal business. He first bought cocaine from manufacturers and resold it to smugglers, who then transported it to the United States. The absolute absence of any “inhibitions” and his manic readiness to torture and kill set him apart from other bandits. When he heard rumors of some profitable criminal business, he, without unnecessary ceremony, simply seized it by force. Anyone who stood in his way or could in any way threaten him immediately disappeared without a trace. Quite quickly, Escobar began to run almost the entire cocaine industry in Colombia.
In March 1976, Pablo Escobar married his 18-year-old girlfriend, Maria Victoria Eneo Viejo, who had previously been in his circle. A month later their son Juan Pablo was born, and three and a half years later their daughter Manuella was born.
Escobar's drug business grew rapidly throughout South America. Soon he himself began smuggling cocaine into the United States. One of Escobar’s close associates, a certain Carlos Leider, who was responsible for transporting cocaine, organized a real drug trafficking transshipment point in the Bahamas. Its work was organized at the highest level: a large pier, a number of gas stations and a modern hotel with all amenities were built there. Not a single drug trafficker could export cocaine outside of Colombia without the permission of Pablo Escobar. He removed the so-called 35 percent tax from each shipment of drugs and ensured its delivery. Escobar's criminal career was more than successful; he was literally swimming in dollars. In the jungles of Colombia, he opened chemical laboratories for the production of cocaine.
Founding of the cocaine cartel
In the summer of 1977, he and three other major drug traffickers teamed up to create what became known as the Medellin cocaine cartel. He had the most powerful financial and cocaine empire, which no drug mafia in the world could dream of. To deliver cocaine, the cartel had a distribution network, airplanes, and even submarines. Pablo Escobar became the undisputed authority of the cocaine world and the absolute leader of the Medellin cartel. He bought policemen, judges, politicians. If bribery did not work, then blackmail was used, but basically the cartel acted according to the principle: “Plata O Plomo” - translated as “silver or lead”, in other words, “if you don’t take the money, you’ll get a bullet.”
By 1979, the Medellin cartel already owned more than 80% of the US cocaine industry. 30-year-old Pablo Escobar became one of the richest people in the world, whose personal fortune amounted to billions of dollars.
To enlist the support of the population, he launched extensive construction in Medellin. He paved roads, built stadiums and erected free houses for the poor, which were popularly called “Pablo Escobar quarters.” He himself explained his charity by the fact that it hurt him to see how the poor suffered. Escobar saw himself as a Colombian Robin Hood.
Political activity
Propaganda posters presidential campaign Escobar.
In the criminal world, he reached the pinnacle of power. Now he was looking for a way to make his business legal. In 1982, Pablo Escobar ran for office and, at age 32, became a substitute member of the Colombian Congress (gaining the right to vote for congressmen during their absence).
Having broken into Congress, Escobar dreamed of becoming president of Colombia. At the same time, once in Bogota, he noticed that his popularity did not extend beyond Medellin. In Bogota, naturally, they heard about him, but as a dubious person paving a cocaine road to the presidency. One of the most popular politicians in Colombia, the main candidate for the presidency, Luis Carlos Galan, was the first to openly condemn the connection of the new congressman with the cocaine business.
A few days later, Justice Minister Rodrigo Lara Bonia launched a broad campaign against the investment of dirty cocaine money in the election race. As a result, Pablo Escobar was expelled from the Colombian Congress in January 1984. Through the efforts of the Minister of Justice his political career disappeared once and for all. However, Escobar was not going to leave quietly and decided to take revenge on the minister.
On April 30, 1984, Bonia's ministerial Mercedes stopped at a traffic light on one of Bogota's busiest streets. At that moment, an approaching motorcyclist shot at point-blank range with a machine gun. back Mercedes, where the Minister of Justice usually sat. An automatic burst literally blew off the head of Rodrigo Lara Bonia. This is the first time that bandits have killed such a high-ranking official in Colombia. From that day on, terror began to spread throughout Colombia.
In the mid-1980s, Escobar's cocaine empire controlled almost every aspect of Colombian society. However, a serious threat looms over him. The administration of US President Ronald Reagan declared its own war on drug trafficking not only in the United States, but throughout the world. An agreement was reached between the United States and Colombia, according to which the Colombian government pledged to hand over to American justice the cocaine barons involved in trafficking drugs to the United States.
This was done because if drug traffickers were in any Colombian prison, they could, as before, continue to run their gangs without hindrance directly from their places of detention and would very soon be free. As for extradition to the United States, the drug traffickers understood that they would not be able to buy their freedom there.
The drug mafia responded with terror to the total war started by the government. Pablo Escobar created a terrorist group called Los Extraditables. Its members attacked officials, police, and anyone who opposed the drug trade. The reason for the terrorist attack could have been a major police operation or the extradition of another cocaine mafia boss to the United States.
A year later, the Supreme Court overturned the agreement on the extradition of drug traffickers to the United States. However, after a few days new president Colombia's Vergilio Barco vetoed the Supreme Court's decision and reinstated the agreement. In February 1987, Escobar's closest assistant, Carlos Leider, was extradited to the United States.
Pablo Escobar was forced to build secret hideouts throughout the country. Thanks to information from his people in the government, he managed to stay one step ahead of law enforcement agencies. In addition, the peasants always warned him when suspicious people, cars with policemen or soldiers, or a helicopter appeared.
In 1989, Pablo Escobar again tried to make a deal with justice. He agreed to surrender to the police if the government would guarantee that he would not be extradited to the United States. The authorities refused. Escobar responded to this refusal with terror.
In August 1989, the terror reached its peak. On August 16, 1989, Supreme Court member Carlos Valencia died at the hands of Escobar's hitmen. The next day, police Colonel Waldemar Franklin Contero was killed. On August 18, 1989, at a pre-election rally, the famous Colombian politician Luis Carlos Galan was shot, who promised, if elected president of the country, to start an irreconcilable war against cocaine traffickers, to cleanse Colombia of drug lords by extraditing them to the United States.
Before the elections, the terror of the Medellin cartel acquired a special scope. Cartel hitmen killed dozens of people every day. In Bogota alone, one of the terrorist drug mafia groups carried out 7 explosions within two weeks, as a result of which 37 people were killed and about 400 were seriously injured.
On November 27, 1989, Pablo Escobar's men planted a bomb on a Boeing 727 passenger plane of the Colombian airline Avianca, which was carrying 101 passengers and 6 crew members. Successor of the deceased Luis Carlos Galan, future president Colombia, César Gaviria Trujillo, was supposed to fly on this plane. Five minutes after the airliner took off, a sound was heard on board. powerful explosion. The plane broke in half, caught fire and crashed into the nearby hills. None of the people on board survived; three people on the ground were killed by falling aircraft debris. As it turned out later, Cesar Gaviria canceled his flight at the last moment for some reason.
Massive raids swept across the country, during which chemical laboratories and coca plantations were destroyed. Dozens of drug cartel members are behind bars. In response to this, Pablo Escobar twice attempted to assassinate the head of the Colombian secret police, General Miguel Masa Marquez. In the second attempt, on December 6, 1989, a bomb explosion killed 62 people and injured 100 of varying degrees of severity.
...By the early 90s, Pablo Escobar was considered one of the richest people on the planet. His fortune was estimated at at least $30 billion. He topped the list of the most wanted drug traffickers in the United States. On his heels invariably followed the most elite special forces, which set themselves the task of catching or destroying Pablo Escobar at any cost.
Harassment and arrest
In 1990, just the mention of Pablo Escobar's name struck terror throughout Colombia. He was the most famous criminal in the world. The government created a “Special Search Group” whose target was Pablo Escobar himself. The group included the best police officers from selected units, as well as people from the army, special services and the prosecutor's office.
The creation of the “Special Search Group,” headed by Colonel Martinez, immediately brought positive results. Several people from Pablo Escobar's inner circle found themselves behind the walls of the secret police.
Escobar's men kidnapped some of Colombia's richest people. Pablo Escobar hoped that influential relatives of the hostages would put pressure on the government to cancel the agreement on the extradition of the criminals. And ultimately Escobar's plan succeeded. The government canceled the extradition of Pablo Escobar. On June 19, 1991, after Pablo Escobar was no longer in danger of extradition to the United States, he surrendered to the authorities. Escobar agreed to plead guilty to several minor crimes, in exchange for all his past sins being forgiven. Pablo Escobar was in a prison that he built for himself.
The prison was called "La Catedral" and was built in the Envigado mountain range. La Catedral looked more like an expensive, prestigious country club than an ordinary prison. There was a disco, a swimming pool, a jacuzzi and a sauna, and in the courtyard there was a large football field. Friends and women came to see him there. Escobar's family could visit him at any time. Colonel Martinez's "Special Search Group" did not have the right to approach La Catedral closer than 20 kilometers. Escobar came and went as he pleased. He attended football matches and nightclubs in Medellin.
During his imprisonment, Pablo Escobar continued to run a multi-billion dollar cocaine business. One day he learned that his associates in the cocaine cartel, taking advantage of his absence, robbed him. He immediately ordered his men to take them to La Catedral. He personally subjected them to unbearable torture, drilling his victims' knees and tearing out their nails, and then ordered his men to kill them and take the corpses outside the prison. It is known that Escobar committed one of the two murders with his own hands. This time Escobar went too far. On July 22, 1992, President Gaviria gave the order to transfer Pablo Escobar to a real prison. But Escobar found out about the president's decision and fled.
Now he was free, but he had enemies everywhere. There were fewer and fewer places left in which he could find a safe refuge. The US and Colombian governments this time were determined to put an end to Escobar and his Medellin cocaine cartel. After his escape from prison, everything began to fall apart. His friends began to leave him. Pablo Escobar's main mistake was that he could not critically assess the current situation. He considered himself a more significant figure than he actually was. He continued to have enormous financial capabilities, but he no longer had real power. The only way to somehow improve the situation was an attempt to renew the agreement with the government. Escobar tried several times to re-enter into a deal with justice, but President Cesar Gaviria and the US government believed that this time it was not worth entering into any negotiations with the drug lord. It was decided to pursue him and, if possible, eliminate him during his arrest.
On January 30, 1993, Pablo Escobar's men planted a powerful bomb in a car near a bookstore on one of the crowded streets of Bogota. The explosion occurred when there were a lot of people. Mostly these were parents with their children. As a result of this terrorist attack, 21 people were killed and more than 70 were seriously injured.
A group of Colombian citizens created the organization Los Pepes, whose acronym stood for “The People Victims of Pablo Escobar.” It included Colombian citizens whose relatives died because of Escobar.
After the terrorist attack, Los Pepes detonated bombs in front of Pablo Escobar's house. The estate that belonged to his mother burned to the ground. Instead of pursuing Pablo Escobar himself, Los Pepes began to terrorize and hunt everyone who was in any way connected with him or his cocaine business. They were simply killed. In a short amount of time, they caused significant damage to his cocaine empire. They killed many of his people and persecuted his family. They burned his estates. Now Escobar was seriously worried, since Los Pepes, having discovered the family, would immediately destroy it before last person, not even sparing his elderly mother and children. If his family were outside Colombia, beyond the reach of Los Pepes, he could declare all-out war on the government and his enemies. He wanted to take his family to Germany. But after negotiations between the Colombian government and US intelligence agencies with the German government, Escobar's family was denied entry into the country and the plane was returned back to Colombia. In Colombia, the government put them up in a hotel.
End of career and death
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Colombian police officers near Escobar's corpse.
In the fall of 1993, the Medellin cocaine cartel collapsed. But Pablo Escobar himself was more worried about his family. For more than a year he had not seen his wife or children. For Escobar this was intolerable. On December 1, 1993, Pablo Escobar turned 44 years old. He knew that he was under constant surveillance, so he tried to speak on the phone as briefly as possible so that he would not be detected by NSA agents.
The day after his birthday, December 2, 1993, he called his family. NSA agents had been waiting for this call for 24 hours. This time, while talking to his son Juan, he stayed on the line for about 5 minutes. After this, Escobar was spotted in the Medellin quarter of Los Olibos. Soon, the house in which Pablo Escobar was hiding was surrounded on all sides by special agents. The special forces knocked down the door and burst inside. At that moment, Escobar's bodyguard, El Limon, opened fire on the police who were trying to storm the house. He was wounded and fell to the ground. Immediately after this, with a pistol in his hands, Pablo Escobar himself leaned out of the same window. He opened random fire in all directions. He then climbed out the window and tried to escape his pursuers through the roof. There, a bullet fired by a Los Pepes sniper, who was hiding on the roof of a neighboring house, hit Escobar in the leg and he fell. The next bullet hit Escobar in the back, after which the sniper approached Escobar and fired a control shot in the head.
Now Escobar's prison has been looted, his estates are overgrown with grass, his cars are burned out and their skeletons are rusting in the garage. Escobar's widow and children live in Argentina; his brother is almost completely blind after a letter bomb was sent to his cell.
In works of art
Documentary by Jeff and Michael Zimbalist. The two Escobars; 2010; Colombia-USA. Enters the cycle documentaries 30 events from 30 years of ESPN.
In the feature film “The Crew” (USA, 2000), the drug lord’s two assistants are named Pablo and Escobar.
The film Cocaine (Blow) featured the character Pablo Escobar.
In the series Entourage, one of the main characters of the series, Vincent Chase (Adrian Graner), played the role of Pablo Escobar in the film Medellin, the film talked about the emotions and experiences of the main drug lord of Colombia.
In the repertoire of the Mexican group Brujeria, the album “Raza Odiada” (1995), there is a song “El Patron”, dedicated to the memory of Pablo Escobar.
IN computer games GTA Vice City and GTA Vice City Stories The international airport is named after Pablo Escobar.
In the game Xenus: Boiling point, the image of Pablo Escobar was “glued” to the image of one of the drug lords, Don Esteban.
In the feature film Marley and Me, Sebastian Tannay (Eric Dane) allegedly met with Pablo Escobar who told him: “Yes, he says, I read your article about Gaddafi, you did a great job tickling that peacock.”
Colombian writer Gabriel García Márquez, in his documentary thriller "News of a Kidnapping," tells the story of Pablo Escobar's struggle with the country's government to repeal the extradition law by kidnapping famous journalists and relatives of Colombian politicians.
In the album of the Russian rap group Bad Balance “Legends of Gangsters” there is a song “Pablo Escobar”.
In the repertoire of the American group Soulfly, the song Plata o Plomo from the album Enslaved is dedicated to the activities of Pablo Escobar.
The leader of the rock band Bredor goes by the nickname "Escobar".
Interesting Facts
Escobar owned 34 estates, 500 thousand hectares of land, 40 rare Rolls-Royce cars.
On Escobar's estate, 20 artificial lakes, six swimming pools were dug, and even a small airport was built.
Within his estate, Pablo Escobar ordered the construction of a safari zoo, which included 120 antelope, 30 buffalo, 6 hippopotamuses, 3 elephants and 2 rhinoceroses.
The son of a drug lord, Sebastian Marroquin, said in October 2009 that somehow, in Once again hiding from government agents, Escobar, along with his son and daughter, ended up in a high-altitude hideout. The night turned out to be extremely cold, and, trying to warm his daughter, Escobar burned $1 million 964 thousand in cash.
Pablo Escobar was depicted on a New Year's greeting advertising poster in the center of Kharkov (at the beginning of Pushkinskaya Street). Until now, no one has spoken openly about their involvement in placing the drug lord on this congratulatory poster.
In the movie Jay and Silent Bob, the crack dealer's name is Pablo Escobar.
Pablo Emilio Escobar Gaviria (Spanish) Pablo Emilio Escobar Gaviria), was born on December 1, 1949, in the town of Envigado, 40 km from Medellin and was shot dead on December 2, 1993, in the city of Bogota, in the Los Olibos region.
He was the third child in the family, his father was a poor peasant, his mother a school teacher. Like most of his peers, Pablo loved to listen to heroic stories about the legendary Colombian “banditos”, how they robbed the rich and helped the needy. Already as a child, he decided that when he grew up, he would become the same “banditos”. Who would have thought then that the innocent romantic dreams of a fragile, gentle boy would take the form of a nightmare in a couple of decades.
At Pablo's school, among children from poorer families, the students were dominated by extreme leftists Political Views He and his new schoolmates openly supported Cuban revolution which happened several years earlier. He soon became addicted to marijuana and was kicked out of school at age 16. From this age, Pablo began to commit crimes.
Pablo began to spend most of his time in the criminal areas of Medellin, which was a real hotbed of crime. At first, he began stealing tombstones from a local cemetery and, erasing the inscriptions, resold them again. Soon he created a small criminal gang of like-minded people and began to engage in a more sophisticated criminal trade - the theft of expensive cars for sale for spare parts. Then Pablo Escobar came up with another “brilliant” idea - to offer his “protection” to potential victims of theft. Those who refused to pay his gang sooner or later lost their cars. This was already a real racket.
At 21, he already had quite a few followers. At the same time, Escobar's crimes became even more sophisticated and cruel. From ordinary car thefts and racketeering, he started kidnapping. In 1971, Pablo Escobar's men kidnapped the wealthy Colombian industrialist Diego Echevario, who was killed after prolonged torture. This murder was never solved. The murdered Diego Echevario aroused open hatred among the local poor peasantry, and Pablo Escobar openly declared his involvement in the kidnapping and murder. The poor people of Medellin celebrated the death of Diego Echevario, and as a sign of gratitude to Escobar, they began to respectfully call him “El Doctor.” Pablo Escobar began to “feed” the local poor by building them new cheap houses. He understood that sooner or later they would become something of a protective buffer between him and the authorities, and his popularity in Medellin grew day by day.
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In 1972, Pablo Escobar was already Medellin's most famous crime boss. His criminal group was involved in car thefts, smuggling and kidnappings. Soon his gang expanded beyond Medellin.
Meanwhile, in the USA, the new generation of Americans of the 70s was no longer content with just marijuana, they needed a stronger high, and soon a new drug appeared on American streets - cocaine. On this Pablo Escobar began to build his criminal business. He first bought cocaine from manufacturers and resold it to smugglers, who then transported it to the United States. The absolute absence of any “brakes”, his willingness to torture and kill, put him beyond competition. When rumors reached him about some profitable criminal business, he, without unnecessary ceremony, simply seized it by force. Anyone who stood in his way or could in any way threaten him immediately disappeared without a trace. Soon Escobar controlled almost the entire cocaine industry in Colombia.
In March 1976, Pablo Escobar married his 15-year-old girlfriend, Maria Victoria Eneo Viejo, who had previously been in his circle. A month later their son Juan Pablo was born, and three and a half years later their daughter Manuella was born.
Pablo Escobar's drug business grew rapidly throughout South America. Soon he himself began smuggling cocaine into the United States. One of Escobar's close associates, a certain Carlos Leder, responsible for transporting cocaine, organized a real transshipment point in the Bahamas. The service was delivered at the highest level. A large pier, a number of gas stations and a modern hotel with all amenities were erected. Not a single drug trafficker could export cocaine outside of Colombia without the permission of Pablo Escobar. He removed the so-called 35% tax from each shipment of drugs and ensured its delivery. Escobar's criminal career was more than successful; he was literally swimming in dollars.
In the summer of 1977, he and three other major drug lords teamed up to create what became known as the Medellin cocaine cartel. He had the most powerful financial and cocaine empire, which no drug mafia in the world could dream of. To deliver cocaine, the cartel had a distribution network, airplanes, and even submarines. Pablo Escobar became the most indisputable authority in the cocaine world and the absolute leader of the Medellin cartel. He bought policemen, judges, politicians. If bribery did not work, then blackmail was used, but basically the cartel acted on the principle: “Pay or die.”
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By 1979, the Medellin cartel already owned more than 80% of the US cocaine industry. 30-year-old Pablo Escobar became one of the richest people in the world, whose personal fortune amounted to billions of dollars. Escobar had 34 estates, 500 thousand hectares of land, 40 rare cars. On Escobar's estate, 20 artificial lakes, six swimming pools were dug, and even a small airport with a runway was built. At times it seemed that the cocaine drug lord simply did not know what to do with the money. Within his estate, Pablo Escobar ordered the construction of a safari zoo, to which the most exotic animals were brought from all over the world. The zoo had 120 antelopes, 30 buffaloes, 6 hippos, 3 elephants and 2 rhinoceroses. brought the most beautiful girls from Colombia and not only, and where sexual orgies were held. Having such colossal funds, in a part of his estate hidden from prying eyes, Pablo Escobar created a harem in which he took more than 400 mistresses, who could actually be considered concubines. For them, Escobar built a real closed small town. Each mistress, among whom were local winners of beauty contests, fashion models, and actresses, had her own cottage with a swimming pool, all kinds of gazebos, fountains and other delights, the design and decoration was unlike any other. In the town itself there were real parks with artificial lakes, beaches, porticoes, in the shade of which Escobar loved to indulge in lovemaking. The eye was delighted by the white and black swans floating on the lake, and the naked dancers, who formed, as it were, a separate caste in this paradise, entertaining the owner with their fiery body movements. The girls lived in a harem no worse than the eastern Gurias. Each had a lot of gold jewelry and a chic wardrobe from the most fashionable couturiers. For his beloved favorites, the godfather ordered cosmetologists, massage therapists and hairdressers from Paris and Milan.
To enlist the support of the population, he launched extensive construction in Medellin. He paved roads, built stadiums and erected free houses for the poor, which were popularly called “Barrio Pablo Escobar”. He himself explained his charity by the fact that it hurt him to see how the poor suffered. Escobar saw himself as a Colombian Robin Hood.
In the criminal world, he reached the pinnacle of power. Now he was looking for a way to make his business legal. In 1982, Pablo Escobar ran for the Colombian Congress. And eventually, at age 32, he became a substitute member of the Colombian Congress. That is, he replaced congressmen during their absence.
Having broken into Congress, Escobar dreamed of becoming president of Colombia. At the same time, once in Bogota, he noticed that his popularity did not extend beyond Medellin. In Bogota they naturally heard about him, but as a dubious person paving a cocaine road to the presidency. One of Colombia's most popular politicians, the main candidate for the presidency, Luis Carlos Galan, was the first to openly condemn the new congressman's connection with the cocaine business.
A few days later, Justice Minister Rodrigo Lara Bonia launched a widespread campaign against the investment of dirty cocaine money in the election race. As a result, Pablo Escobar, in January 1984, was expelled from the Colombian Congress. Through the efforts of the Minister of Justice, his political career ended once and for all. However, Escobar was not going to leave quietly and decided to take revenge on the minister.
On April 30, 1984, Bonia's ministerial Mercedes stopped at a traffic light on one of Bogota's busiest streets. At that moment, a motorcyclist approached at point-blank range with a machine gun, riddling the back of the Mercedes, where the Minister of Justice usually sat. An automatic burst literally blew off the head of Rodrigo Lara Bonia. This is the first time that bandits have killed such a high-ranking official in Colombia. From that day on, terror began to spread throughout Colombia.
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In the mid-1980s, Escobar's cocaine empire controlled almost every aspect of Colombian society. However, a serious threat looms over him. The administration of US President Ronald Reagan declared its own war on the spread of drugs not only throughout the United States, but throughout the world. An agreement was reached between the United States and Colombia, according to which the Colombian government pledged to hand over to American justice the cocaine barons involved in trafficking drugs to the United States.
This was done because if drug traffickers were in any Colombian prison, they could, as before, continue to run their gangs without hindrance directly from their places of detention and would very soon be free. As for the United States, the drug traffickers understood that they could not buy their freedom. The drug lords responded to the authorities' attempts to extradite gang members to the United States with terrorism. They had their own motto, with which they bravely walked under bullets: “Better a tomb in Colombia than a prison cell in the USA.” Escobar also swore this oath to himself. But in September 1990, the country's new president, Cesar Gaviria, invited the drug lords to voluntarily surrender in exchange for a promise not to send them to the United States for trial. The situation for Escobar was then very tense. The government declared all-out war on the cartel and immediately received $65 million from the United States for this purpose. As a result of one single nationwide operation, 989 houses and farms, 367 aircraft, 73 boats, 710 cars, 4.7 tons of cocaine and 1,279 weapons were confiscated from Escobar (the zoo, by the way, was also confiscated). Every government strike was met with a counterattack by the cartel - Pablo Escobar created a terrorist group called “Los Extraditables”. Its fighters, trained by Colonel Paratrooper of the Israeli Army, Yair Klein, attacked officials, police, and anyone who opposed the drug trade. The reason for the terrorist attack could have been a major police operation or the extradition of another cocaine mafia boss to the United States. The confrontation turned massacres. Between 1988 and 1994, 25,211 political and 31,385 non-political murders occurred in Colombia during the fight against the mafia.
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In November 1985, Escobar and other drug traffickers banded together to show the government that they could not be intimidated. Escobar hired a large group of leftist guerrillas to carry out sabotage. Leftist guerrillas armed with machine guns, grenades and portable rocket launchers suddenly appeared in the center of Bogota and captured the Palace of Justice with at least several hundred people inside the building. The partisans refused to conduct any negotiations, and began to fire in all directions, without putting forward any demands. While they held the Palace of Justice in their hands, they destroyed all documents related to the extradition of criminals. Large army and police forces were brought into the capital of the country. After a full day of siege, assault battalions, supported by tanks and combat helicopters, stormed the Palace of Justice. The assault killed 97 people, including 11 of the 24 judges.
A year later, the Supreme Court overturned the agreement on the extradition of drug traffickers to the United States. However, just a few days later, the new President of Colombia, Versilio Barco, vetoed the Supreme Court's decision and renewed the agreement. In February 1987, Escobar's closest assistant, Carlos Leider, was extradited to the United States, by that time he had fallen into the hands of the security forces.
Pablo Escobar was forced to build secret shelters throughout the country. Thanks to information from his people in the government, he managed to stay one step ahead of law enforcement agencies. In addition, the peasants always warned him when suspicious people, a car with policemen or soldiers, or a helicopter appeared.
In 1989, Pablo Escobar again tried to make a deal with justice. He agreed to surrender to the police if the government would guarantee that he would not be extradited to the United States. The authorities refused. Escobar responded to this refusal with terror.
In August 1989, the terror reached its peak. On August 16, 1989, Supreme Court member Carlos Valencia died at the hands of Escobar's killers. The next day, police Colonel Waldemar Franklin Contero was killed. On August 18, 1989, at a pre-election rally, the famous Colombian politician Luis Carlos Galan was shot, who promised, if elected president of the country, to start an irreconcilable war against cocaine traffickers, to cleanse Colombia of drug lords by extraditing them to the United States.
Before the elections, the terror of the Medellin cartel acquired a special scope. Every day, cartel hitmen killed dozens of people. In Bogota alone, one of the terrorist drug mafia groups committed 7 explosions within two weeks, as a result of which 37 people were killed and about 400 were seriously injured.
On November 27, 1989, Pablo Escobar planted a bomb on a Colombian airliner, Avianaka, carrying 107 passengers and crew members. The successor of the deceased Luis Carlos Galan, the future president of Colombia, Cesar Gaviria, was supposed to fly on this plane. Three minutes after the airliner took off, a powerful explosion was heard on board. The plane caught fire and crashed into the nearby hills. None of those on board survived. As it turned out later, Cezanne Gaviria at the last moment, for some reason, canceled his flight.
Massive raids swept across the country, during which chemical laboratories and coca plantations were destroyed. Dozens of drug cartel members are behind bars. In response to this, Pablo Escobar twice made 4 attempts on the life of the chief of the Colombian secret police, General Miguel Masa Marquez. In the second attempt, on December 6, 1989, a bomb explosion killed 62 people and injured 100 of varying degrees of severity.
By the early 90s, he was considered one of the richest people on the planet. His fortune was estimated at at least $3 billion. He topped the list of the most wanted drug traffickers in the United States. On his heels invariably followed the elite special forces, which set themselves the task of catching or destroying Pablo Escobar at any cost.
In 1990, just the mention of Pablo Escobar's name struck terror throughout Colombia. He was the most famous criminal in the world. The government created a “Special Search Group” whose target was Pablo Escobar himself. The group included the best police officers from selected units, as well as people from the army, special services and the prosecutor's office.
The creation of the “Special Search Group,” headed by Colonel Martinez, immediately bore positive results: several people from Pablo Escobar’s inner circle ended up in the dungeons of the secret police, and in 1992, he was shot dead by the El Mexicano (Spanish) police. El Mexicano) - Gonzalo Rodriguez Gacha, one of the organizers of the most notorious crimes. Together with his son, they fired back for a long time, the Mexican shouted from the windows that he would rather die, but the “gringos” (Americans) would not surrender.
The remaining top of the cartel - Escobar himself, Luis Ochoa and his two brothers - began to insist on negotiations with the government. The deal proposed by the cartel was this: they surrender voluntarily, but at the same time they will be charged with only one crime and, of course, there can be no question of any extradition to the United States. Moreover, in Envigado, hometown Escobar, Medellin suburb, a private prison should be built for the cartel bosses. And in June 1991, El Doctor handed himself over to justice. Escobar agreed to plead guilty to several minor crimes, in exchange for all his past sins being forgiven.
The prison was called “La Catedral” and was built in the Envigado mountain range. “La Catedral” looked more like an expensive, prestigious country club than an ordinary prison. There was a disco, a swimming pool, a jacuzzi and a sauna, and in the courtyard there was a large football field. Friends and women came to see him there. Escobar's family could visit him at any time. Colonel Martinez's "Special Search Group" did not have the right to approach La Catedral closer than 20 kilometers. Escobar came and went as he wanted. He attended football matches and nightclubs in Medellin.
During his imprisonment, Pablo Escobar continued to run his multi-billion dollar cocaine business. One day he learned that his associates in the cocaine cartel, taking advantage of his absence, robbed him. He immediately ordered his men to take them to La Catedral. He personally tortured them, drilling his victims' knees and tearing out their nails, and then ordered them to be killed and the corpses taken outside the prison. But on July 22, 1992, President Gaviria gave the order to transfer Pablo Escobar to a real prison. Escobar, upon learning of the president's decision, escaped from prison.
Now he was free, but he had enemies everywhere, except for the government, and he was hunted by competitors from the Cali cartel and the organization they created, Los PEPES. There were fewer and fewer places left in which he could find a safe refuge. The US and Colombian governments this time were determined to put an end to Escobar and his Medellin cocaine cartel. After his escape from prison, everything began to fall apart. His friends began to leave him. Pablo Escobar's main mistake was that he could not critically assess the current situation. He considered himself a more significant figure than he actually was. He continued to have enormous financial capabilities, but he no longer had real power. The only way to somehow improve the situation was to try to renew the agreement with the government. Escobar tried several times to re-enter into a deal with justice, but President Cesar Gaviria and the US government believed that this time it was not worth entering into any negotiations with the drug lord. It was decided to pursue him and, if possible, eliminate him during his arrest.
On November 30, 1993, Pablo Escobar planted a powerful bomb on one of the crowded streets of Bogota. The explosion occurred when there were a lot of people. Mostly these were parents with their children. As a result of this terrorist attack, 21 people were killed and more than 70 were seriously injured.
A group of Colombian citizens created the organization “Los PEPES” (Spanish “Los PEPES”), the abbreviation of which meant “The People Persecuting Pablo Escobar”. It included Colombian citizens whose relatives died because of Escobar.
The day after the attack, Los Pepes detonated bombs in front of Pablo Escobar's house. The estate that belonged to his mother was almost completely burned to the ground. Instead of pursuing Pablo Escobar himself, Los Pepes began to terrorize and hunt everyone who was in any way connected with him or his cocaine business. They were simply killed. In a short amount of time, they caused significant damage to his cocaine empire. They killed many of his people and persecuted his family. They burned his estates. Now Escobar was seriously worried, because Los Pepes, having discovered the family, would immediately destroy it to the last person, not even sparing his elderly mother and children. If his family were outside of Colombia, beyond the reach of Los Pepes, he could declare all-out war on the government and his enemies.
In the fall of 1993, the Medellin cocaine cartel collapsed. But Pablo Escobar himself was more worried about his family. For more than a year he had not seen his wife or children. He had not seen his loved ones for more than a year and was greatly missed. For Escobar this was intolerable. On December 1, 1993, Pablo Escobar turned 44 years old. He knew that he was under constant surveillance, so he tried to speak on the phone as briefly as possible so that he would not be detected by NSA agents. However, this time he finally lost his nerve.
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The day after his birthday, December 2, 1993, he called his family. NSA agents had been waiting for this call for 24 hours. This time, while talking to his son Juan, he stayed on the line for about 5 minutes. After this, Escobar was spotted in the Medellin quarter of Los Olibos. Soon, the house in which Pablo Escobar was hiding was surrounded on all sides by special agents. The special forces knocked down the door and burst inside. At that moment, Escobar's bodyguard, El Limon, opened fire on the police who were trying to storm the house. He was wounded and fell to the ground. Immediately after this, with a pistol in his hands, Pablo Escobar himself leaned out of the same window. He opened random fire in all directions. He then climbed out the window and tried to escape his pursuers through the roof. There, a bullet fired by a sniper hit Escobar in the head and killed him on the spot.
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On December 3, 1993, thousands of Colombians filled the streets of Medellin, some came to mourn him, others to rejoice. More than 20 thousand Colombians attended Escobar's funeral. When the coffin with the drug lord was carried through the streets of Medellin, the real Colombian Khodynka began - pallbearers comrades were swept away by the crowd, the coffin lid was thrown off, and thousands of hands reached out to Pablo’s already frozen face with the sole purpose of touching the recently living legend in last time. People's rumors played a cruel joke on Escobar's villa, claiming that the billionaire drug lord had a habit of hiding money and jewelry within the walls of his house.
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After death godfather, in 1993, Colombian peasants in search of hiding places dismantled the villa brick by brick. Now Escobar's prison has been looted, his estates are overgrown with grass, and his cars are rusting in the garage. Escobar's widow and children live in Argentina; his brother is almost completely blind after a letter bomb was sent to his cell.
If today in the slums of Medellin you ask a question about who Pablo Escobar was, not one of the people interviewed will say a bad word about Escobar. Literally everyone speaks of him as a positive hero.
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After the collapse of the Medellin cartel, competitors from Cali took over the leadership. True, already in 1995, the top of the cartel was arrested. But with Escobar leaving the scene, the drug mafia did not even think about curtailing their business. They drew conclusions from the mistakes of their predecessors. Today they want to be invisible. Colombian police don't even know their names. They no longer control the production of the drug, but simply buy finished cocaine and heroin from neighboring countries or from rebel and paramilitary groups. Within a few years, they founded large and well-guarded plantations in the jungle.
The life stories of Pablo's friends can be read in the second part - Medellin Cartel.
Today, Colombia's drug business is a free market with many contractors. Drug dealers make deals with various groups, purchasing cocaine from them. To transport it, they turn to others; new heroes from
Pablo Escobar is one of the most famous and brutal drug lords of the 20th century, not only in Colombia, but throughout the whole world. The notorious criminal used many methods of drug trafficking, one of his ingenious ideas was to soak jeans in liquid cocaine and then ship them to the United States. Despite brutal reprisals and even the destruction of civilian aircraft, Escobar was popular among young people and the poor.
15. Army of assassins
Escobar did not like to get his hands dirty, so all his orders were carried out by hired killers. So, killer John "Popeye" Vasquez, ordered by a drug lord, killed more than 300 people! Among his victims was even the main presidential candidate of Colombia, who did not inspire confidence in Escobar.
14. Elimination of competitors
Cocaine had astronomical demand in the United States in the 70s and 80s of the last century, and Escobar did not want to share the market with anyone. The first competitor Pablo killed was a well-known Medellin drug dealer named Fabio Restrepo.
13. Bombed building of the Colombian Security Department
Trying to kill police general Miguel Masa Marquez, the drug lord blew up the building of the Colombian Security Department in 1989. The bomb explosion killed 52 people and injured more than 1,000 of varying degrees of severity. That year turned out to be especially terrible for the country: at the hands of the drug lord, 12 judicial officials and 110 passengers on the Avianica plane, in which Escobar planted a bomb, died.
12. Fear turned him into a monster
The drug lord's greatest fear was extradition to the United States. And fear forced Escobar to commit even more daring and terrible crimes. He was so desperate to avoid imprisonment in the United States that he even suggested that the Colombian government pay off the entire government external debt. At that time, the criminal offered the authorities 10 million dollars.
11. Anything for the sake of killing
In 1989, Escobar decided to get rid of future president Cesar Gaviria. Having learned that the politician would fly on a passenger plane of the Colombian airline Avianaka, the drug lord planted a bomb. Three minutes after the airliner took off, a powerful explosion was heard on board. 110 people died. As it turned out later, Cesar Gaviria canceled his flight at the last moment.
10. The most devoted hitman A
Escobar had many hired killers, but the one he trusted most was John "Popaw" Vasquez. He took about 300 lives with his own hands and sentenced another 3,000 people to death. Popeye's most famous crime was the murder of Colombian presidential candidate Luis Carlos Galan in 1989. Vazquez has already served his time in prison, but still admits: "If Pablo Escobar was born again, I would follow him without hesitation. We loved him. He taught us to fight and gave us everything."
9. Tombstone theft
Young Pablo began his criminal activity by stealing tombstones from a Medellin cemetery. He erased the inscriptions and sold the tombstones to Panamanian dealers.
8. Thirteen-year-old wife
In 1976, 27-year-old Pablo married 13-year-old Maria, and two years later she gave birth to his son, and three years later - a daughter. Despite her husband's constant infidelities, Maria lived with him until the end of his life.
7. Kidnapping
In the struggle for money and power, Escobar kidnapped people more than once. So, in 1971, Pablo’s people kidnapped the wealthy Colombian industrialist Diego Echevario, who was killed after prolonged torture. The criminals tried to obtain a ransom, but failed and, after strangling their victim, threw the body into a landfill.
6. Bribery of police officers
In 1976, Escobar was arrested for drug possession, but he managed to bribe police officers and go free. After that incident, the drug lord began almost openly giving bribes to officials.
5. The "Silver or Lead" principle
Having become the undisputed authority of the cocaine world and the absolute leader of the Medellin cartel, Escobar bribed police officers, judges, and politicians. If bribery did not work, then blackmail was used, but basically the cartel acted according to the principle: “Plata O Plomo” - in other words, “silver or lead.” Either the person agreed and took the bribe, or a bullet was waiting for him.
4. Incredible influence
At the peak of his criminal career, Escobar controlled 80% of the cocaine traffic in the United States. It was estimated that about 70-80 tons of cocaine were shipped from Colombia to the United States in the 1980s. At the age of 30, Pablo became one of the richest people in the world.
3. Through the circles of hell
For a long time, the drug lord's family lived in luxury: helicopters, a personal zoo, a mansion, and endless funds. Everything changed when the FBI got involved with Escobar. Pablo was under surveillance, and he was forced to go into hiding with his family. Now the drug lord was worried about the well-being of his children. Despite millions of dollars in their accounts, the family could no longer lead their previous life and live peacefully in their own home.
2. Not Robin Hood at all
To enlist the support of the population, Escobar launched extensive construction in Medellin. He paved roads, built stadiums and erected free houses for the poor. He himself explained his charity by the fact that it hurt him to see how the poor suffered. Despite these good deeds, it was Escobar's men who planted a powerful car bomb in 1993 near a bookstore on one of Bogota's crowded streets. As a result of that terrorist attack, many children and adults died. And in general, the drug lord without regrets killed anyone who in any way stood in his way.
1. Killing people
According to some estimates, on conscience cocaine king about 10 thousand human lives. He walked over heads and got rid of enemies cruelly and without regret. Pablo Escobar entered world history as the most daring, merciless and powerful drug lord of all time.
For three years, British photographer James Mollison documented the legacy of cocaine king Pablo Escobar, who left thousands of victims and admirers in Colombia.
Most Colombians consider Pablo Escobar a criminal who plunged the country into chaos for a decade, but in the poor neighborhoods of his native Medellin they call him Robin Hood. The drug lord donated millions of dollars earned from supplying cocaine to the United States to public housing, churches and football grounds.
Many Colombians remember free excursions at the zoo at Escobar's estate "Hacienda Napoles", where elephants, giraffes, kangaroos, rhinoceroses, hippos and exotic birds were kept. The area rebuilt in Medellin with the money of the cocaine king is still called the Pablo Escobar quarter: the walls of the houses here are decorated with portraits of the drug lord and the inscriptions “Saint Pablo”, and his grave is visited by thousands of people, despite the struggle of the authorities with the cult of the former “master” of the city.
1. In the image of the Mexican revolutionary Pancho Villa (left). Wax figure from the collection of the Police Museum (right)
2. Pablo on his first communion, 1956
Drug business
The criminal career of Escobar, the son of a farmer and school teacher, began by stealing tombstones from a Medellin cemetery. At the age of twenty, he was already at the head of a gang that was engaged in car thefts. When cocaine began to replace marijuana on the global market in the 1970s, Escobar took up drugs: he started as a supplier, reselling Colombian cocaine to dealers in the United States, but soon controlled the entire chain. He opened his first laboratory in Medellin, and then in tropical forests A whole network of factories appeared throughout the country.
In 1977, Escobar founded the Medellin cocaine cartel, and a year later his partner Carlos Lehder bought one of the Bahamas - where passenger flights from Colombia landed, loaded with cocaine, which was then transported on a private plane to Georgia and Florida. Two submarines were also used for smuggling.
3. Structure of the Medellin Cartel, 1989
Behind a short time The cartel managed to capture about 80% of the cocaine market in the United States and practically monopolized drug trafficking to Mexico, Venezuela, the Dominican Republic and Spain. During its heyday, Escobar's cartel earned about $60 million a day, and Forbes magazine estimated the drug lord's personal fortune at three billion dollars in 1989.
4. Seized drug cargo (left). Jungle runway (right)
5. Fake license plates and masks of the kidnappers (left). Florida homes purchased by Escobar in 1981 (right)
6. Cartel money seized during a search, 1989
Policy
In 1982, Escobar was elected to the position of alternate member of the Colombian Congress, received parliamentary immunity and represented the country at the inauguration ceremony of Spanish Prime Minister Felipe Gonzalez. But the following year, Justice Minister Rodrigo Lara Bonia publicly accused Escobar of drug trafficking and organizing a criminal gang: based on the data he collected, the cocaine king was expelled from Congress in January 1984. A few months later, a ministerial Mercedes was shot at point-blank range with a machine gun, Lara Bonia died on the spot.
That same year, Colombian authorities ratified a treaty with the United States on the extradition of drug cartel leaders. In response, the leaders of the Medellin cartel created the Los Extraditables group, which began to carry out intimidation actions: attacks on officials, police officers and politicians.
7. A wall in one of the houses in Escobar’s quarter (left). Meeting with voters, 1982 (right)
8. Debate in Congress after Escobar was accused of drug trafficking
9. Escobar at his inauguration as Prime Minister of Spain, Madrid, 1982
Family
In 1976, Escobar married his girlfriend Maria Victoria Eneo Viejo, soon they had a son, Juan Pablo, and three years later, a daughter, Manuela. Since 1979, they lived in the Hacienda Napoles estate, purchased for $63 million, covering an area of three thousand hectares.
It is known that, even while on the wanted list, the drug lord tried to spend all family holidays and birthdays with his children. In 1993, when members of a rival gang launched a hunt for the relatives of the cocaine king, he hid with his family in the mountains and one evening burned two million dollars in a fire so that Manuela would not freeze.
After Escobar's murder, his family fled to Mozambique and then to Argentina, where Juan Pablo took the name Sebastian Marroquín. In 2009, he publicly apologized to the children of politicians killed by order of the leader of the Medellin cartel, and in 2014 he published a book of memoirs and launched a line of T-shirts with his father’s image. Two books about Escobar were also written by his brother Roberto and one by both sisters.
10. Photos in the house of Escobar's mother Hermilda Gaviria, 2005
11. With his wife Maria Victoria, early 1980s
12. In a prison cell with his wife and daughter, 1992 (left). With his sister on her 31st birthday, 1980 (right)
13. Son’s birthday, Hacienda Napoles estate, 1989
Terror
After the passage of the law on the extradition of drug cartel leaders to the United States, Escobar began sponsoring the militant group MAS (Death to Kidnappers). In addition to an impressive arsenal of weapons, it had its own aircraft with 30 pilots, and the militants were trained by American, Israeli and British instructors. In 1989, the leader of the Medellin cartel offered the Colombian government a deal: he would surrender to the police if the extradition law was repealed.
Having received a refusal, Escobar launched a reign of terror: within a year, the headquarters of the Administrative Department of Security, the country's main intelligence service, as well as the editorial offices of the newspapers El Espectador and Vanguardia Liberal, were blown up in Bogotá; a Supreme Court judge, a police colonel and presidential candidate Luis Carlos were killed at the hands of killers Galan.
14. In addition, militants blew up a Boeing 727 plane - as a result of the terrorist attack, 110 people were killed.
15. Bombed building of the security department
16. Victim of attack
17. Mother of a murdered policeman with photographs of her son
18. Miguel Masa, director of the Administrative Department of Security from 1982-1991, survived seven attempts on his life by Escobar
Charity
In 1979, Escobar established the system social assistance"Civic Responsibility in Action", under whose auspices the medical centers for low-income families, green areas were created and sports facilities were built. The drug lord's most famous charitable program was the Medellin Without Slums project, which involved the construction of thousands of houses in the poorest region of Moravia.
The Pablo Escobar quarter was rebuilt in the city, which is now inhabited by almost 13 thousand residents. The program received a blessing catholic church, and in the slums of Medellin, the drug lord was often seen distributing money to the poor in the company of two priests.
In 1989, the local football club Atlético Nacional, sponsored by Escobar, won the Copa Libertadores, becoming the best team in South America.
19. Celebration in honor of the first anniversary of the construction of Escobar's quarter, 1985
20. At the opening of the football field, 1982
21. Fundraising for the Medellin Without Slums program, 1983
22. Eight hippos from Escobar's zoo, 2004
23. At the Hacienda Napoles Zoo, 1980s
Death
In 1991, by agreement with the government, Escobar surrendered to justice; shortly before this, Colombia adopted a new constitution prohibiting the extradition of its citizens.
The drug lord was placed in the La Catedral prison, built with his own money, which had a bar, a football field and a jacuzzi. It was completely controlled by the Medellin cartel.
26. Left: Escobar's call intercept map, 1993, right: personal phone Escobar
27. La Catedral prison, 1992
28. Security room
In response, the head of state established a special search group under the leadership of Colonel Hugo Martinez, who coordinated efforts with American intelligence agencies. Los Pepes, a group of his competitors in the drug business, far-right guerrillas and victims of terror launched by the Medellin cartel, also joined the search for Escobar. Within a year, Los Pepes killed more than 300 cartel members and destroyed much of its property.
After fifteen months of searching, on December 2, 1993, a special team intercepted Escobar's call to his son and established his whereabouts. On the same day, he was shot dead on the roof of a house in Medellin.
29. Soldiers of a special search group with Escobar’s body
Curve Digital has announced the release of a video game based on the criminal life of the famous Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar. Its release will take place in a year, in the spring of 2019.
The criminal life story of a world-famous criminal is sometimes so incredible that it surpasses even common sense, so she belongs in the cinema. But, besides Pablo Escobar, the world knew at least ten more equally daring, cruel and incredibly rich drug lords.
Frank Lucas
Net worth: $50 million.
Frank Lucas is still alive and 87 years old, which is extremely uncharacteristic for a criminal of his stature. He made his fortune by transporting kilograms of heroin from Asia to the United States during the Vietnam War, hiding drugs in the coffins of the dead. American soldiers. In the 70s, he was arrested and sentenced to 70 years in prison, but he was able to turn in his accomplices, which led to more than a hundred arrests. After serving 5 years, Lucas was released, but a year later he was caught again, this time buying cocaine. Released in 1991.
The film “Gangster” was made based on his biography (stills from the film above).
Jose Figueroa Agosto
Net worth: $100 million.
Jose Figueroa Agosto, also known as Junior Capsule and Pablo Escobar of the Caribbean, controlled the supply of Colombian cocaine to the United States through Puerto Rico and Dominican Republic. As befits a real drug lord, in 1999 Jose escaped from prison when he was sentenced to 209 years in prison, changed his appearance several times and paid large bribes to the police so that he would not be put behind bars again. Currently, Jose is serving his sentence, and his 100 million are in a secluded place known only to him.
Nikki Barnes
Net worth: $105 million from heroin sales.
Like many drug dealers, Barnes himself was not averse to being on drugs. He began using heroin at a young age. Then he finally decided that it was better to sell drugs than to buy them. And so began his stormy career.
In the 70s, he personally proclaimed himself because of numerous arrests that led to nothing, he always managed to extricate himself. This greatly angered the police and American President Jimmy Carter.
Barnes was jailed for life. Drug dealer helped justice for a long time working as an informant. For his length of service, he was pardoned and released in 1998.
Paul Lear Alexander
Net worth: 170 million from selling cocaine.
Paul Lear Alexander, or simply El Parito Loco, worked at one time as an informant for the Drug Enforcement Administration. At that very time, he was actively expanding his business, selling out competitors and establishing strong connections for his own business.
In 2010, he escaped from a Brazilian prison and is still wanted.
Freeway Rick Ross
Net worth: more than 600 million dollars.
In the 80s, he sold crack and earned more than half a million dollars. In 1996, he was sentenced to life, which was initially reduced to 20 years. As a result, he was released after 10 years for “exemplary behavior.”
He is best known for suing rapper Rico Ross for using his pseudonym.
Rafael Caro Quintero
Net worth: over $650 million.
Rafael Caro Quintero - founder Mexican drug cartel Guadalajara, operating in the 80s. During his criminal activities, he killed several people, including a pilot and a federal agent. He was arrested for murder in 1985 and released from a Mexican prison in 2013. However, the US government was not pleased that Quintero was released and asked for his re-arrest. Quintero is currently wanted in Mexico, America and several other countries.
Joaquin Guzman Loera
Net worth: $1 billion.
Joaquin Guzman, or as he is popularly called, is the leader Sinaloa cartel. His main activity was the supply of cocaine, heroin and marijuana between America and Mexico.
Known for becoming the world's most wanted fugitive after the death of Osama bin Laden. The Drug Enforcement Administration considers Guzman the most powerful drug trafficker in history, surpassing Pablo Escobar himself.
Despite the fact that El Chapo escaped from prison several times, he is currently in custody. The drug lord was jailed in 2016 after he met with American actor Sean Pen. This meeting helped law enforcement agencies get on the trail of El Chapo.
Griselda Blanco
Net worth: $2 billion.
Griselda Blanco was among the pioneers of the drug business, building her empire in the 70s. She was popularly called the godmother of cocaine and was the head of the criminal Medellin cartel.
She is also known for the fact that she was married three times; she buried all three husbands (it is believed that she shot her second husband herself). Blanco also allegedly liked to make love to men while pointing a gun at them.
In 2012, she was shot dead by a passing motorcyclist (who remained unknown). Moreover, it was she herself who once came up with this method of murder during the fight against competitors.
Carlos Leder
Earned: $2.7 billion.
One of the founders of the Medellin cartel, known for numerous innovations in the drug business. I came up with a marketing campaign - “the first dose is free.” At some point, Leder wanted to legalize his business and suggested that the President of Colombia fully pay off the country’s entire external debt.
According to official data, he is currently serving a sentence of 135 years in an American prison. Since the exact location of his imprisonment is unknown, there are rumors that he was placed under the witness protection program and has been at large for a long time.
Amado Carrillo Fuentes
Net worth: over $25 billion.
Amado Fuentes received the nickname Lord of the Skies for transporting cocaine in airplanes. Despite the fact that Fuentes always tried to keep a low profile, American police I tried my best to catch the culprit. Because of this, the drug lord had to change his appearance with the help of plastic surgery. However, Fuentes died during the operation, apparently due to a lethal mixture of painkillers.
Pablo Escobar
Net worth: $30 billion.
The name always comes to mind when someone nearby says the word “cocaine.” Forbes magazine estimates that Escobar controlled 80 percent of the world's cocaine business.
Considered one of the most dangerous and brutal criminals in history. He is responsible for the murders of politicians, judges, journalists, police officers and even the bombing of a civilian aircraft.
The drug lord's son Sebastian Marroquin (Juan Pablo Escobar) said that somehow, once again hiding from government agents, Escobar, along with his son and daughter, ended up in a high-mountain shelter. The night turned out to be extremely cold, and while trying to warm his daughter and cook food, Escobar burned about $2 million in cash.
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