Pablo Escobar was born into a working-class family in a village outside Medellín, Colombia, and was drawn into criminal activity from a young age. He and his brother reportedly stole headstones from cemeteries and sanded off the names so they could sell them like new, along with other petty crimes to earn small amounts of money. Escobar began working for a smuggler as a young adult and is said to have made his first million dollars by age 22. In 1975, the murder of Fabio Restrepo, Medellín’s most powerful drug lord, paved the way for Escobar’s power to grow. The following year, Escobar was arrested for the first time on cocaine charges. The case was dropped after the two arresting officers were killed, some say at Escobar’s command. By this point, Escobar’s reputation as a dangerous criminal began to grow
As his control over the drug trade grew, so did his control in Colombia. In 1982, he was even elected as an alternate member of Colombia’s Chamber of Representatives. By then, more than 80% of the cocaine being smuggled into the United States was estimated to be trafficked through Escobar’s network. Though estimates of his net worth vary, he reportedly held upwards of $25 billion in assets at one point in his life. Despite his criminal activities, many impoverished Colombians viewed Escobar in a positive light thanks to his philanthropic works. He wanted to be liked by the common people, so he built churches, sports fields, and public parks. People regarded him as their own “Robin Hood”..
Escobar became known for his plata o plomo tactic, which roughly means “bribery or death”. He would attempt to bribe fellow politicians to sway policies in his favor, and if the bribery (plata or silver) was refused, he would order the death (plomo or lead) of the opposition. Some of the most prominent men and organizations in Colombia fell victim to Escobar’s schemes, such as the Colombian Justice Minister and the head of Colombia’s National Police Anti-Narcotics Unit. Escobar is estimated to be responsible for the deaths of hundreds of police officers, with numbers reaching over 600 by some accounts
In 1991, Escobar faced mounting criminal charges. Instead of a traditional sentence, his lawyers proposed an unprecedented compromise. Escobar would build his own prison and choose his own guards. The facility, known as La Catedral, was far from a standard prison and included many luxuries Escobar had grown accustomed to. The guards allowed him to continue his business from the prison, including several reports of torture and even murder inside the facility. When the public found out about Escobar’s operation of La Catedral in 1992, the Colombian government decided to place Escobar in a real prison, but Escobar disappeared before they could act.
Two organizations were looking for Escobar, one a US-trained Colombian task force called Search Bloc, and the other Los Pepes, which was an anti-Escobar vigilante organization with ties to both victims and rival cartels. On December 2, 1993, police forces found Escobar hiding in a middle-class house in Medellín and shot and killed him on the roof
In August 2015, Netflix released Narcos, an American crime drama depicting Pablo Escobar’s rise to drug kingpin. Narcos continued for three seasons, with the fourth ultimately being reworked into the spinoff series Narcos: Mexico
For more information, please visit:
Biography – Pablo Escobar
Narcos
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