Pablo Emilio Escobar Gaviria1 December 1949 – 2 December 1993) was a Colombian drug lord and narcoterrorist who was the founder and sole leader of the Medellín Cartel. Dubbed "the king of cocaine", Escobar was the wealthiest criminal in history, having amassed an estimated net worth of US$30 billion by the time of his death—equivalent to $70 billion as of 2022—while his drug cartel monopolized the cocaine trade into the United States in the 1980s and early 1990s.

Early life

Pablo Emilio Escobar Gaviria was born on 1 December 1949 in Rionegro, Antioquia Department. He was the third of seven children and grew up in the neighboring city of Medellin. His father was a small farmer and his mother was a teacher. Escobar left high school in 1966 just before his 17th birthday, before returning two years later with his cousin Gustavo Gaviria. At this time, the hard life on the streets of Medellin had polished them into gangster bullies in the eyes of teachers. The two dropped out of school after more than a year, but Escobar, who did not give up, briefly became autonomous in Latin America by forging high school diplomas. He then studied in college with the goal of becoming a criminal lawyer, a politician, and eventually the president, but had to give up because of lack of money

Criminal career

Escobar began his criminal career in 1966. Escobar is rumored to have started his criminal career with his gang by stealing tombstones, sandblasting their inscriptions, and reselling them, though his most likely first crime was street fraud. After dropping out of school, Escobar began to join car theft gangs, and at the age of 20 was already a household name for car thieves. He and his gang stole cars and dismantled them to sell their parts, and with enough money on hand, Escobar bribed officials to launder his loot. While arrest records have been lost, Escobar apparently sat in a Medellin prison for several months before his 20th birthday. Escobar soon became involved in violent crime, employing criminals to kidnap people who owed him money and demand ransoms, sometimes tearing up tickets even when Escobar received the ransom. His most famous kidnapping victim was businessman Diego Echavarria, who was kidnapped and eventually killed in the summer of 1971, Escobar received a $50,000 ransom from the Echavarria family; his gang became well-known for this kidnapping

Medillin group

Escobar had been involved in organized crime for a decade when the cocaine trade began to spread in Colombia in the mid-1970s. One of Colombia's first drug dealers was Fabio Restrepo, who shipped about 40 to 60 kilograms of cocaine to Miami once or twice a year. Under Escobar's mastermind, Restrepo was assassinated in 1975, and Escobar seized his market and business. Escobar's meteoric rise also caught the attention of the Colombian Security Service (DAS), who arrested him in May 1976 on his return from drug trafficking in Ecuador. DAS agents found 39 kg of cocaine in the spare tire of Escobar's car. Escobar managed to change the first judge in the lawsuit and bribed the second judge, so he was released along with other prisoners. The following year, the agent who arrested Escobar was assassinated. Escobar continued to collude with law enforcement in the same fashion. His strategy came to be known as "silver or lead," or "money or bullets."Although the Medellin Group was only established in the early 1970s, it expanded after Escobar met several drug lords on a farm in April 1978, and by the end of 1978 they had transported some 19,000 kilograms of cocaine to the United States

Rise to prominence

Soon, the demand for cocaine greatly increased in the United States, which led to Escobar organizing more smuggling shipments, routes, and distribution networks in South Florida, California, Puerto Rico, and other parts of the country. He and cartel co-founder Carlos Lehder worked together to develop a new trans-shipment point in the Bahamas, an island called Norman's Cay about 350 km (220 mi) southeast of the Florida coast. According to his brother, Escobar did not purchase Norman's Cay; it was instead a sole venture of Lehder's. Escobar and Robert Vesco purchased most of the land on the island, which included a 1-kilometre (3,300 ft) airstrip, a harbor, a hotel, houses, boats, and aircraft, and they built a refrigerated warehouse to store the cocaine. From 1978 to 1982, this was used as a central smuggling route for the Medellín Cartel. With the enormous profits generated by this route, Escobar was soon able to purchase 20 square kilometres (7.7 sq mi) of land in Antioquia for several million dollars, on which he built the Hacienda Nápoles. The luxury house he created contained a zoo, a lake, a sculpture garden, a private bullring, and other amenities for his family and the cartel

Escobar at the height of his power

Escobar was also involved in philanthropy in Colombia and paid handsomely for the staff of his cocaine lab. Escobar spent millions developing some of Medellín's poorest neighborhoods. He helped build roads, power lines and soccer fields. He also built housing complexes for the homeless. Escobar also entered politics in the 1970s and participated in and supported the formation of the Liberal Party of Colombia. In 1982, he successfully entered the Colombian Congress. Although only an alternate, he was automatically granted parliamentary immunity and the right to a diplomatic passport under Colombian law. At the same time, Escobar was gradually becoming a public figure, and because of his charitable work, he was known as "Robin Hood Paisa." He alleged once in an interview that his fortune came from a bicycle rental company he founded when he was 16 years old.  Congress, the new Minister of Justice, Rodrigo Lara-Bonilla, had become Escobar's opponent, accusing Escobar of criminal activity from the very first day of Congress. Escobar's arrest in 1976 was investigated by Lara-Bonilla's subordinates. A few months later, Liberal leader Luis Carlos Galán expelled Escobar from the party. Although Escobar fought back, he announced his retirement from politics in January 1984. Three months later, Lara-Bonilla was murdered.

The Colombian judiciary had been a target of Escobar throughout the mid-1980s. While bribing and murdering several judges, in the fall of 1985, the wanted Escobar requested the Colombian government to allow his conditional surrender without extradition to the United States. The proposal was initially answered in the negative, and Escobar subsequently founded and implicitly supported the Los Extraditable Organization, which aims to fight extradition policy. The Los Extraditable Organization was subsequently accused of participating in an effort to prevent the Colombian Supreme Court from studying the constitutionality of Colombia's extradition treaty with the United States. In support of the 6 November 1985, far-left guerrilla movement that attacked the Colombian Judiciary Building and killed half of the justices of the Supreme Court. In late 1986, Colombia's Supreme Court declared the previous extradition treaty illegal due to being signed by a presidential delegation, not the president. Escobar's victory over the judiciary was short-lived, with new president Bill Jillo Barr Co Vargas having quickly renewed his agreement with the United States.

Escobar still held a grudge against Luis Carlos Galán, who kicked him out of politics, and was assassinated on 18 August 1989, at Escobar's orders. Escobar then planted a bomb on Avianca Flight 203 in an attempt to assassinate Galán's successor, César Gaviria Trujillo, who missed the plane and survived, but was on board. All 107 people were killed in the blast. Because two Americans were also killed in the bombing, the U.S. government began to intervene directly. After the assassination of Luis Carlos Galán, the administration of César Gaviria moved against Escobar and the drug cartels. Eventually, the government negotiated with Escobar and convinced him to surrender and cease all criminal activity in exchange for a reduced sentence and preferential treatment during his captivity. Declaring an end to a series of previous violent acts meant to pressure authorities and public opinion, Escobar surrendered to Colombian authorities in 1991. Before he gave himself up, the extradition of Colombian citizens to the United States had been prohibited by the newly approved Colombian Constitution of 1991. This act was controversial, as it was suspected that Escobar and other drug lords had influenced members of the Constituent Assembly in passing the law. Escobar was confined in what became his own luxurious private prison, La Catedral, which featured a football pitch, a giant dollhouse, a bar, a Jacuzzi, and a waterfall. Accounts of Escobar's continued criminal activities while in prison began to surface in the media, which prompted the government to attempt to move him to a more conventional jail on 22 July 1992. Escobar's influence allowed him to discover the plan in advance and make a successful escape, spending the remainder of his life evading the police.

Family and relationships

March 1976, the 26-year-old Escobar married María Victoria Henao, who was 15. The relationship was discouraged by the Henao family, who considered Escobar socially inferior; the pair eloped.They had two children: Juan Pablo (now Sebastián Marroquín) and Manuela.

In 2007, the journalist Virginia Vallejo published her memoir Amando a Pablo, odiando a Escobar (Loving Pablo, Hating Escobar), in which she describes her romantic relationship with Escobar and the links of her lover with several presidents, Caribbean dictators, and high-profile politicians.Her book inspired the movie Loving Pablo (2017).

A drug distributor, Griselda Blanco, is also reported to have conducted a clandestine, but passionate, relationship with Escobar; several items in her diary link him with the nicknames "Coque de Mi Rey" (My Coke King) and "Polla Blanca" (White Cock).

Properties

After becoming wealthy, Escobar created or bought numerous residences and safe houses, with the Hacienda Nápoles gaining significant notoriety. The luxury house contained a colonial house, a sculpture park, and a complete zoo with animals from various continents, including elephants, exotic birds, giraffes, and hippopotamuses. Escobar had also planned to construct a Greek-style citadel near it, and though construction of the citadel was started, it was never finished.

Escobar also owned a home in the US under his own name: a 6,500 square foot (604 m2), pink, waterfront mansion situated at 5860 North Bay Road in Miami Beach, Florida. The four-bedroom estate, built in 1948 on Biscayne Bay, was seized by the US federal government in the 1980s. Later, the dilapidated property was owned by Christian de Berdouare, proprietor of the Chicken Kitchen fast-food chain, who had bought it in 2014. De Berdouare would later hire a documentary film crew and professional treasure hunters to search the edifice before and after demolition, for anything related to Escobar or his cartel. They would find unusual holes in floors and walls, as well as a safe that was stolen from its hole in the marble flooring before it could be properly examined.

Escobar also owned a huge Caribbean getaway on Isla Grande, the largest of the cluster of the 27 coral cluster islands comprising Islas del Rosario, located about 35 km (22 mi) from Cartagena. The compound, now half-demolished and overtaken by vegetation and wild animals, featured a mansion, apartments, courtyards, a large swimming pool, a helicopter landing pad, reinforced windows, tiled floors, and a large but unfinished building to the side of the mansion.

Death

Escobar faced threats from the Colombian police, the U.S. government and his rival, the Cali Cartel. On 2 December 1993, Escobar was found in a house in a middle-class residential area of Medellin by Colombian special forces using technology provided by the United States. Police tried to arrest Escobar, but the situation quickly escalated to an exchange of gun fire. Escobar was shot and killed while trying to escape from the roof. He was hit by bullets in the torso and feet, and a bullet which struck him in the ear killing him. This sparked debate about whether he killed himself or whether he was shot dead.