Case File: Pablo Escobar

Escobar, born in 1949, got an early start in crime by stealing tombstones, sandblasting off the names and inscriptions and then reselling them. He also reportedly sold phony lottery tickets, stole cars and trafficked in marijuana. Before long, he was working as a henchman for drug smugglers, kidnapping people who owed money and, in some cases, killing them—reportedly even after their ransom was paid.

What distinguished Escobar from other small-time street hustlers was his fiery ambition. As a child, he dreamed of becoming president. Though he didn’t finish high school, Escobar took college courses in an effort to enter politics, but he had to drop out because he could no longer afford tuition.

When the thirst for high-quality cocaine in the United States reached a fevered pitch in the 1970s, Escobar saw a lucrative opportunity and seized it. By the end of the decade, he had organized the Medellin Cartel into a powerful drug-running organization that skillfully imported coca paste from Bolivia and Peru to his refining labs in isolated jungle locations in Colombia. From there, it was smuggled into the United States, Canada and beyond.

But there was an ugly side to the cartel’s rise to power: In 1975, Medellin drug kingpin Fabio Restrepo was murdered, and many suspected Escobar was involved in his death. Regardless of who killed him, Restrepo’s death left a power vacuum in the drug trade that Escobar quickly filled.

Within a year, Escobar was arrested when returning from Ecuador after authorities found 39 kg of high-grade cocaine in the spare tire of his car. But Escobar bribed the judge in the case, so he and his fellow smugglers were released.

Thus began Escobar’s policy of “plata o plomo,” meaning “silver or lead:” Officials could choose to accept a bribe, or expect to be killed with a lead bullet. In fact, the two officers who arrested Escobar were murdered shortly after he was freed.

Escobar wasn’t alone in his all-powerful Medellin cartel: His cousin Gustavo Gaviria—also known as El León (“the Lion”)—was Escobar's loyal second-in-command. He oversaw the finances and smuggling operations of the cartel with ruthless efficiency. Other members included co-founder Carlos Lehder and the three brothers Fabio, Juan David and Jorge Luis Ochoa Vasquez. 

In 1976, Escobar married María Victoria Henao, who was just 15 when the couple eloped. They had two children, Juan Pablo, who now goes by the name Sebastian Marroquin, and Manuela. (Marroquin, an architect, has disavowed his father’s complicated legacy and his criminal ambitions.)

As the 1980s began, cocaine was firmly established as the recreational drug of choice in cities worldwide, particularly in the United States, given its proximity to Colombia and numerous ports of entry. As the Medellin Cartel—and its close competitor, the Cali Cartel—became fabulously wealthy, they were able to outwit, outrun and outgun law enforcement all over the world.

Never one to shy away from extravagance, Escobar used his massive fortune to build a 7.7-square-mile ranch called Hacienda Nápoles, complete with a private airport, a bullring, a sculpture garden and a zoo filled with exotic animals. (Hippopotamuses from the zoo, now popularly known as “cocaine hippos,” have established themselves in Colombia’s rivers as an invasive species.)

At its height, Escobar’s drug empire was making an estimated $420 million weekly, using a private fleet of planes and narco submarines. Escobar’s wealth was so vast—his net worth was estimated at some $30 billion—that he made the Forbes list of richest people in the world for seven years, from 1987 to 1993.

Escobar endeared himself to people in and around Medellin by building a number of facilities, including housing complexes, medical clinics, churches, schools, parks and soccer fields. In 1982, Escobar’s popularity got him voted into Colombia’s congress as an alternate, much to the chagrin of establishment politicians.

But his reputation for generosity was tarnished by some of the more outrageous acts of narcoterrorism committed by Escobar’s cartel. In 1984, his political rival and Minister of Justice Rodrigo Lara-Bonilla was assassinated, possibly as retribution for opposing Escobar’s political ambitions.

Other murder victims included police officers, Supreme Court justices, journalists, politicians and thousands of other people. An estimated 4,000 people died at the hands of the Medellin Cartel.

In an attempted assassination of presidential candidate Cesar Gaviria Trujillo, Escobar had a bomb planted on Avianca Airlines Flight 203 in 1989. Though Trujillo survived by missing the flight, 107 people died in the blast, plus three on the ground.

By the 1980s, Escobar had aroused the enmity of officials in the United States as well as people throughout Colombia, including the families of some of Escobar’s victims.

Opposition to the chaos, brutality and bloodshed caused by his cartel was so widespread that it led to the creation of an ad hoc paramilitary group known as Los Pepes, short for “persecuted by Pablo Escobar.” Financed in part by the rival Cali Cartel, Los Pepes waged an open battle against Escobar and everyone and everything linked to the Medellin cartel.

As pressure against his cartel mounted, Escobar used his influence to negotiate a deal with the Colombian government to avoid extradition to the United States. In 1991, he agreed to surrender to authorities and cease all criminal ventures for an extended stay in a custom-designed luxury facility known as La Catedral (“the Cathedral”). The fortress was built with a casino, waterfall, soccer field, cocktail bar, jacuzzi—and, unbeknownst to officials—enough high-powered weaponry for a small army.

When Escobar violated the terms of his confinement by continuing to smuggle coke and torture and murder people from within La Catedral, he was scheduled to be moved to an actual prison in 1992. In response, Escobar escaped through a tunnel and went on the run.

The ensuing manhunt took more than a year and involved hundreds of officials, including agents from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. By December 1993, Escobar’s luck had run out: After his discovery in a middle-class neighborhood in Medellin, the King of Cocaine died in a dramatic police shootout during a rooftop escape attempt. The day before, Escobar had celebrated his 44th birthday.

Escobar’s death led to the dissolution of his Medellin Cartel and the subsequent rise of the Cali Cartel. But in death, his popular legacy has given Escobar a Robin Hood-like reputation among the poorer people of the region. Even today, murals, museums and souvenir shops celebrate El Patron; tourists can buy coffee mugs, t-shirts and paintings emblazoned with his likeness.

Escobar and his Medellin Cartel have inspired numerous media portrayals, including the 2017 film Loving Pablo starring Javier Bardem and Penelope Cruz and the TV series Narcos with Wagner Moura and Pedro Pascal.

[Note: Escobar’s second-in-command, Gustavo Gaviria, gets decent search traffic and has weak competition (Wikipedia gives him just 3 brief sentences!). Might be worth a profile of some kind.]