Pablo Escobar – The Wealthiest Criminal Of All Time

Pablo Escobar is a name indelibly stamped in the sands of time. It depends on how you want to look at it but there are contrasting views as to who Escobar was and what he lived for.

Some consider him a hardened criminal that deserved to die and others consider him, “Robin Hood”.

In this piece, I’ll be walking you through the intricacies of the life of Pablo Escobar, his escapades and his death.

EARLY LIFE

Pablo Escobar, in full Pablo Emilio Escobar Gaviria, was born December 1, 1949 in Rionegro, Colombia.

Soon after his birth, Escobar’s family moved to Envigado, Colombia, a suburb of Medellín. He was forced to drop out of school because his family couldn’t pay for his education. Leaving school was the first step towards a life of crime.

While still a teenager, he began a life of crime. His early illegal activities included smuggling stereo equipment and stealing tombstones to resell. As the cocaine industry grew in Colombia—thanks in part to its proximity to Peru, Ecuador, and Bolivia, major growers of coca, from which cocaine is derived—Escobar became involved in drug smuggling.

He began working for a smuggler after dropping out of college and made his first million dollars by age 22.

ESCOBAR’S WIFE, SON AND DAUGHTER

In 1976,  Escobar married 15-year-old Maria Victoria Henao. The couple had two children together: a son, Juan Pablo, and a daughter, Manuela.

In Victoria’s new book, Mrs Escobar: My Life With Pablo, Victoria reveals he forced her to have an abortion at 14, that she went into labour with her first child while at school and how he hid cameras in their house so he could secretly film women in the bathroom.

During their 17-year marriage, she endured numerous affairs, the murder of one of his mistresses, and they spent many years constantly fearing they’d be killed by one of his many enemies

Today Escobar’s son is a motivational speaker who goes by the name Sebastian Marroquin.

DRUG SMUGGLER

In 1975, Escobar ordered the murder of Fabio Restrepo, Medellín’s most influential drug lord. Escobar’s first arrest came shortly after this but the case was dropped when he ordered all the arresting officers to be killed. People became afraid of Escobar quickly.

In the mid-1970s he helped found the crime organization that later became known as the Medellín cartel. His notable partners included the Ochoa brothers: Juan David, Jorge Luis, and Fabio. Escobar served as head of the organization, which focused largely on the production, transport, and sale of cocaine.

As his control over the drug trade grew, so did his control in Colombia, he was even elected to Congress in 1982. As his control over the drug trade grew, so did his control in Colombia, he was even elected to Congress in 1982.

ROBIN HOOD

It is imperative, however, that you know that his public persona was a good one for the citizens of Colombia, despite being a convicted criminal. He wanted to be liked by the common people, so he built churches, sports fields, and parks for the public.

People regarded him as their own personal “Robin Hood”.

CONGRESSMAN

Escobar became known in Congress for his tactic of Plata o plomo, which roughly means “bribery or death.” In order to get a policy to sway in his favour, he would try to bribe fellow politicians and if the bribery (Plata or silver) were refused, he would order the opposition’s death (plomo or lead). Some of Colombia’s most prominent men, such as the Colombian Minister of Justice and the head of the Colombian National Police Anti-Narcotics Unit, fell victim to Escobar’s murderous plots. During his lifetime, Escobar ordered an estimated 600 police officers to die.

MURDERS

In addition to rival drug traffickers, particularly in the Cali cartel, government officials, policemen, and civilians were among his victims.

In 1989, in an attempt to kill an alleged informant, the cartel reportedly placed a bomb aboard an aeroplane. There were more than 100 people killed. Escobar’s threats of extradition to the United States, which had come to see Escobar as a top target in its drug war as the destination of most of the cartel’s drugs, attracted even greater retaliation from Escobar, who allegedly said he “would rather have a grave in Colombia than a prison cell in the United States.”

PRISON

A massive manhunt was undertaken to find Escobar amid the growing bloodshed, while the government also began negotiations for his surrender.

Escobar surrendered in June 1991, on the same day that the Colombian Congress voted to ban extradition under the new constitution of the country, and was subsequently imprisoned.

However, his imprisonment had little effect on his illegal activities and his lifestyle. He was allowed to build a luxury jail, which became known as La Catedral. A nightclub, sauna, waterfall, and soccer field were not only included in the facility, but it also had phones, computers, and fax machines.

After Escobar tortured and killed two members of the cartel at La Catedral, officials wanted to transfer him to a jail that was less welcoming.

Before he could be transferred, Escobar escaped custody in July 1992.

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DEATH

Two organizations were looking for Escobar, one a US-trained Colombian task force called Search Bloc, the other Los Pepes, made up of family members of Escobar’s victims and men from a rival Colombian drug cartel.

On December 2, 1993, police forces found Escobar hiding in a middle-class house in Medellín and shot and killed him on the roof; some speculated that he took his own life.

Escobar was destined to die on that day no matter which means it was.

After he died, the Medellín cartel soon collapsed.

AFTERMATH

Pablo Escobar was a larger-than-life figure, he inspired numerous books, movies, and TV projects in the decades after his death.

In August 2015, Netflix released Narcos, an American crime drama depicting Pablo Escobar’s rise to drug kingpin. A second season premiered in September 2016, and Netflix has renewed it for a season three and four.

However, Juan Pablo ( Now Sebastian Marroquin), Escobar’s son published a book in 2015, Pablo Escobar: My Father, which tells the story of growing up with the world’s most notorious drug kingpin.

Marroquin says he had to change his name because of the dent attached to his father’s name. He also confirms the speculation that Pablo Escobar committed suicide.

“My father’s not a person to be imitated,” Marroquin said in an Agence France-Presse interview. “He showed us the path we must never take as a society because it’s the path to self-destruction, the loss of values and a place where life ceases to have importance.”

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