The story of Pablo Escobar. The criminal empire of Pablo Escobar. This is the main entrance to Pablo Escobar's house

Pablo Emilio Escobar Gaviria (English: Pablo Emilio Escobar Gaviria; December 1, 1949 - December 2, 1993) was a Colombian drug lord.

Escobar was born on December 1, 1949, 40 kilometers from Medellin. He 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 loved to listen to heroic stories about the legendary Colombian “banditos”. 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 “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 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 a local school, where far-left political views prevailed among the students. He and his new schoolmates openly supported the Cuban Revolution, which had occurred 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 poor neighborhoods 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, began to respectfully call him “El Doctor.” Pablo Escobar began to “feed” the local poor by building new cheap houses. He understood that sooner or later they would become a kind of protective buffer between him and the authorities, and 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 USA, the new generation of Americans of the 70s was no longer content with just marijuana, they needed something stronger, 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 manic readiness to torture and kill, put him beyond competition. 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. 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.

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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 Leider, who was responsible for transporting cocaine, organized a real drug trafficking transshipment point in the Bahamas. The service was set to top 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 illegal chemical laboratories for the production of cocaine.

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 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.”

In a part of his estate hidden from prying eyes, he loved to organize wild sexual orgies, for which young girls were invited.

However, Escobar himself practically did not use cocaine. Moreover, Pablo Escobar, despite the fact that his enormous fortune grew from the cocaine trade, treated drug addicts with contempt, considering them subhuman.

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 was 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 he eventually became a substitute member of the Colombian Congress at age 32. 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 the most popular politicians in Colombia, 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 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 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 the busiest streets in Bogota. 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.

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.

The drug mafia responded with terror to the all-out war on drug lords launched by the government. Pablo Escobar created a terrorist group called Los Extraditables. Its terrorists 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.

In November 1985, Escobar and other drug traffickers banded together to show the government that they could not be intimidated. Escobar hired large group leftist partisans to commit 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 making any demands. While they held the Palace of Justice in their hands, they destroyed all documents relating 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.

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 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 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 passenger plane of the Colombian airline Avianaka, which was 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 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 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 brought positive results. Several people from Pablo Escobar's inner circle ended up in the dungeons 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 prison... which 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 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 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. 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 escaped from prison.

Now he was free, but he had enemies everywhere. All that was left was fewer places, 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 a deal with justice, but President Cesar Gaviria, as well as 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 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”, the acronym of which stood for “People Victims of Pablo Escobar”. It included Colombian citizens whose relatives died because of Escobar.

The day after the terrorist 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.

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.

On December 3, 1993, thousands of Colombians filled the streets of Medellin. Some came to mourn him, others to rejoice.

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. At the same time, he was the most cruel and heartless criminal. Many even consider him the most cruel person in the world.

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.

Escobar's place was taken by competitors - the Rodriguez brothers Orejuelo and the Ochoa clan. And Medellin is still the most dangerous city in the world.

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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, far-left political views prevailed among the students. He and his new schoolmates openly supported the Cuban Revolution, which had occurred 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.

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.

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.”

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.

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 into massacres. Between 1988 and 1994, 25,211 political and 31,385 non-political murders occurred in Colombia during the fight against the mafia.

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.

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.

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. In addition, a private prison is to be built for the cartel bosses in Escobar's hometown of Envigado, a suburb of Medellin. 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.

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.

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, a real Colombian Walk began - the comrades bearing the coffin were swept away by the crowd, the lid of the coffin 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 for the 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.

After the death of the godfather in 1993, Colombian peasants dismantled the villa brick by brick in search of hiding places. 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.

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 traffickers make deals with various groups, purchasing cocaine from them. To transport it, they turn to others; new heroes from

Colombian terrorist Pablo Escobar went down in world history as one of the most daring and brutal criminals of the 20th century. Having amassed a huge fortune in the drug business, he dealt with strongmen of the world This and, like Robin Hood, he helped the poor and dreamed of the prosperity of his native country. On December 1, this unusual criminal would have turned 65 years old. For this date, I offer 15 interesting facts about his personality.

1. Pablo Emilio Escobar Gaviria was born on December 1, 1949 in Rionegro (Colombia) in the family of farmer Jesus Dari Escobar and schoolteacher Hemilda Gaviria. In adolescence, he became addicted to cannabis and used it throughout his life.
2. In his youth, Pablo made his way through petty theft: he stole tombstones from a local cemetery and, erasing the inscriptions, sold them to Panamanian resellers; counterfeited lottery tickets, sold cigarettes and marijuana. The clever handsome man succeeded in everything. And he put together a criminal gang. Together with their accomplices, they stole cars to sell for parts or offered their protection to potential victims. If they refused to pay, they lost their cars. The unbridled young men were not afraid of anything. Robberies and kidnappings have become commonplace for them. In 1971, Pablo's men kidnapped wealthy Colombian industrialist Diego Echevario. Not receiving a ransom from the oligarch's relatives, they strangled the victim and threw the body into a landfill. The poor people of Medellin celebrated the death of Diego Echevario and began to respectfully call him "El Doctor" as a sign of gratitude to Escobar. While robbing the rich, Pablo did not forget about the poor, realizing that sooner or later they would become his defenders. He built them cheap housing, and his popularity in Medellin grew day by day.

3. So at the age of 22, Escobar was the most famous crime boss in Medellin. His gang grew, and Pablo decided to get involved in a new criminal business - cocaine trafficking. This narcotic substance was contained in many plants common in Colombia, and the local population has long been involved in its production. But Escobar thought globally. He set this up on an industrial scale. At first, Pablo’s group acted as intermediaries, buying goods from “artisans” and selling them to resellers who sold cocaine in the United States. And soon the businessman himself took up drug smuggling. Escobar's business covered not only the whole of South America, he opened "branches" throughout the Caribbean. For example, a transshipment point was created in the Bahamas for the storage and further transportation of cocaine. A large pier, a number of gas stations and a modern hotel with all amenities were built. Not a single drug trafficker could export cocaine outside of Colombia without the permission of Pablo Escobar. Escobar 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 got rich, becoming one of the richest. He continued to invest dollars in the development of the drug industry.

4. In 1977, having combined his capital with three more cocaine magnates, Escobar and his companions created the Medellin cocaine cartel - not just a large monopoly, but an entire empire that entangled almost the entire world in its network. She had at her disposal airplanes, submarines, not to mention the most common means of transport. To sell goods and make a profit, Escobar did not disdain any techniques. He used blackmail, bribery of authorities, and threats.

5. In 1979, Escobar's empire accounted for more than 80% of the US cocaine industry. The 30-year-old drug trafficker became one of the richest people in the world, his personal fortune amounted to billions of dollars. Escobar decided to legalize his business. To do this, he decided to get into power and politics. Money and authority decided everything. In 1982, Pablo Escobar ran for office and, at 32, became a substitute congressman for the Colombian Congress, harboring dreams of the presidency. However, although a popular man in Medellin, he was known in other parts of the country as a dubious character, which was the reason for his expulsion from Congress. His rivals for the presidency have launched a widespread campaign against investing dirty money in electoral contests. Through the efforts of the Minister of Justice Rodrigo Lara Bonia, the road to big politics was blocked for Escobar.
6. This fact formed the basis of Escobar’s new criminal activity - terror. Revenge is what motivated the offended and wounded drug lord. He brutally dealt with the Minister of Justice, and a similar fate awaited many of his offenders. On his orders, thousands of people were killed, Colombia turned into a military camp. In the mid-80s. In the 20th century, his cocaine empire controlled all spheres of life in the country. But then the Reagan government declared war on the drug lords and organized massive campaigns to counter the spread of drugs not only in the United States, but throughout the world. Pablo even wanted to surrender to the Colombian authorities in exchange for not being extradited to the United States. The authorities refused, to which they received terror from Escobar.

7. On August 16, 1989, Supreme Court Judge Carlos Valencia died at the hands of the drug lord's killers. The next day, police Colonel Waldemar Franklin Contero was killed. On August 18, famous Colombian politician Luis Carlos Galan died from a bullet wound at an election rally. And before the elections, the terror of the Medellin cartel spread with renewed vigor: dozens of people became its victims 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, Escobar's mercenaries planted a bomb on a Boeing 727 of the Colombian airline Avianca, which was carrying 101 passengers and 6 crew members. The future president of Colombia, Cesar Gaviria Trujillo, was supposed to fly on this plane, but for some reason he canceled his flight. Five minutes after the airliner took off, a powerful explosion was heard, breaking the plane in half. Burning debris fell onto nearby hills. None of the people on board survived, and three people on the ground were killed by falling aircraft debris. The authorities declared a real war on cocaine dealers in terror: chemical laboratories and plantations were destroyed, and drug cartel workers found themselves behind bars. As a result of just one 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. In response to this, Pablo twice made attempts on the life of 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 about 100 of varying degrees of severity.

8. In 1989, Forbes magazine estimated Escobar's fortune at $47 billion. Escobar owned 34 estates, 500 thousand hectares of land, 40 rare Rolls-Royce cars. On the Naples estate (20 thousand hectares, airstrips), he created the largest zoo on the continent, where 120 antelopes, 30 buffalos, 6 hippopotamuses, 3 elephants and 2 rhinoceroses were brought from all over the world.

9. He topped the list of the most wanted drug traffickers in the United States. Invariably following on his heels was an elite special forces unit, which set itself the task of catching or destroying Pablo Escobar at any cost.

10. Escobar had 400 mistresses, for whom he built an entire 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, a design that was not like any other. When one of the drug lord's girlfriends, 15-year-old Maria, became pregnant, he did not kill her or take her out of sight. Escobar married a girl, and she bore him two wonderful children - a son, Juan Pablo, and a daughter, Manuella.

All his life he tried to be a good husband and father and always cared about their safety. One day, while hiding from government agents, Escobar, along with his son and daughter, found himself in a high mountain hideout. The night turned out to be extremely cold, and in an attempt to warm his daughter, Escobar burned almost two million dollars in cash.
11. When a threat loomed over his head, he built a shelter for himself, which he considered a prison. The huge palace in the rocks of Envigado had not only torture chambers, but also a disco, a swimming pool, a jacuzzi and a sauna, and a bar. Escobar took revenge on his traitors with the most sophisticated executions.

12. In the fall of 1993, the Medellin cocaine cartel began to disintegrate, but the drug lord was more worried about his family. Escobar has not seen his wife or children for more than a year. On December 1, 1993, Pablo Escobar turned 44 years old. He celebrated his birthday at a secret apartment. He knew he was being followed and still called his son Juan. And although the conversation was brief, this time was enough for the intelligence services, who spotted where the drug lord was located. His house was surrounded. Escobar and his bodyguard fired back to the last. According to the official version, the drug lord was taken down by a Los Pepes sniper, who also killed him with a control shot to the head. However, Escobar's son Juan claims that his father committed suicide, seeing no other way out.

13. About 20 thousand people came to Escobar's funeral and cried. As witnesses to the funeral note, they were not hired actors. The feelings were sincere. When Escobar's coffin was carried through the streets of Medellin, a stampede began. The lid of the coffin 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 for the last time. Then the Colombians dismantled the dead man’s villa brick by brick in search of the valuables hidden by the richest drug lord.

14. After Escobar's death, his sister asked for forgiveness from the victims of her brother's criminal activities. At the same time, the Colombian authorities refused to register the relatives of the drug lord trademark"Pablo Emilio Escobar Gaviria." The refusal was made on the grounds of harm to public morals and order. It is noteworthy that neither the widow nor the children of the drug lord themselves bear his name: after moving to Argentina in the late 90s of the twentieth century, they changed their surnames. And US and Colombian law enforcement agencies are still searching for Escobar, believing that a double of the legendary cocaine king was shot dead in December 1993.
15.V computer games GTA Vice City and GTA Vice City Stories The international airport is named after Pablo Escobar. The repertoire of the Russian musical group “Bad Balance” includes the song “Pablo Escobar”.

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Pablo Emilio Escobar Gaviria is the most famous drug lord and terrorist from Colombia. He entered the world history textbooks as the most brutal criminal of the twentieth century. He was born on December 1, 1949 in a small town called Rionegro, and on December 2, 1993 he was killed in Bogota (in the Los Olibos area).
Escobar earned an incredible fortune from selling cocaine; in 1989, Forbes magazine included him in the list of the richest people on the planet. With a capital of $25 billion, he took seventh place in the ranking.
According to some estimates, in total the drug lord killed about 10 thousand people. Despite this, Escobar was considered a criminal with a code of honor: for example, in the largest city in Colombia after Bogota - Medellin - an entire quarter for the poor and more than ten football fields for children were built with his funds.

Childhood

Pablo Escobar was born in 1949 in the provincial town of Rionegro. For his peasant parents, he became the third child. The boy's father was a poor farmer, and his mother worked as a school teacher.
In his youth, Pablo could spend hours listening to stories about the famous Colombian criminals - “banditos”. Like Robin Hood, these people took money from the rich and gave it to the poor. Little Escobar immediately decided for himself that in the future he would become the same “banditos”. No one could have imagined that after just a quarter of a century these naive childhood dreams would come true.
h2 Start of criminal activity
Pablo studied in a poor school, among children from the same poor families. He and his classmates openly supported the Cuban Revolution - most of the children had left-wing political views. In high school, Escobar became interested in marijuana and began to show up less and less in class. At the age of 16 he was expelled. Freed from school duties, Pablo Escobar embarked on a criminal path.
Pablo spent all his free time in the criminal areas of Medellin - this city was considered the criminal capital of Colombia. Together with his friends, he organized a small business of stealing and reselling tombstones from local cemeteries. They soon moved on to more serious crimes - stealing luxury cars, which were then dismantled and sold for parts. Emboldened, Pablo Escobar even began offering car owners his patronage - those who refused to pay tribute to his group quickly lost their vehicles.

From hijacking and racketeering, Escobar gradually moved on to kidnapping and even murder. At the age of 21, Pablo gathered around him dozens of faithful assistants. Meanwhile, his gang's methods continued to become harsher and more disgusting.

El Patron

In 1971, when Escobar was 22 years old, his associates kidnapped a wealthy, disreputable landowner named Diego Echevario. They killed him after much torture and abuse. Local residents who worked for this industrialist perceived this act as heroism - they seriously hated Echevario. After this incident, among the poor he acquired the nickname “El Doctor” (in Spanish – “El Doctor”). Since then, Pablo Escobar began helping local poor people, spending his money to build inexpensive houses. He knew that in the future they would become a kind of human target between his gang and the state. Every day he became more popular.

Pablo Escobar's passport
Soon, Escobar's gang managed to intercept the production of cocaine from competitors from Chile. He was able to turn his trade into an incredibly successful business, with the help of which he earned a lot of money and became the biggest authority in the city. After some time, the activities of Pablo’s group expanded beyond Medellin. The daring El Doctor turned into the deadly "El Patron" (in Spanish - "El Patron") - the new nickname stuck with him until his death.

Cocaine business

Young hippies from America in the mid-1970s were already bored with marijuana. There was a need for a more powerful and effective drug - cocaine. El Patron built his criminal empire on its sale. Buying it from manufacturers, Escobar organized resale to smugglers for shipment to the States.

Still from the TV series Narcos. Pablo Escobar in front of a cocaine warehouse
With his animal cruelty, malice and tirelessness, El Pablo did not give his competitors a single chance to take a share of the drug trade market. As soon as Pablo learned about cases of criminal success among competition, he took away someone else’s business by force. Anyone who even indirectly tried to interfere with his activities went missing.
In just a few years of such aggressive business practices, Escobar's cartel began to run the entire drug trade in Colombia. Without El Patron's demand, it was impossible to start selling cocaine abroad, and for each batch sold, 35% of the profit went into his pocket.

Pablo Escobar had so much money that he did not have time to spend it - and he stopped perceiving the police and government power as a serious threat. So, in 1976, a drug lord was detained while attempting to illegally export a cocaine shipment. A couple of years later, the policeman who arrested him, along with the judge who issued the warrant for his arrest, were already dead.

Pablo Escobar's women

In 1974, when El Patron was 24 years old, he began dating a thirteen-year-old girl, Maria Victoria. To stop the girl’s parents’ attempts to separate them, Escobar moved with her to Palmyra. In the spring of 1976, they formalized their relationship. Soon the drug lord's wife (who was only 14 years old at that time) gave birth to a son, Juan Pablo. More than three years after this, the couple also had a daughter named Manuela.

Escobar with his wife and children
Throughout his life, Pablo Escobar had a huge number of mistresses. It is known that he was a pedophile - he especially liked to deflower underage girls. According to the most conservative estimates, El Patron had about four hundred women. For them, the drug lord had a real harem. Each of his passions (by the way, some of them were actresses, famous journalists, winners of beauty contests and popular fashion models) had a personal home with a unique design.
One of his most popular mistresses was the well-known journalist throughout Colombia, Virginia Vallejo. El Patron had a special connection with her - their romance lasted for five whole years (not every concubine of a crime boss managed to maintain interest in herself for so long). In 2007, she published an autobiography about her life with Pablo Escobar, which became a bestseller.

Medellin cartel

In mid-1977, Pablo Escobar, along with several other major drug traffickers in Colombia, teamed up to form the Medellin Cartel. Its head was, of course, El Patron. From that moment on, he owned the most powerful financial and cocaine empire in the whole world. To transport goods, the cartel used all possible means - even planes and submarines.
Pablo Escobar's authority has reached unprecedented heights. He easily bribed the police, courts, and officials. El Patron did not disdain blackmail. He was ready to do anything to achieve his goal,

Pablo Escobar's golden machine gun
Pablo spent part of his untold wealth on the construction of budget housing for the poor. The population reciprocated Escobar by electing him as a member of the National Congress of Colombia.

Not knowing where else to spend the money, Escobar bought everything he could get his hands on. His possessions included more than five hundred thousand hectares of land, more than thirty country residences, and forty antique cars. The main residence of El Patron had several dozen artificial lakes, six swimming pools and even a private airport.
In one of his estates (with an area of approximately 20 thousand hectares), he organized the largest zoo on the entire continent. Colossal sums were spent on delivering exotic animals here!

Political career

In early 1982, Pablo became a member of the Colombian Parliament. He seriously planned to become the president of the country.
Escobar was prevented from implementing his bold political plans by the Minister of Justice Rodrigo Lara Bonia, who organized a large-scale campaign against the drug lord. As a result, in early 1984, El Patron was expelled from Congress. Of course, revenge on the minister was a matter of time.

Escobar with the local football team
At the end of April 1984, Bonia's car was machine-gunned in the middle of Bogota's busiest street. This was the first time such an important Colombian politician was assassinated.

Terrorism

After the assassination of the minister, Escobar founded the terrorist organization Los Extraditables (in Spanish - Los Extraditables). Its members attacked politicians and law enforcement officers - anyone who refused to cooperate with Escobar.
People hired by El Patron captured the Palace of Justice in the center of the country along with several hundred people. The army managed to eliminate the terrorists, but more than a hundred innocent citizens died.

Consequences of the explosions organized by Escobar
In 1986, the country's authorities launched a large-scale operation to search for Jorge Luis Ochoa, one of the leaders of the Medellin cartel, who was offering a reward of $4 million for the head of the American ambassador. Within ten days, more than two thousand people were arrested throughout the country, 2 tons of cocaine, 10 tons of cocaine paste, about 50 tons of coca leaves, and hundreds of tons of various weapons were confiscated.

After the assassination of the minister, Escobar hid in the shadows, but he still managed to unleash large-scale terrorist operations in Colombia. In less than a few years, about a thousand people suffered at the hands of his people - including judges, journalists and police officers who did not want to cooperate with the cartel. On his orders, a plane with 107 passengers on board was blown up - with this operation, El Patron hoped to kill Cesar Gaviria, who was elected president of the country, but by luck he was unable to fly on this flight.
In December 1989, police chief Miguel Marquez was attacked. As a result, 62 people died from the explosion, and more than a hundred people were seriously injured.

Detention

The American government became involved in the capture of the criminal, and on June 19, 1991, Escobar was forced to surrender to the authorities. He admitted his guilt to only a couple of crimes - and then only on the condition that his punishment would be commuted.
The deadliest terrorist on the planet ended up in a prison that he himself had built years earlier. It was called “La Catedral” (in Spanish – “La Catedral”) and was equipped no worse than a five-star hotel: on its territory there was a large swimming pool, a jacuzzi, a dance floor, a sauna and even a normal-size football field. The crime boss was constantly visited by friends, family and numerous lovers. Things reached the point of absurdity - Escobar could leave the prison at any time to visit brothels, restaurants and football matches.

"Prison" where Pablo Escobar was imprisoned
Despite his imprisonment, El Patron continued to lead the drug cartel. It is known that once drug dealers who were caught stealing his money were brought to his prison. For several hours he brutally tortured them - right in the correctional facility!

The death of Pablo Escobar - the end of the cocaine era

In July 1992, a drug lord escaped from prison. He behaved very carefully until December 1993, when he called his family and talked longer than expected. Thanks to this, the authorities were able to establish the location of Escobar.
Within an hour, his house was surrounded by law enforcement officers. Escobar didn’t even have time to come to his senses when they started knocking down the doors. Besides him, in the house there was his aunt and devoted assistant Alvaro, nicknamed Lemon (the police shot him first).
Climbing out the window, El Patron tried to escape from the police along the roofs of buildings. There he was shot - or he shot himself (the investigation was unable to establish the exact data). Law enforcement officers took the famous photo next to the corpse of the deceased crime boss - the photo of the bloody body with smiling police officers in the background appeared on the front pages of newspapers around the world. Thus ended an entire era of El Patron's rule.
Pablo Escobar was buried in the Montesacro cemetery in Medellin.

(Spanish: Pablo Emilio Escobar Gaviria, 12/01/1949 - 12/02/1993) - a famous world terrorist, a Colombian drug lord who earned fabulous money in the drug business and went down in world history as one of the most brutal criminals of the 20th century.

In 1989, according to Forbes magazine, he took 7th position in the ranking of the richest people on the planet. His personal fortune was $25 billion USD.

According to experts, in total, Escobar is responsible for about 10 thousand human lives. At the same time, he was a criminal with a code of honor. For example, it was at his expense that numerous football fields for children were built in Medellin, as well as an entire neighborhood for the poor.

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Childhood

Pablo Emilio Escobar Gaviria was born in 1949, 40 km. from (Spanish Medellín) - the city of Rionegro (Spanish Rionegro) department of Antioquia (Spanish Antioquia), .

He became the third child in an ordinary peasant family. Little Pablo loved to listen to heroic stories about the legendary Colombian “banditos” (Spanish: banditos): how they robbed the rich while helping the poor. As a child, he decided that he would definitely become just such a “banditos” when he grew up. Who would have thought that in just a couple of decades the romantic dreams of a little boy would turn into a national nightmare.

Start of criminal activity

When Pablo was 12 years old, the family moved to the suburb of Medellin, the town of Envigado. The teenager soon became interested in marijuana. And at the age of 16, the future drug lord was kicked out of school. From that day on, Pablo began his career as a “banditos,” stealing tombstones from the local cemetery for resale. Then, having created a small group, he began stealing expensive cars and selling them for spare parts. Then Escobar came up with another “brilliant” idea: he offered his protection to potential victims of the hijacking. Anyone who refused to pay the gang would soon lose his “steel horse” - this was a real racket.

Further, from theft and racketeering, Pablo moved on to committing more serious crimes - kidnappings and murders. By the age of 21, Pablo had many associates. The crimes of Escobar's group became more and more ruthless, cruel and sophisticated.

El Patron

In 1971, people from Pablo Escobar's gang kidnapped a wealthy Colombian landowner-industrialist Diego Echevario (Spanish: Diego Echevario), who was killed after prolonged torture. This atrocity was enthusiastically received by the local poor peasants, who hated Echevario. The poor people of Medellin celebrated the death of Diego Echevario and, as a sign of gratitude, began to respectfully call Escobar " El Doctor"(Spanish: El Doctor). Meanwhile, “El Doctor” took over the production of cocaine from the Chileans, turning it into a fabulously profitable business, from which he became fantastically rich, becoming one of the major criminal authorities in Medellin, and his rating in the city grew day by day. It was during this time that the young "El Doctor" became " El Patron"(Spanish: "El Patron"), and he lived with this nickname until his death.

Pablo Escobar - drug lord

The new generation of American hippies of the 70s. was no longer content with marijuana alone. A new, stronger drug was needed - cocaine. Pablo Escobar began to build his criminal business on it. He bought cocaine from producers, then resold it to smugglers for transportation to the United States. The lack of “brakes”, Pablo’s constant readiness to kill, manic cruelty - all this put him beyond competition. When Escobar heard rumors of some lucrative criminal business, he simply seized it by force. Anyone who stood in his way, even somehow threatening his activities, immediately disappeared without a trace. Soon he was in charge of almost the entire cocaine business of the country: without his permission, not a single drug dealer could take his goods out of the country, he withdrew a 35% tax from each shipment of cocaine, ensuring its delivery. Escobar's drug career was more than successful - El Patron was literally swimming in money, having finally lost all respect for the law.

In 1976, Pablo was caught trying to smuggle cocaine, and a few years later the police officer who arrested him and the judge who issued the arrest warrant were killed on his orders.

Personal life or Women of Pablo Escobar

In 1974, when Pablo Escobar was 24, he began dating 13-year-old Maria Victoria Henao Vellejo. When the girl's parents tried to separate them, the couple fled to Palmyra. In March 1976, the young people got married, and soon, when Maria was not even 15 years old, they had a son, and after another 3.5 years, their beloved daughter.

From that time on, the patron became vulnerable, because the family is always an obstacle when conducting criminal cases.

Throughout his life, Escobar had a huge number of extramarital affairs. He was famous for his love of pedophilia, preferring underage girls. Especially young virgins. It is known for certain that the drug lord had more than 400 mistresses, in fact, concubines. An entire small closed town was built for them. Each of his mistresses (among whom were actresses, beauty pageant winners and fashion models) had a personal cottage with a swimming pool, fountains, various porticoes and elegant gazebos; each house was unique in its architectural design and landscape design.

For the first time in Colombia, an official of such a high rank was killed by bandits. From that day on, drug mafia terror began to spread throughout the country, to which the state responded with an all-out war.

Terrorism

Pablo Ecobar created the terrorist group “Los Extraditables” (Spanish: “Los Extraditables”), whose bandits carried out raids on officials and police - everyone who was against the drug trade.

After the daring murder of the minister, an arrest warrant was issued for the drug lord. Therefore, he was forced to “lay low.”

To show that he was not broken, Escobar hired a large group of guerrillas to commit sabotage, arming them with machine guns, grenades and portable rocket launchers. The saboteurs, suddenly appearing in the center of the capital, captured the Palace of Justice, inside of which there were several hundred people. The partisans opened indiscriminate fire and destroyed all documents related to the extradition of criminals from the drug mafia. Large army and police forces were urgently brought into Bogota. But only assault battalions, supported by tanks and combat helicopters, managed to recapture the Palace of Justice, killing more than 100 people.

Meanwhile, authorities continued their offensive against the drug cartel. In 1986, an operation began to search for one of the leaders of the drug cartel (Spanish Jorge Luis Ochoa), who offered a $4 million reward for the murder of the American Ambassador Tambs. In 10 days, about 2.5 thousand people were arrested in the country, 2 tons of cocaine, 10 tons of cocaine paste, 48 tons of coca leaves, 11 aircraft, more than 200 automatic weapons, 38 thousand cartridges, 11 tons of acetone, 100 tons were confiscated various chemicals, 1 thousand sticks of dynamite.

In 1987, a US court sentenced one of the bosses of the Medellin Cartel (Spanish Carlos Lehder) to life imprisonment and another 135 years.

Even while underground, Pablo Escobar unleashed global terror in the country in order to show everyone who was the real boss here. In less than 2 years, the number of victims of mercenaries reached 1000 people. Among them were judges, journalists who spoke out against the drug mafia, and about 600 police officers. On the orders of a drug lord who had his mouth in his mouth, an airliner with 107 passengers on board was blown up. Escobar's target was (Spanish: César Gaviria Trujillo), the future president of Colombia, who was planning to fly on this flight, but canceled the flight at the last moment. In the assassination attempt on secret police boss Miguel Marquez, organized by El Patron on December 6, 1989, more than 62 people died from a bomb explosion and 100 were seriously injured.

War declared on the Colombian drug mafia

The US authorities joined the war against the Colombian drug mafia and offered to expel drug lords to be kept in their prisons, where ransoming was excluded. Thanks to American financial assistance, law enforcement agencies Colombia managed to organize a counter-offensive against the cocaine cartel, then, as a result of just one operation, 989 houses and farms, 367 aircraft, 710 cars, 5 tons of cocaine and 1,279 military weapons were confiscated from Escobar. For every blow from the government, the criminal cartel responded with a counterattack: burning houses, killing political officials, blowing up party headquarters, publishing houses, and banks. So, in September 1989 it was blown up central point liberal newspaper "El Espectador" (Spanish: "El Espectador"), in November a plane flying from Bogota to Bogotá burned down, and on Christmas Eve the headquarters of the state police in the country's capital was blown up. Before the elections, the terror of the cocaine cartel acquired unprecedented proportions: dozens of people were killed by killers every day.

A Colombian drug lord topped the US's most wanted list. He was hunted by an elite special forces unit, which was faced with the task of catching or destroying Escobar. The Colombian authorities created a “Special Search Group”, which included the best specialists from the special services, the army and the prosecutor’s office. Soon, several people close to him found themselves behind bars.

Escobar's gang took several hostages influential people countries. The drug lord believed that, under pressure from wealthy relatives of the abducted, the government would cancel the agreement with the United States on the extradition of drug traffickers. The drug king's plan was a success and the extradition was cancelled. But, surrounded on all sides, on June 19, 1991, he himself surrendered to the authorities. Pablo Escobar agreed to plead guilty to only a few crimes on the condition that he be forgiven for his past sins.

Imprisonment behind bars

Even the punishment turned out to be unusual: the most brutal terrorist in the world served his sentence in the prison “” (Spanish: La Catedral), which he himself built, where there was a swimming pool, a discotheque, a jacuzzi, a sauna and even a large football field. The patron was visited by friends, associates and women, and the family visited Escobar at any time. At the same time, the “Special Group” did not have the right to approach “La Catedral” closer than 20 km. He himself left and came as he pleased, regularly visiting Medellin nightclubs, restaurants and football matches.

Moreover, Pablo Escobar was still in charge of the drug business. There was a case when one day, having learned that his partners were stealing money from him, he ordered his henchmen to bring it to La Catedral, where he personally subjected the offenders to sophisticated torture, drilling the victims’ knees and tearing out their nails, then giving the order to kill them and remove the corpses further.

La Catedral prison

The escape

When these facts became public, on July 22, 1992, President Gaviria ordered the cocaine baron to be transferred to a real prison. When Pablo Escobar found out about this decision, he decided that he had already “had enough” and ran away. But there were few places left where he could find refuge for himself. The governments of Colombia and the United States were determined to put an end to the Medellin Cocaine Cartel and its leader, and his friends abandoned him. However, Pablo continued to consider himself a more significant figure than he actually was. He still had enormous financial resources, but he had already lost real power. The drug lord tried to reach an agreement with the government by making a deal with the justice system. But the President of Colombia and the US authorities did not want to enter into negotiations with him and decided to capture and eliminate Escobar.

A $10 million bounty was placed on the head of the cocaine king. This was an amount equivalent to the salary of the President of Colombia for almost 200 years! At that time, this was the largest reward for the capture of a criminal.

Meanwhile, while free, the drug lord made another attempt to intimidate the government with brutal terror. On January 30, 1993, he organized an explosion on a crowded street in the capital. As a result of the terrorist attack, more than 20 people were killed and about 70 were seriously injured.

The Hunt for Pablo Escobar

With this merciless terrorist attack, the drug lord brought disaster upon himself - a new organization “” (“People who suffered from P.E.”) entered the fight against him. The day after the explosion in Bogota, members of Los Pepes burned down Pablo Escobar's house. On his orders, the relatives of the victims began a hunt for members of the drug cortel and his relatives. They acted as brutally as the cocaine mafia, instilling deep fear in her.

Los Pepes began to persecute everyone who was in any way connected with Escobar and his cocaine empire: they were all simply killed. In a short time, the organization caused great damage to the cartel, many of his associates were killed, opponents persecuted the drug lord's family, and burned his estates. In the fall of 1993, the Medellin cartel collapsed. Pablo himself was more worried, he was seriously alarmed, because if the family were discovered, Los Pepes would destroy it without sparing anyone.

The Death of Pablo Escobar or the End of the Era of the Cocaine King

While in hiding, he did not see his wife and children for more than a year, and, knowing about constant surveillance, he spoke extremely briefly even on the phone. On December 1, 1993, “El Patron” turned 44 years old, and this time his nerves gave way: the next day, December 2, 1993, he called his family, as if he wanted to say goodbye. The last person he spoke to was his son, they remained on the line for almost 5 minutes, 2 times longer than required by security measures. This time was enough to spot Escobar in the Los Olibos district of Medellin.

Soon the house where he was hiding was surrounded by special agents, two of them knocked down the door and rushed inside. The former leader of the Colombian drug mafia knew they were coming. But everything happened so quickly that he didn’t even have time to put on his shoes. Pablo Escobar himself, his devoted sicario, was in the house Alvaro de Jesus Agudelo(Spanish: Alvaro de Jesús Agudelo) nicknamed Lemon (Spanish: El limón), who was killed first, and the owner of the house is the drug lord’s own aunt. Firing back, Pablo climbed out the window, trying to escape pursuit across the rooftops. The sniper's bullet (or El Patron himself | not proven) caught up with him, hitting him in the head. The drug king died instantly. The rest immediately went up to the roof to take a photo with the expensive “trophy”; later this photo spread throughout the world.

The scene of his death was depicted in a famous painting by a Colombian painter.

On December 3, 1993, thousands of Colombians took to the streets of Medellin. Some came to mourn him, and others rejoiced.

But today, when asked who Pablo Escobar was, not a single slum dweller in Medellin will say a bad word about him. Although the patron was one of the most malicious terrorists and brutal criminals on the planet. His portraits are sold next to his portraits. In some places he is revered as a saint, and pilgrimages are still made to his grave. The legend of the "King of Cocaine" is one of the main reasons for Medellin's tourism success, and its museum is visited by tens of thousands of tourists every year.

Today many people are interested in the question, where is pablo escobar buried? His grave located in the Montesacro cemetery (Spanish: Cementerio de Montesacro) in the south of Medellin. Dozens of people visit Escobar's grave every day. Many of them leave lit candles or notes for Pablo at its base. And some even smoked marijuana cigarettes. They say that some people often come here to take a dose of cocaine, rolling out trails of white powder right on the drug lord's tombstone. By the way, Escobar’s grave is guarded around the clock. The reason is not only vandals who can violate the grave, but also large quantities hunters for the bones of the "Cocaine King". Moreover, there have already been similar cases when various groups individuals tried several times to dig up the remains of Pablo Escobar from the ground.

Pablo's grave

Narcos

In 2015, the American film studio Netflix released the acclaimed television series NARCO. Its plot, of course, focuses on Escobar's rise to power as head of the Medellin cartel.

The role of Pablo was played by a Brazilian theater and film actor. Wagner Manisoba de Moura(port. Wagner Maniçoba de Moura).

The second season of the series was released in September 2016.

Some rules of life for Escobar

(Quotes from the drug lord’s statements and excerpts from his suicide letter)

I am a modest person, I just export flowers.
Those who have something to say are more likely to remain silent.
I know that many people find my lifestyle excessive. But what should I do with my money?
In this life I can find a replacement for any thing. But I will NEVER be able to find a replacement for my wife and children.
Every person is a saint for someone.
Although many people say that I am a terrorist, I have always acted as a man of duty. I believe that every person should fight for his family and his property. And if he needs a weapon for this, so be it.
You can consider me God! Because if I decide that someone is destined to die, he will die on the same day.
For some reason, many people forget how much I have done for the poor. I am very proud to have been called the Robin Hood of all the "paisas" (people of northwestern Colombia). Even government officials cannot deny that I have done more for the poor than all of them combined in all my worthless lives.
I would rather rot in the soil of Colombia than live in a US prison.
America is 200 million idiots led by 1 million special agents.
All empires are always built on blood and fire.
There is nothing worse than a person in power who has personal problems.
Everything in the world has its price, and the most important thing is the ability to correctly determine it.
In our world, money is NEVER pure.
I did not earn my fortune and achieve power in order to exist like a rat.
Every year it becomes more and more difficult to predict the future.
Never trust anyone, especially yourself.
There is nothing more valuable than a given promise. There is nothing more shameful than breaking it.
The best way to deal with your enemies is to simply stop noticing them.
No creature can ever catch me, I am capable of killing them all.
Death cannot be deceived, but you can make friends with it.
When you are dead, you have nothing to fear anymore.
It's impossible to know which bullet will kill you because they don't have names written on them.
All I wanted was to make my Colombia better.
If HEAVEN exists, I can always count on it!