J.D. Rockefeller - Pablo Escobar: Colombias Hero or Villain? History of the Greatest Drug Lord

COLOMBIAS HERO OR VILLAIN? HISTORY OF THE GREATESTDRUG LORD

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Pablo Escobar, born on the 1st of December,1949 and killed on the 2nd of December, 1993 was a notorious druglord in Colombia. During the height of his career, he supplied anestimated 80 percent of the cocaine smuggled into the UnitedStates. He was widely regarded as the King of Cocaine, and thewealthiest drug lord in history with a net worth that had exceeded$30 billion by the start of the 90s, and estimated $50 billionincluding the money hidden in different areas in Colombia.

Escobar was born the third in a family ofseven in Rionegro, Colombia. His mother, Hermilda Gaviria was akindergarten school teacher and father Abel de Jesus Dari Escobar afarmer. His criminal career began on the streets of Medellin as ateenager when he stole gravestones and sanded them for resale tosmugglers. Roberto Escobar, his brother, however denies theseclaims, stating that the gravestones had come from cemetery ownerswith clients that had stopped paying for gravesite care, and thatthey had a relative in the monument business. Escobar brieflyattended the University Autonoma Latinoamericana in Medellin.

Escobar got involved in numerous criminalactivities with Oscar Bernal Aguirre, and these mostly includedselling contraband cigarettes, fake lottery tickets, auto theft andpetty street scams. During the early 70s, he was a bodyguard andthief, making a quick side $100,000 from kidnapping and extractingransom from, a business executive in Medellin. This happenedshortly before he entered the drug trade. The next course of actionin his career was to become a millionaire from working as a drugsmuggler for Alvaro Prieto. Pablos childhood dream was to become amillionaire before he reached the age of 22.

Roberto Escobar, Pablos brother discussedsome of the means that rose Pablo from a middle class resident toone of the wealthiest men in the world. At the pinnacle of hiscareer, the Medellin Cartel was able to smuggle as much as 15 tonsof cocaine worth half a billion dollars a day into the UnitedStates. According to reports from Roberto, he and his brother spentabout $1,000 a week on rubber bands to use in wrapping up stacks ofcash, and storing much of it in warehouses. An estimated 10 percentof it had to be written off due to damage from rats that crept inand nibbled on the hundred dollar notes.

Escobars cocaine operation began developmentin 1975. He even flew a plane piloted by himself several times aweek between Colombia and Panama just to smuggle loads into theUnited States. After purchasing fifteen bigger planes and sixhelicopters, he decommissioned his old plane and hung it just abovethe gate at his Hacienda Napoles ranch. During the course of May1976, Pablo and some his men were arrested after being found inpossession of 18kg of cocaine after their return trip to Medellinfrom Ecuador. Pablo initially attempted to bribe the judges whowere building a strong case against him. Instead, after months oflegal debacles, Escobar had the arresting officers killed, leadingto the case being dropped. Since then, he began a pattern ofdealings with officials by either killing or bribing them. RobertoEscobar still maintains that Pablo ventured into the drug businessbecause moving contraband cigarettes had become too perilous.

By then, there were no known drug cartels,but rather a couple of drug barons meaning that business was briskfor everyone in the trade. In Peru, they purchased cocaine paste,which they refined in their double-story laboratory in Medellin.During his initial trip to Peru, he only managed to buy 30 poundsof paste in what was later looked at as the first step to buildinghis empire. Initially, he smuggled cocaine in his old airplanetires, paying the pilot as much as $500,000 for each flight,depending on the load that could be smuggled.

In little time, the demand for cocaine in theUnited States had soared by epic proportions, and Pablo organizedadditional smuggling routes and other distribution networks across,California, Southern Florida and other parts of the United States.He worked with Carlos Lehder to develop Normans Cay, anisland-trans shipment in the island of Bahamas. Carlos and RobertVesco then went on to purchase much of the land on the island,which included a harbor, a 3,300 foot airstrip, houses, boats,aircraft, hotel and they even constructed a refrigerated warehousefor cocaine storage. Between 1978 and 1982, this became the mainsmuggling route for the cartel. Based on accounts from his brother,Pablo didnt purchase Normans Clay. Instead, it was a sole ventureby Carlos Lehder. Escobar purchased the 20km2 land that includedHacienda Napoles for a couple of millions.

Escobar created a lake, zoo and morediversions for his organization and empire. At some point it wasestimated that about 70-80 tons of cocaine were being moved fromColombia into the United States every month. At the height of hiscareer sometime in the mid-80s, Pablo was moving as much as 11 tonsof cocaine into the United States using jetliners. His biggestshipment was 23 tons of cocaine mixed with fish paste andtransported via ship; confirmed in his brothers book titledEscobar. In addition to planes for shipment, Roberto Escobarstates that his brother used remoted controlled submarines to shiphis massive loads of cocaine.

Sometime in 1982? Pablo Escobar was electedalternate member of the Chamber of Representatives of Colombia inthe Colombia Liberal Party. During the swearing in Felipe Gonzalez,Escobar had become an official representative.

Soon, Escobar became a prominent figure inthe world as the Medellin Cartel gained widespread notoriety. Thecartel oversaw a huge portion of the drugs that found their wayinto the U.S., Puerto Rico, Mexico, Venezuela, Spain and theDominican Republic with cocaine that was produced with cocoa fromBolivia and Peru via other drug dealers like Roberto Gomez sincecocoa from Colombia was initially of poor quality leading to anincrease in the demand for better cocaine. Escobars shipmentsreached many countries throughout America and Europe, with Spainbeing the gateway. His network was also rumored to have reachedparts of distant Asia.

Intimidation and corruption characterizedPablos dealings within the Colombian system. He devised aninescapable yet effective policy in dealing with officials and lawenforcement referred to as Plata o plomo, silver or lead whichsimply meant that accept money of face the bullets. The policyresulted in the killings of hundreds of people, including stateofficials, policemen and civilians. At the same time, he bribedpoliticians, government officials and countless judges. In 1989Escobar was allegedly responsible for the murder of presidentialcandidate Luis Galan, who was competing with two other candidates.He was also allegedly responsible for the 1989 bombing of the DASBuilding in Bogota as well as the Avianca Flight 203 bombing.