Pablo Emilio Escobar Gaviria, popularly known as ‘The
King of Cocaine’, was a Colombian drug lord who was responsible for
almost 80% of the cocaine smuggled to the United States at the peak of
his career. The drug lord was one among the top ten richest men in the
world with an estimated net worth of 30 billion dollars. Recently a
ten-episode series named Narcos was released which outlines the life of
this notorious cartel lord. Read on to find out some intriguing and
mind-boggling facts about the life of Pablo Escobar.
1. The underworld kingpin is the epitome of rags to
riches story and it is believed that he earned as much as $420 million
in a week, when his drug racquets were at its peak.
pablo-escobar-vs-el-chapo-guzman
2. The conman owned a sprawling estate in Puerto
Triunfo which housed a private zoo. Animals including hippos, giraffes,
and elephants were the main attraction in the menagerie.
3. Though thousands were killed because of his
illicit activities, the drug mafia leader was hailed as a messiah by the
poor in Colombia. Much of his income was donated to churches and
hospitals, utilized to feed the needy and develop infrastructure.
4. Escobar rose to the pinnacle of drug dealing by
eliminating everyone who came in his way. It is estimated that about
4,000 people were killed or terminated at his orders. The victims
included 200 judges and close to 1,000 cops, journalists or government
officials.
5. The drug lord was apparently terrified of extradition and wanted to avoid doing time in an American prison.
6. Though he was infamous for his drug trade, his
tryst with the other side of law began with selling stolen tombstones
and stealing cars.
7. The king of the underworld belonged to a family
of modest means in Colombia. While his father practiced farming, his
mother taught at a school.
8. With the noose finally tightening around his
neck, Escobar went into hiding with his family. During this time his
daughter fell sick; the underworld don used dollar bills as fuel for
fire in order to keep Manuela warm. A
9. It is believed that, Escobar owned a Learjet which was used only for transporting his money.
10. He was a man of many resources and knew that
everything was possible if the price is right. Pilots would smuggle
cocaine in plane tires for Escobar and would be handsomely rewarded for
their discreet services. The fee was proportionate to the weight of
cocaine they would smuggle and sometimes the fliers would earn as much
as $500,000 at a time.
11. We have told you that the kingpin was afraid of
extradition but what you might not know is that in order to avoid being
extradited to the USA, Escobar tried to bribe Colombian officials. In
exchange for his freedom he offered to pay off the nation’s debt, which
was estimated at 10 billion dollars.
12. By now you must have realized that the drug lord
possessed insane amounts of money. So much so that the monthly expenses
for buying rubber bands to tie the notes into bundle was around $2,500.
13. Pablo Escobar amassed a fortune worth 30 billion dollars in his lifetime.
14. The drug trafficker’s network had expanded far
and wide and at its peak he was known for smuggling as much as tons of
cocaine in a day.
15. Though his money was earned by fraudulent means,
he spent a large chunk of it for the betterment of the poor and needy.
His deeds earned him the moniker ‘Robin Hood’.
16. He was also known by the names ‘Don Pablo’ and ‘El Patron’.
17. Escobar had to suffer much loss at the hands of rodents, who nibbled away about ten percent of his amassed wealth.
18. The cartel lord had a deal with the Colombian
Government, who would hold him captive for a maximum term of five years
instead of extraditing him to USA. However Pablo would be given the free
reign to live in a prison of his own choice and choose his own guards.
He built a luxury prison for himself which was called ‘La Catedral’. The
prison encompassed a soccer field, bar, jaccuzi and even an artificial
waterfall.
19. More than 80 percent of the cocaine smuggled to the US soil during the 1980s, bore the markings of Escobar.
20. After the Colombian government sided with the
US, a massive manhunt was organized to track down the cartel lord. As
many as 600 people were employed in the search team. On December 2,
1993, Escobar was killed in an encounter; many are of the opinion that
he pulled the trigger to kill himself before they could arrest him.
Weka Maoni Yako Hapa Chini
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