Pablo Escobar - Public enemy number 1....

Takes a lot to relegate Bin Laden into second place on the most wanted list.....But for most of my teenage years that's what "The Cocaine King" did....

Mainly because the Colombian Government was too scared to extradite him.....Because Pablo was simply bigger than his Country......

Escobar was head of the Medellin cartel....

He absolutely shredded South Florida with Cocaine in the 80s.....The drug wars took hundreds of lives...Got so bad that they were running out of places to store the bodies...

Nancy Reagan's just say no program was a result of the epidemic...

Pablo was worth $7 billion and was seventh on the Forbes list at one time...

He killed the President elect Galan who briefed against him....

He killed the Justice Secretary Rodrigo Lara who briefed against him.....Pablo was an elected member of congress before Lara kicked him out..

He kidnapped the Vice President when he was threatened with extradition.........A conflict that was only resolved when he gave himself up under the proviso that he could build his own prison.......The lavish domain is legendary "La Catedral"(Soccer pitches, Jacuzzis, water beds)......It was also surrounded by only three walls...So he could socialise in medellin at night...

Killed most of the supreme Justices who'd had the audacity to sign papers to extradite him......Bringing down the Palais de Justice with them..

He bombed the building of the largest newspaper in Colombia....Because he wasn't happy at some of the articles about him !!

He was a Chief suspect in the original Trade Center bombing......Something he vigorously denied... and complained that he was only being put on the list to keep him as a clear and present danger..."Why would I do something I can't profit from"..

However his biggest mistake was bringing down a 737 killing 102 people (Thought President Gaviria was on it) which unfortunately for him had Americans on board.....Making him a Clear and Present danger that couldn't be ignored.......The USA sent in Centra Spike.......

Around the same time as Centra spike a strange group called Los Pepes was formed ....Which seemed to have a lot of information on the Medellin cartel's organisational structure....High up "employees" of Pablo started to be murdered on a regular basis........Many people believe the Colombian and US governments were complicit in these murders........Escobar responded in kind...But his power chain and monetary sources where being squeezed....

Saying that it still took three years to find him......(He was savvy enough to build schools and hospitals for the poor in the good years..Colombian Governments were notably right wing back then) Because the people would alert him to any danger !!...

One time they raided the house he'd just been in while he sat at the top of a nearby hill and watched...

Finally Pablo stayed too long on his mobile phone talking to his son and was tracked to a house in Carrera........Where he was killed/executed trying to escape on the rooftop of the building......

Soft speaking, charming but paranoid and deadly...There will never be another Pablo Escobar.............

A great read is Killing Pablo by Mark Bowden who wrote Black Hawk Down...

a Truly amazing story......

Have read that book as well, very interesting. They say in there as well that there are loads of houses with false walls filled with money where the cartel were earning so much money they were hiding it and forgetting just where they had put it as there were so many of them.

It is a good case of the Robin Hood legend working well in Colombia. Protect the people and they protect you.

There is another book on Escobar that is worth getting hold of called Whitewash, is slightly more heavy going and academic but worth persevering with if anyone is interested in the subject. It basically argues that whilst Escobar was obviously a huge importer of cocaine into the US and a criminal on an epic scale he was one of many in Colombia at the time. His main error was to be so public, acts such as getting elected to congress serves to make him a figurehead for the problem of cocaine production and the ills Colombia suffered as a consequence of it. The argument is if you flaunt your ill-gotten gains so publicly and blatantly it obliges the powers that be to take action. In reality he was no worse that the Ochao brothers or the Cali cartels, the only essential difference was they were smart enough to maintain a low profile and work in the shadows.

When Escobar was eventually shot and killed most involved in the operation took their pats on the back and the cushy promotions that were their reward for his capture. There was a DEA Field agent down there called Joe Toft who did not buy all the self-congratulatory stuff and appeared on TV and argued that capturing Escobar was not actually that significant and the price paid for his capture was too high. His argument was the US’s desire to capture Escobar was so all consuming that no resources were focussed anywhere else, so whilst everybody was running round the country chasing Escobar, the Cali cartels and the Ochoa’s were refining their operations, strengthening their positions all pretty much unencumbered by the powers that be. He also argues that a lot of deals were made behind the scenes with these organisations whereby if they gave up Escobar or helped close the net on him a blind eye was turned to their crimes. Certainly food for thought and an interesting perspective. Fair to say Escobar’s death has not really done a lot to stem the flow of cocaine into the US or anywhere else, so perhaps he may not be so far off the mark.

To be fair if a billionaire drug dealer gets himself elected to a position of power and keeps killing people who are trying to stoo him, you kinda have to act.