Pablo Escobar often called the king of coke is the wealthiest criminal that history can yield up. He was also as ruthless and bloody as he was wealthy. From his humble beginnings as a teenage criminal to the height of his drug trade when he was the wealthiest of his generation, he always found ways to bypass obstacles and hindrances on his path to fame, wealth and influence.
Ten filthy facts about Pablo Escobar are gathered and aptly presented in this list. We hope you find then both entertaining and educative.
10. The Beginning Of His Criminal Career
He got initiated into the world of criminality at a very young age. His first illegal enterprises included
shelling contraband cigarettes, fake lottery tickets, and participating in motor vehicle theft. Some accounts hold that he also stole tombstones from graveyards and sold, also working as a thief, and a bodyguard. He hoped to achieve his dream of being a millionaire when he turned 22,
as fast as and anyhow it could be realized. These criminal activities led the way to drug trafficking as he criminal career progressed.
9. The Deaths Of 107 People Aboard A Plane
In 1989, an explosion went off on avianca flight 203, resulting in the deaths of the 101 passengers aboard and the crew of six. The Boeing 727 crashed near Bogotá. Pablo reportedly initiated the attack, the deadliest to occur in Columbia in decades, in hopes of killing off Cesar Gavira Trujillo a Columbian Presidential candidate, but his plans fell through and unluckily for him two American lives were lost in the attack which provoked the hunt for Pablo Escobar by the Bush administration.
8. The Palace Of Justice Siege
This event happened when the leftwing guerrillas from the 19th of April movement stormed the Colombian supreme court. The attack was supposedly fired up by the supreme court studying of the constitutionality of the Colombian extradition treaty with the U.S. The result was that half of the judges involved lost their lives in the attack, forcing the Colombian authorities to lid or close the case. M-19 were paid to break into the palace and burn all the papers and files on Los Extraditables, a group of cocaine smugglers who were under threat of being extradited to the U.S. of which Pablo Escobar was one, leading to the suspicion that he played a part in the bloodily fearsome attack.
7. His Narcotics Empire
Pablo Escobar entered the world of cocaine smuggling in the early 1970's, and gradually created the empire of his dreams. He formed the Medellin cartel which expertly handled his cocaine trade. By 1975 his cartel was already flying out plane loads of cocaine along smuggling routes into the USA, a plane load turning out about $500,000 per flight. With time he only became more sophisticated in and made more fortune with the illegal trade, till he was among the wealthiest and most powerful drug barons of his time with the growth and flourishing of his Coke empire.
7. His Use Of Hit Men
His had his own murderous group of killers that could get in to act at his command. He employed them in the elimination of people that obstructed his path. Jairo Velasquez was one of the most prominent of Pablo Escobar's hitmen. Also know as "Popeye",he confessed his participation in around 300 murders and his ordering some 3000 others. He was sentenced to 52 years in prison, but paroled in 2014 despite his staggering body count.
6. His Robin Hood Image
He crafted a Robin Hood image, one he somewhat successfully used to cover up his filthy personality. He built schools, sports fields for the local communities, also donating large sums of money to charity, amongst other things. This helped mould Pablo Escobar a saint in the eyes of the locals.
5. The Murder Capital Of The World
About 2,600 murders happened in Medellin, amongst about 2 million people in 1989. The murders included the ordinary populace, police officers, judges and politicians. Pablo's criminal campaigns contributed largely to this. He used arms to heartlessly eliminate obstacles, the murder rate in Medellin climbing as a result. 25,100 deaths went to the record in 1991, 27,100 more being killed in 1992. This resulted from the struggle for supremacy among Pablo Escobar's cartel and other rival cartels in Colombia turning it into the city with the highest murder rate in the world at the time.
4. His Use Of Bribes Especially On The Colombian Government
This was for him one of the two easy ways of dealing with people that obstructed his path. You were either bribed out or you were murdered out. He tried the instrument of bribes on his own government, not to mention the numerous others including judges law enforcement agents and politicians. His personal motto was "plata o plomo", meaning silver or lead, meant bribes or assassination.
3. Underage Girls
Pablo Escobar's connection with underage girls continued strong after his marriage with the teenage Maria Victoria Henao. He had a group of his men "Los Senuelos" meaning "bait" lure underage girls to parties. The bodies of 24 young girls, all under the age of 19 were discovered, after one of Pablo's depraved orgies.
2. His Vanity
Vanity was evident in the filthy life Pablo Escobar made for himself. Good instances are the sizable number of buildings and apartments he erected for himself, each a screaming reflection of vain extravagance and wastefulness. One of his luxury houses contained a colonial house, a sculpture park, a complete zoo with animals from various continents. His vanity increased proportionally with his wealth, as it is with most wealthy men. Other evident examples of his vanity stand bold and clear throughout his criminal career.
1. His Family Paid A Stiff Price
Pablo Escobar's family went through a lot of trouble and suffering after the drug lord's demise. His wife and his son both moved to Argentina, where they lived in exile, both living under assumed names, to cloak their identities. In 2000, they were both arrested for money laundering, sentenced to 15 months in jail, before being discharged on the grounds of insufficient evidence, these amongst other excruciating experiences they went through, including the seizing of their assets each worth $1million.
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