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Pablo Escobar's born date
Escobar was born in Rionegro, Colombia, and grew up in nearby Medellín. -
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Criminal Career
Escobar is thought to have began his criminal career as a teenager, allegedly stealing gravestones and sanding them down for resale to local smugglers. -
Cocaine Distribution
Roberto Escobar maintains Pablo fell into the drug business simply because other types of contraband became too dangerous to traffic. As there were no drug cartels then, and only a few drug barons, Pablo saw it as untapped territory he wished to make his own. In Peru, Pablo would buy the cocaine paste, which would then be refined in a laboratory in a two-story house in Medellín. -
Marriage and Relationships
In March 1976, a 27 year old Escobar married Maria Victoria Henao, who was 15. -
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Properties
After becoming wealthy, Escobar created or bought numerous residences and safe houses, with the Hacienda Nápoles gaining significant notoriety. The luxury house contained a colonial house, a sculpture park, and a complete zoo with animals from various continents, including elephants, exotic birds, giraffes, and hippopotamuses -
Hacienda Napoles
After Pablo's death, the ranch, the zoo, and the citadel were at Hacienda Nápoles were expropriated by the government and given to low-income families under a law called Extinción de Dominio (Domain Extinction). The property has been converted into a theme park surrounded by 4 luxury hotels overlooking the zoo and the installation of a tropical park. -
Established Drug Network
Escobar quickly became known internationally as his drug network gained notoriety; the Medellín Cartel controlled a large portion of the drugs that entered the United States, Mexico, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, Venezuela, and Spain. The production process was also altered, with coca from Bolivia and Peru replacing the coca from Colombia, which was beginning to be seen as substandard quality than the coca from the neigboring countries. -
Height of power
During the height of its operations, the Medellín Cartel brought in more than US $70 million per day (roughly $22 billion in a year). Smuggling 15 tons of cocaine per day, worth more than half a billion dollars, into the United States, the cartel spent over US $1000 per week purchasing rubber bands to wrap the stacks of cash, storing most of it in their warehouses. 10% of the cash had to be written off per year because of "spoilage", due to rats creeping in and nibbling on the available money. -
Aftermath of his death
Soon after Escobar's death and the subsequent fragmentation of the Medellín Cartel, the cocaine market became dominated by the rival Cali Cartel until the mid-1990s when its leaders, too, were either killed or captured by the Colombian government. The Robin Hood image that Escobar had cultivated maintained a lasting influence in Medellín -
La Catedral Prison
After the assassination of Luis Carlos Galán, the administration of César Gaviria moved against Escobar and the drug cartels. Eventually, the government negotiated with Escobar, convincing him to surrender and cease all criminal activity in exchange for a reduced sentence and preferential treatment during his captivity. -
Death
The war against Pablo Escobar ended on December 2, 1993, amid another of Escobar's attempts to elude the Search Bloc. Using radio triangulation technology, a Colombian electronic surveillance team, led by Brigadier Hugo Martínez, found him hiding in a middle-class barrio in Medellín. -
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Films
Two major feature films on Escobar, with Escobar (2009), and Killing Pablo (2011), were announced in 2007. Details about them, and additional films about Escobar.
Pablo Escobar: The King of Coke (2007) is a TV movie documentary by National Geographic, featuring archival footage and commentary by stakeholders.
Animal Planet aired a documentary called Drug Kingpin Hippos that featured Escobar, although focused more on the subject was one of his illegally imported hippopotami. -
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Games
In the video games Grand Theft Auto: Vice City (2002) and Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories (2006), set in a fictional American city based on Miami, Florida, the international airport featured in both games is called "Escobar International Airport". This is most likely a satirical reference to the Colombian cocaine trade that saw a significant part of its success in Miami. -
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Television
In the Breaking Bad season three episode, "I See You", Walt, Jr. explains to his father that he is reading a book about the search for Escobar given to him by his uncle Hank.
A Netflix original television series depicting the story of Escobar, titled Narcos, was released on 28 August 2015, starring Brazilian actor Wagner Moura as Pablo.[78] Season two premiered on the streaming service on September 2, 2016. -
Plata o plomo
Corruption and intimidation characterized Escobar's dealings with the Colombian system. He worked to implement an effective, inescapable policy for dealing with law enforcement and the government, referred to as "plata o plomo".
