Background
Pablo Escobar was born in 1949. The son of a teacher and a peasant, his life of crime began early.
with his family
bombing bribery murder political corruption drug trufficking and smuggling
Pablo Escobar was born in 1949. The son of a teacher and a peasant, his life of crime began early.
Pablo and his brother were once sent home from school because Pablo had no shoes and no money to buy them. Soon he moved into marijuana, and at the age of 16 he was expelled from school.
Escobar studied political science at the university but was forced to drop out when he could not afford to pay the required fees. This was when he began his criminal career, allegedly stealing gravestones and sanding them down for resale to smugglers.
While he was still in school he stole tombstones and sold them to smugglers from Panama. In the early 1970s he entered the cocaine trade. His ambition and ruthlessness amid the cocaine trade would make him one of the wealthiest, most powerful, and most violent criminals of all-time.
Under his leadership, large amounts of coca paste were purchased in Bolivia and Peru, processed, and brought to the United States. Escobar collaborated with five or six other illegal entrepreneurs from the Medellin area, forming the infamous Medellin Cartel.
Escobar eventually controlled over 80% of the cocaine shipped to the U.S. He was named one of the ten richest people on earth by Fortune and Forbes magazines. But his rise to infamy cost the lives of three Colombian presidential candidates, an attorney general, a justice minister, more than 200 judges, dozens of journalists, and over 1,000 police officers.
He said: "Sometimes I am God, if I say a man dies, he dies that same day."
In 1978, he was elected as a substitute city council member in Medellín. In 1982, he was elected to Congress. As a congressman, Escobar had automatic judicial immunity and could no longer be prosecuted for crimes under Colombian law. He was also entitled to a diplomatic visa, which he used to take trips with his family to the United States.
Quotations:
Some of Pablo Escobar's memorable quotations are:
"I prefer to be in the grave in Colombia than in a jail cell in the United States."
"I'm a decent man who exports flowers."
"All empires are created of blood and fire."
"I can replace things, but I could never replace my wife and kids."
"Everyone has a price, the important thing is to find out what it is."
"There can only be one king."
"There are two hundred million idiots, manipulated by a million intelligent men."