Pablo Escobar is a narcoterrorist, drug lord, and the head of the Medelln Cartel from Colombia. His drug empire made him the world’s most successful criminal. To give you an idea of his influence, consider that his drug cartel controlled nearly all of the United States cocaine supply in the 1980s and early 1990s. 80% of the world’s cocaine supply came from his cartel. Unfortunately, it is unclear how much money he possessed.
According to Forbes, he was one of the ten wealthiest persons in the world. If you’re curious about how he made so much money, read the piece we just published. Here you will read about Pablo Escobar’s net worth, criminal career, personal life, and other information.
Pablo Escobar Early Life
On December 1, 1949, Pablo Emilio Escobar Gaviria entered the world in Rionegro, Colombia. Escobar was the third of seven children born to farmer Abel de Jesus Dari Escobar Echeverri and schoolteacher Hilda de Los Dolores Gaviria Berrio. He is believed to have started his criminal career as a teenager in Medellin, where he spent his formative years.
As well as selling fake degrees and tombstones to local muggers, he allegedly sold gravestones to local muggers. Escobar attended the Universidad Autonoma Latinoamericana for a while, but he never actually graduated. Beginning in the 1970s, Escobar and his associate Oscar Benel Aguirre engaged in various criminal activities, ranging from petty theft to selling counterfeit goods like cigarettes and lottery tickets. During this time, he kidnapped a Medellin executive and held him for a ransom of $100,000.
Pablo Escobar’s Criminal Career
In 1975, Pablo launched his massive cocaine operation, the Medellin Cartel. He used his fleet of over two dozen aircraft—including a Learjet and six helicopters—to transport drugs from Colombia and Panama through various routes in the United States. When Escobar wanted to smuggle cocaine into Colombia from Peru, he’d first purchase cocaine paste in Peru and then have it refined in a laboratory before hiding it in airplane tires.
With each flight, a pilot who smuggles drugs can make as much as USD 500,000. By the middle of the 1980s, the United States had an insatiable appetite for cocaine, and the Medellin Cartel controlled 80 percent of the drug smuggled in, making weekly profits of about $420 million. Over fifteen tonnes per day were brought in by the Cartel.
With his wealth of $30 billion, Escobar was already one of the world’s top ten wealthiest individuals. At the height of his criminal career, he was hailed as a hero by the poor of Medellin, but he was now being pursued by the governments of the United States and Colombia.
He had won the hearts and minds of the people of Medellin by acting the part of a “superhero,” erecting sports fields, funding youth football teams, constructing homes, and distributing funds through community projects. Many bystanders served as lookouts for Pablo and provided false information to the police, allowing him to evade capture.
Pablo Escobar Terrorist Regime
Pablo Escobar rose to notoriety and then terrorized his native Colombia. While Escobar was a member of the Colombian Congress beginning in 1982, he was eventually forced to reveal the source of his insane wealth. Two years later, he was forced to resign, and the judge who exposed his past was later murdered. Pablo Escobar killed thousands of politicians, journalists, civil servants, and many innocent bystanders after he realized his dream of becoming president of Colombia would never come true.
Punishment By Lethal Injection and Imprisonment
The government began strenuous efforts to capture Escobar after his cartel killed Luis Carlos Galan, a liberal politician and journalist. He twice ran for president and posed a significant threat to the ongoing drug cartels. He surrendered to the authorities and made a deal to end all criminal activity in exchange for a reduced sentence. In 1991, Escobar gave himself up to the rules.
Because of the new Colombian Constitution of 1991, there was already zero chance that he would be extradited to the United States to face charges for his crimes. In reality, Escobar was only “incarcerated” in the lavish La Catedral, which bore his name. There was a football field, a bar, a Jacuzzi, and even a waterfall in this ultra-luxurious room. While in prison, he continued to lead the Medellin Cartel; thus in July 1992, the government transferred him to a regular prison.
Pablo evaded the little army of Colombian narcotics police, DEA agents, and American special forces soldiers and has been on the run ever since. In 1993, he was slain by gunfire while standing on the roof of an apartment building. Even though some 25,000 people attended his funeral in Medellin, the world and Escobar’s own Colombia breathed a sigh of relief at his untimely demise.
Money/ Wealth Of Pablo
During the time that Pablo was alive and leading his cartel, he hired ten accountants to help him launder hundreds of millions of dollars. Supposedly, he spent $2500 monthly on rubber bands alone to secure all the cash. Two hundred and fifty thousand rubber bands could be purchased monthly with that amount.
It has been reported that Pablo had to write off $500 million in cash annually due to rotting because so much of it was stashed in basements and walls. However, the most common cause of currency spoilage is starving rats mistaking bills for food and devouring them. There was a time when Pablo was on the run when he promised to pay off all of Colombia’s national debt—more than $10 billion worth—if they approved legislation criminalizing extradition.
In 1987, as part of their first-ever list of worldwide billionaires, Forbes estimated Pablo’s wealth to be over $1 billion. Earnings of $3 billion were attributed to Pablo in that profile. With inflation, that is equivalent to about $8 billion in modern currency. He consistently ranked among the world’s billionaires for the next seven years.
Pablo paid Panamanian leader and General Manuel Noriega almost $350 million in the early 1980s to allow him to hide billions of dollars in Panamanian banks. The relationship between Pablo and the cartel deteriorated after Pablo’s funds were halted, and the cartel allegedly placed a $1 million contract on Noriega’s life.
Pablo Escobar’s Personal Life
In March of 1976, when Escobar was 26 years old, he married 15-year-old Maria Victoria Henao. Her family disapproved of their relationship, so they had to elope in secrecy. Juan Pablo, who went by Sebastian Marroquin as an adult, and his wife Manuela had two children. It has been speculated that Pablo had multiple extramarital affairs during their union.
Pablo Escobar’s Net Worth
Pablo Escobar, a Colombian-born drug lord, amassed a fortune of $30 billion at his peak. The Medellin Drug Cartel, which Pablo Escobar oversaw while he was still alive, was one of the most notorious and violent in the history of the drug trade. At its height, the Medellin cartel controlled 80% of the global cocaine market through distribution. Pablo and his cartel committed thousands, if not tens of thousands, of murders along the way. The victims of many of these killings were unarmed bystanders.
If you are also interested in knowing other celebrities’ net worth, then you can also check out these articles Elizabeth Holmes Net Worth and Chase Daniel Net Worth.
Mass Entertainment
Numerous media depictions of Pablo Escobar and his cocaine business have been inspired by his life. Of particular note is the August 2015 debut of Narcos on Netflix, which tells the story of the manhunt for Escobar. The theatres also showed big-budget movies like Blow, Escobar, and American Made in 2001. At the time of his passing, Pablo was the proud owner of just four hippos; by 2007, that number had increased to 16. Cocaine Hippos is the name of a documentary about them made by National Geographic.
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