45 Facts About Pablo Escobar

Pablo Emilio Escobar Gaviria was a Colombian drug lord, narcoterrorist, and a politician, who was the founder and sole leader of the Medellin Cartel.

In 1976, Pablo Escobar founded the Medellin Cartel, which distributed powder cocaine, and established the first smuggling routes from Peru, Bolivia and Ecuador, through Colombia and eventually into the United States.

In 1991, Pablo Escobar surrendered to authorities, and was sentenced to five years' imprisonment on a host of charges, but struck a deal of no extradition with Colombian President Cesar Gaviria, with the ability of being housed in his own, self-built prison, La Catedral.

In 1992, Pablo Escobar escaped and went into hiding when authorities attempted to move him to a more standard holding facility, leading to a nationwide manhunt.

Pablo Escobar's legacy remains controversial; while many denounce the heinous nature of his crimes, he was seen as a "Robin Hood-like" figure for many in Colombia, as he provided many amenities to the poor.

Pablo Escobar's life has served as inspiration for or has been dramatized widely in film, television, and in music.

Pablo Emilio Escobar Gaviria was born on 1 December 1949 in Rionegro, Antioquia Department.

Pablo Escobar was the third of seven children and grew up in poverty, in the neighboring city of Medellin.

Pablo Escobar's father was a small farmer and his mother was a teacher.

Pablo Escobar left high school in 1966 just before his 17th birthday, before returning two years later with his cousin Gustavo Gaviria.

Pablo Escobar then studied in college with the goal of becoming a criminal lawyer, a politician, and eventually the president, but had to give up because of lack of money.

Pablo Escobar started his criminal career with his gang by stealing tombstones, sandblasting their inscriptions, and reselling them.

Pablo Escobar soon became involved in violent crime, employing criminals to kidnap people who owed him money and demand ransoms, sometimes tearing up ransom notes even when Pablo Escobar had received the ransom.

Pablo Escobar had been involved in organized crime for a decade when the cocaine trade began to spread in Colombia in the mid-1970s.

Pablo Escobar's meteoric rise caught the attention of the Colombian Security Service, who arrested him in May 1976 on his return from drug trafficking in Ecuador.

Pablo Escobar managed to change the first judge in the lawsuit and bribed the second judge, so he was released along with other prisoners.

Pablo Escobar continued to bribe and intimidate Colombian law enforcement agencies, in the same fashion.

Soon, the demand for cocaine greatly increased in the United States, which led to Pablo Escobar organizing more smuggling shipments, routes, and distribution networks in South Florida, California, Puerto Rico, and other parts of the country.

Pablo Escobar was involved in philanthropy in Colombia and paid handsomely for the staff of his cocaine lab.

Pablo Escobar helped build roads, power lines and soccer fields.

Pablo Escobar entered politics in the 1970s and participated in and supported the formation of the Liberal Party of Colombia.

In Congress, the new Minister of Justice, Rodrigo Lara-Bonilla, had become Pablo Escobar's opponent, accusing Pablo Escobar of criminal activity from the very first day of Congress.

The proposal was initially answered in the negative, and Pablo Escobar subsequently founded and implicitly supported the Los Extraditable Organization, which aims to fight extradition policy.

Pablo Escobar still held a grudge against Luis Carlos Galan, who kicked him out of politics, and was assassinated on 18 August 1989, at Pablo Escobar's orders.

Pablo Escobar then planted a bomb on Avianca Flight 203 in an attempt to assassinate Galan's successor, Cesar Gaviria Trujillo, who missed the plane and survived.

Pablo Escobar was confined in what became his own luxurious private prison, La Catedral, which featured a football pitch, a giant dollhouse, a bar, a Jacuzzi, and a waterfall.

Accounts of Pablo Escobar's continued criminal activities while in prison began to surface in the media, which prompted the government to attempt to move him to a more conventional jail on 22 July 1992.

Pablo Escobar's influence allowed him to discover the plan in advance and make a successful escape, spending the remainder of his life evading the police.

In March 1976, the 26-year-old Pablo Escobar married Maria Victoria Henao, who was 15.

Pablo Escobar had planned to construct a Greek-style citadel near it, and though construction of the citadel was started, it was never finished.

Pablo Escobar owned a home in the US under his own name: a 6,500 square foot, pink, waterfront mansion situated at 5860 North Bay Road in Miami Beach, Florida.

Pablo Escobar faced threats from the Colombian police, the US government and his rival, the Cali Cartel.

On 2 December 1993, Pablo Escobar was found in a house in a middle-class residential area of Medellin by Colombian special forces using technology provided by the United States.

Pablo Escobar was shot and killed while trying to escape from the roof.

Pablo Escobar was hit by bullets in the torso and feet, and a bullet which struck him in the ear, killing him.

The Robin Hood image that Pablo Escobar had cultivated maintained a lasting influence in Medellin.

Many there, especially many of the city's poor whom Pablo Escobar had aided while he was alive, mourned his death, and over 25,000 people attended his funeral.

The journalist stated that Pablo Escobar had financed the operation, which was committed by M-19; but she blamed the army for the killings of more than 100 people, including 11 Supreme Court magistrates, M-19 members, and employees of the cafeteria.

Pablo Escobar's statements prompted the reopening of the case in 2008; Vallejo was asked to testify, and many of the events she had described in her book and testimonial were confirmed by Colombia's Commission of Truth.

Pablo Escobar's body was exhumed on 28 October 2006 at the request of some of his relatives in order to take a DNA sample to confirm the alleged paternity of an illegitimate child and remove all doubt about the identity of the body that had been buried next to his parents for 12 years.

Pablo Escobar kept four hippos in a private menagerie at Hacienda Napoles.

On 22 February 2019, at 11:53 AM local time, Medellin authorities demolished the six-story Edificio Monaco apartment complex in the El Poblado neighborhood where, according to retired Colombian general Rosso Jose Serrano, Pablo Escobar planned some of his most brazen attacks.

Pablo Escobar has been the subject of several books, including the following:.

Two major feature films on Escobar, Escobar and Killing Pablo, were announced in 2007.

Details about them, and additional films about Pablo Escobar, are listed below.