The Colombian drug Lord who is a world known name- Pablo Escobar has many interesting stories to his name. He was born on 1st December 1949 and has been a very ambitious and ruthless man known in history. In his span, he is responsible for 80% of drug which was shipped to the U.S. He was a mystery man as there are different opinions about him. He was killed by the police in the year 1993 but according to his family, he committed suicide and truth is for everyone to decide for themselves as there is no way to verify any of these stories. He was very popular when was alive and even today there are so many movies and books written about him. There are many series which make an effort to cover his life story.
He was very popular and there are many fun things that many of us might not know about him. Such an interesting character for sure must have done so much in life and for us to know the titbits would be fascinating.
- Teenage smuggling: Pablo started in his teens, he was still in school when he started stealing tombstones and selling it to the smugglers. He was also a car thief and started kidnapping at a very early age. He got serious about the crime world after his small stint as a child.
- Resort to bribery: He would smuggle cocaine by himself. Yes that is true, he was even arrested many times and he would get out by bribing the officers or the arresting authorities.
- Killed the mafia himself: He killed the then current mafia to rise to power. Pablo was not afraid even when he was young. He killed Fabio Restrepo and took over his men and business in the late 70’s when cocaine was in high demand in the U.S.
- Silver or lead choice: Pablo has his own style and his famous signature approach was known as ‘silver or lead’ which meant that whoever cannot be bribed will be killed. There is a long list of 200 judges, 3 Columbian presidential candidates, many journalists, attorney general, and many many cops refused silver and hence they were presented with lead (death).
- Money management was an issue: When he was at the height of his weekly income was about $420 million which means that he was earning $22 billion a year. A $2,500 worth of rubber bands were used to keep the notes bundle together. It was funny that keeping the notes was not an issue but organizing them to safekeeping was one.
- Forbes richest man: He was a part of the Forbes list for seven successful years. His net worth was estimated to be 3 billion USD in the year 1987 when he first appeared on the list of Forbes. He is one of the wealthiest criminals in history. In the year when he died his worth was 1 billion USD.
- Use of plane Tires for smuggling: He would smuggle cocaine in the old place tires. The pilot who would agree could earn up to £5, 00,000 per flight this was dependent on the kilos of cocaine smuggled. Just an estimate of £1 million profit could be earned if on such flight was made in a week. This increased and there were weeks when there were three such flights made.
- World 80% cocaine supply: In the 80s there were more than 80% of world cocaine which was supplied by Escobar. This was 15 tons of cocaine which was smuggled to the U.S. each day. He would earn more than half billion in a single day by its operations.
- Interesting government buyout: He even tried to buy his own government when was in trouble with the U.S. He approached the Colombian government with an unusual form of a peace treaty. He offered them development money and pay off the foreign debt in return for them not turning him in. This offer was refused by the government.
- Rat attack: One of his enemies consists of rats, yes when he was dealing with huge amount of cash he had to deal with the rat attacks. When this money was kept in warehouses or other storage spaced huge piles of them was eaten by the rats. This even resulted in 10% loss on his annual incomes. This would mean that nearly 2.1 billion USD was eaten by rats.
- Transitory village: His labs where he would deal with cocaine was based deep in the forests. These labs areas very soon changed into small towns with schools, canteens and an infrastructure of their own. One of these labs was on wheels. This was fascinating to see as the house at this place would move to make an airstrip for the planes to land and take off and then would move back to make it the village.
- Family care and money: Pablo would have to move to different places with his family to hide from the police. One of such hiding the family was on the farm in Medellin when his daughter got ill. The mafia then decided to burn money worth of 2 million USD to keep the family warm.
- Unattended Zoo life: He had a personal zoo where he smuggles 4 hippos during his time. This consists of 3 female and 1 male. The place was left as is because the government found it difficult to transfer these animals. In the year 2007 these hippos population was reported to have increased and currently, they are more than 40 such hippos roaming around freely without fear around the river searching for food.
- 5-star prison: He designed his own prison when he made an agreement with the government for surrender. This prison was way better than any 5-star hotel. This prison was even guarded by the guards chosen by Pablo. There were waterbeds, view of the Medellin mountains and entertainment system inside the prison. He enjoyed his time here and the authorities were not allowed anywhere near this place unless agreed by him.
Pablo Escobar was a man who has created so much interest. Even today there are movies which are made on him which contains many of these anecdotes. If you wish to check it out by self then use the Movie coupons of the month and make a peak in the world of the famous drug mafia.
