Top 10 Pablo Escobar Facts

he may be one of the most infamous criminals of all time but he's also a fascinating figure he had a lot of judges who were against him killed that was his fight trying to show Colombia that he was tougher than Colombia welcome to watchmojo.com and today we're counting down our picks for the top 10 most interesting facts about Pablo Escobar El Padrino was señor Pablo Escobar and for those of you livin on the moon for the last 20 years he was it the boss of it all for this list we're looking at exciting and intriguing facts about Pablo Escobar a Colombian drug lord who reigned throughout the 1970s and 80s and made headlines across the world due to his immense wealth dangerous status and revolutionary drug distribution network however we're not ranking the facts in terms of quality instead we'll be going chronologically throughout the relatively short life of one of the world's most notorious criminals Pablo's policy in his war against the government is called Plomo o Plata which means silver or lead you can accept Pablo's bribe or you can accept his bullets number 10 Colombia was violent before Pablo Escobar was born in true to form when the pen failed Pablo was always ready with the sword while Pablo Escobar may have contributed greatly to Colombia's violence and the perception of the country as a dangerous one it wasn't exactly the safest place to live before he was alive either born the third of seven children - a farmer and a schoolteacher in 1949 Escobar was immediately thrust into a hazardous society throughout the 1940s and 50s Colombia was actually going through a period of political turmoil known as la violencia which literally means the violence this stemmed from the assassination of Liberal Party presidential candidate Jorge Eliezer get on with the ensuing civil war claiming over 180,000 lives number nine kidnapping and petty crimes made Escobar a millionaire at 22 Escobar had his sights and ambitions set on wealth and power from his teenage years ever since he was a petty thief selling fake lottery tickets and scamming people on the street this escalated into more serious crimes in his late teens such as trafficking marijuana and stealing cars in his early 20s he dabbled in kidnapping taking an executive from his hometown of Medellin and ransoming him for $100,000 which is roughly the equivalent of $600,000 today all of this made Escobar a millionaire by the time he was 22 apparently crime does pay he imported exotic animals had planes helicopters number 8 Escobar killed his way to the top so también los vamos is about as you can imagine a gang or crime family is bound to be full of violence and betrayal Escobar knew that there was only one way to the top and he took his chance in 1975 at just 26 years old Escobar wished to make a deal with the Medellin syndicate head fabio Restrepo which involved 14 kilos of cocaine yet because he was viewed merely as a petty street criminal Escobar allegedly had Restrepo killed he then informed Reston opposed employees that they now worked for him effectively taking charge and beginning his ascension to drug baron he became king of cocaine the titular head of the midian cartel and many in cartel had the reputation well deserved in my opinion being one of the most ruthless violent murderous criminal organizations in the world number seven if he couldn't bribe you he'd kill you our enemy organization Adele presser gotcha hero mu cocaina comas in there are you stayin Escobar made many friends and acquaintances in law enforcement throughout his tenure as drug baron often paying them off so they would turn a blind eye to his illegal practices da Oh bummer obviously not everyone took the bribe resulting in his famous saying Plata o Plomo meaning silver or lead in other words take the bribe or be killed this resulted in thousands of deaths including the famous bombing of Avianca flight 203 which killed 107 innocent people and the das building bombing which killed another 52 it's estimated that Escobar was behind between 4,000 and 5,000 deaths in total there was no institution that was safe from kott was cover number 6 his pilots could earn up to five hundred thousand dollars per flight grano Scalia knows convento Kos toss toss port Ando Astin Tamara Guarani Sosa violas CS y los Manos quant oh poor poor poor boy lo a donde before Escobar hit it big he would personally fly small planes into the United States with cocaine hidden in the tires however once his business took off he began to employ professional pilots who would smuggle in tons of cocaine for him oh and we're not being vague here we mean that they would literally fly tons as much as 11 tons on one flight and depending on how much coca given pilot was able to smuggle across he could make up to $500,000 per flight with a paycheck like that it's no wonder Escobar's employees were so happy number five he was insanely rich but no matter what they did they couldn't hide all that money just kept coming in yep being a drug baron is a sure way to make some good money right no we mean he was insanely rich as in officially recognized as the seventh richest man in the world by Forbes rich Escobar's brother states that in the cartels heyday they were spending over $1,000 per week on rubber bands just to tie their stacks of cash together he had a zoo and his and his ranch you're talking about Colombia guy had elephants zebras rhinoceros Escobar was supplying 80 percent of the United States cocaine and by the 90s he was officially worth thirty billion dollars he even built a grandiose mansion on an island paradise and once burned two million dollars in order to keep his family warm number four he became involved in politics to fight extradition Jenin swindled bad on you no existen leave it a spot i lo que puede log on what's a career path that you probably never associate with cocaine manufacturers and smugglers if your answer is politics then you're under estimating the power of good old Pablo in 1982 Escobar was elected as an alternate member of the chamber of Representatives while he was well into his drug empire days as a member of the Colombian Liberal Party he aimed to gain enough influence in the country's politics to fight extradition Escobar knew that he could never bribe his way around the law in the United States and Colombian politician Rodrigo Lara Bonilla denouncement of Escobar and drug trafficking only fueled his hatred of the government number three he loved the poor and the poor loved him often considered a modern-day Robin Hood Escobar often gave much of his riches to the poor which garnered him praise and devotion we have an altar dedicated to Pablo Escobar because we believe that he was a very good man and good men go to heaven in fact there's a neighborhood in Medellin that still bears his name Escobar was well known for his contributions to the city which included sponsoring local children's football teams and building sports complexes schools and churches for the poor in return the poor defended Escobar until the end literally when he died in 1993 over 25,000 people showed up for his funeral many of them members of the poor who still felt gratitude for his generosity number two he caused Colombia to become the murder capital of the world s turambar invisibly una cadena be silly no se puede pasar desta area lo TRO por que hace Matan it's a given that with the drug business comes violence however as we touched on previously there was no limit to the extent of Escobar's wrath his powerful influence and the wars that raged between cartels during his time led Colombia to become the murder capital of the world in the early 90s in fact the country suffered over 27,000 violent deaths in 1992 alone which is equal to roughly seventy four murders a day what was his punishment for all of this a personally designed jail complete with a waterfall bar jacuzzi and personal football field the say he got off easy is a massive understatement Escobar's reach is long very steel refused federal protection and that his end in a parking lot in Baton Rouge whoops number one the end game you're facing an enemy who's trying to kill you in those kind of circumstances the ultimate goal is to succeed is to not to necessarily play by the rules what was the final result for Escobar let's just say it didn't turn out well for him in 1992 a vigilante group calling themselves los pepes emerged fighting fire with fire burning down Escobar's compounds and killing family members when they killed Parra they also took his teenage son and murdered him - they hung signs around their neck that said what do you think of the exchange for the bombs Pablo US intelligence agencies began working with Colombian forces and through radio triangulation technology they were able to locate Escobar in Medellin which ultimately resulted in a shootout across rooftops in 1993 while Escobar was fatally shot through the ear it is still disputed whether the bullet came from the authorities or whether he pulled the trigger himself whichever the case may be crime doesn't pay after all so did you learn something new about Escobar did we leave any interesting facts out for more informative top 10s published every day be sure to subscribe to watchmojo.com then let us speak no more of these business let's go drive we are many other seems to talk about this

Channel: WatchMojo.com

Views: 10,287,848

Keywords: politics, history, pablo escobar, facts, plata o pomo, millionaire, colombia, la violencia, avianca flight 203, extradition, robin hood, murder capital, DEA, los pepes, cartel, medellin, drugs, cocaine, trafficking, top 10, watchmojo

Id: MzxYP0th-AU

Length: 10min 53sec (653 seconds)

Published: Sat Oct 17 2015