The Pablo Escobar

Pablo Emilio Escobar Gaviria
Born December 1, 1949(1949-12-01)
Medellín, Antioquia ,
Colombia
Died December 2, 1993 (aged 44)
Medellín
Alias(s) El Patron
Conviction(s) Drug trafficking and smuggling, racketeering, money laundering, murder
Status Deceased
Occupation drug dealer
Spouse Maria Victoria Henao de Escobar
Children Juan Pablo and Manuela Escobar

Pablo Emilio Escobar Gaviria aka El Patrón (December 1, 1949 – December 2, 1993) gained world infamy as a Colombian drug dealer. Escobar became so wealthy in the drug trade that in 1989 Forbes magazine had listed him as the seventh richest man in the world. He is widely considered to be one of the most brutally ruthless, ambitious, and powerful drug dealers in history.

Early life
Pablo Escobar began his criminal life as a teenage car thief in the streets of Medellín. Although he clamied that he grew up poor he was in fact from a middle class background. Along with car theft he also became involved in other rackets which led him to become a powerful figure in his area. He also became somewhat of a hero in the area for kidnapping a wealthy and unpopular industrialist and holding him to ransom. When the ransom was paid by the man's family the man was killed. He allegedly also stole headstones from graveyards and sold them in other villages of Antioquia (this allegation has never been proven). He eventually moved into the cocaine business and began building an enormous drug empire during the 1970s.

His reputation grew after a well known Medellín drug dealer named Fabio Restrepo was murdered in 1975 reportedly by Escobar, from whom he had purchased 14 kilograms of cocaine, and all of Restrepo's men were informed that they were to work for Escobar. In May 1976 Escobar and several of his men were arrested after returning from a drug run to Ecuador. As the case against Pablo was being made he tried to bribe the judge but was unsuccessful. After many months of legal wrangling Pablo had the two arresting officers killed and the case was dropped. It was here that he began his pattern of dealing with the authorities by either bribing them or killing them.

Death and afterward

The war against Escobar ended on December 2, 1993, as he tried to elude the Search Bloc one more time. Using radio triangulation technology provided as part of the United States efforts, a Colombian electronic surveillance team found him hiding in a middle-class barrio in Medellín. A shootout between Escobar and the Search Bloc personnel ensued. How Escobar was killed during the confrontation has been debated but it is known that he was cornered on the rooftops of Medellín and after a prolonged gunfight, suffered gunshots to the leg, torso, and the fatal one in his ear. It has never been proven who actually fired the final shot into Escobar's head, whether this shot was made during the gunfight or as part of possible execution, and there is wide speculation about the subject.

After Escobar's death, the Medellín Cartel fragmented and the cocaine market soon became dominated by the rival Cali Cartel, until the mid-1990s when its leaders, too, were either killed or captured by the government.

The Robin Hood image that he had cultivated continued to have lasting influence in Medellín, as many there, especially those among the poor that he had aided while in life, lamented his death.


Exhumation

Colombian policemen posing by Pablo Escobar's dead body. Mark Bowden's book cover.On October 28, 2006, Escobar's body was exhumed by request of his nephew Nicolás Escobar, two days after the death of mother Hermilda Gaviria (who opposed exhumation) to verify that the body in the tomb was in fact that of Escobar and also to collect DNA for a paternity test claim. According to the report by the El Tiempo newspaper, Escobar's ex-wife Maria Victoria was present recording the exhumation with a video camera.