10 Outlandish Details Surrounding Pablo Escobar, History’s Most Notorious Drug Kingpin

6 /10 Silver Or Lead

Being a leader of the Medellin Cartel, Escobar led the criminal organization with a legendary ruthlessness that triggered the anger of several politicians, law enforcement, and even judges.

He dealt with his enemies with a method called Plata o plomo (silver or lead).

If persons of authority stood in his way, he would first try to bribe them – this is the “silver” part of the method. When bribing didn’t work, he would have them killed – the “lead” part.

5 /10 Tons Of Cocaine

The Medellin Cartel smuggled most of its cocaine into the United States from the north coast of Colombia to the Florida coast. Between the two locations was a 900-mile of open water, and it was not even as difficult as it seemed to be. 

Loads of cocaine would be dropped off a plane directly into the water. The cartel’s American counterparts picked everything up using speedboats and rushed ashore.

Sometimes the Colombian cartel’s pilot flew the plane straight into the Florida mainland to let it crash land in remote locations. Then their American friends would continue the distribution from there.

4 /10 Avianca Flight 203

Like what is often depicted in mafia films, Escobar didn’t want his enemies or anybody to interrupt his cartel operations.

He once ordered the assassination of presidential candidates and was allegedly behind the 1985 attack on Supreme Court, in which more than 100 people were killed.

Another example of mass killing carried out on his order was the bombing of Avianca Flight 203, a Colombian domestic flight from Bogota to Cali. The main target was not even on board. The bombing killed 110 people.

3 /10 One Of The World’s Richest And Most Powerful

At the height of Escobar’s power, the Medellin Cartel smuggled as much as 15 tons of cocaine into the United States daily.

He had a massive army of criminals and soldiers and more than enough money to build a private zoo and buy properties all over Colombia.

Escobar used his airstrips and planes for cocaine distribution. His total personal wealth was estimated at $24 billion by the mid-1980s.

Escobar continued to spend millions on public investments such as schools, churches, stadiums, and housing. Many people in Medellin saw him as a local successful, generous boy.

2 /10 La Catedral

Escobar seemed to be above the law with enormous wealth and unrestrained cruelty, at least in Colombia.

In the early 1990s, as the pressure from the US government was mounting over the Colombian government to have Escobar extradited for drug-related charges, he set up a bold agreement with the authorities.

In 1991, he agreed to turn himself in but only if he could build his prison. The government approved the idea, so he made “La Catedral’ which looked more like a palace than a prison.

The building instead became an office for him to continue his criminal enterprise.

1 /10 Gunned Down

It later came to light that Escobar also used La Catedral as a torture chamber to punish disloyal underlings. That was too much even for the Colombian government, so they planned to relocate him to standard prison.

Fearing extradition, he went into hiding. By late 1992, local police teamed up with the US government for a search.

On December 2, 1993, the search party was able to locate his whereabouts in Medellin. Security forces immediately surrounded him, but he resisted arrest.

While attempting to escape through the roof of his hiding place, he was gunned down to death.