More than two decades after his death, Pablo Escobar remains as well known as he was during his heyday as the head of the Medellín drug cartel. His fixture in popular culture is largely thanks to countless books, movies, and songs. We’ve decided to make our contribution with a list of facts about the life of the larger-than-life Escobar.
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Rise to Power
Escobar, the son of a farmer and a schoolteacher, began his life of crime while still a teenager. According to some reports, his first illegal scheme was selling fake diplomas. He then branched out into falsifying report cards before smuggling stereo equipment and stealing tombstones in order to resell them. Escobar also stole cars, and it was this offense that resulted in his first arrest, in 1974. Shortly thereafter, he became an established drug smuggler, and by the mid-1970s he had helped found the crime organization that evolved into the Medellín cartel.
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Mucho Dinero
At the height of its power, the Medellín cartel dominated the cocaine trade, earning an estimated $420 million a week and making its leader one of the wealthiest people in the world. With a reported worth of $25 billion, Escobar had ample money to spend—and he did. His lavish lifestyle included private planes, luxurious homes (see below), and over-the-top parties. In the late 1980s he reportedly offered to pay off his country’s debt of $10 billion if he would be exempt from any extradition treaty. In addition, while his family was on the run in 1992–93, Escobar reportedly burned $2 million in order to keep his daughter warm. Despite his best efforts, however, even Escobar couldn’t spend all that money, and much of it was stored in warehouses and fields. According to his brother, about 10%, or $2.1 billion, was written off annually—eaten by rats or destroyed by the elements. In some cases, it was simply lost.
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Hacienda Nápoles
Escobar owned a number of palatial homes, but his most-notable property was the 7,000-acre estate known as Hacienda Nápoles (named after Naples, Italy), located between Bogotá and Medellín. Reportedly costing $63 million, it included a soccer field, dinosaur statues, artificial lakes, a bullfighting arena, the charred remains of a classic car collection destroyed by a rival cartel, an airstrip, a tennis court, and a zoo (more on that later). The estate—the front gate of which is topped by the plane he used on his first drug run to the U.S.—was later looted by locals, and it is now a popular tourist attraction.
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King of the Jungle
Escobar’s private zoo was home to some 200 animals, including elephants, ostriches, zebras, camels, and giraffes. Many of the creatures were smuggled into the country aboard Escobar’s drug planes. After his death in 1993, most of the animals were transferred to zoos. However, four hippopotamuses were left behind. They soon multiplied, and by 2016 upwards of 40 lived in the area. The potentially dangerous animals have damaged farms and inspired fear in locals. Authorities began castrating male hippos in an effort to control the population.