All language subtitles for Lords.of.the.Mafia.with.Robert.Stack.S01E07.Colombian.&.Latin-American.Cartels.1080p.AMZN.WEB-DL.DD+2.0.H.264-playWEB_track3_[eng]

He built his cocaine empire

on a foundation riddled with
violence, blood, and addiction.

His menacing brutality
forever changed a country,

but his dangerous commodity
destroyed families

and entire communities.

This is a story of Pablo
Escobar, the king of cocaine.

For over a decade, the name
Pablo Escobar was synonymous

with cocaine and violence.

He revolutionized the
industry of drug trafficking

and became king
of Colombian coke.

Escobar maintained
control of his drug empire

through intimidation and fear.

At the same time, he
fed the poor of his land

and built them homes,
schools, and hospitals.

Colombian-born Pablo
Escobar is credited

with exploiting
America's insatiable love

and desire for cocaine.

Through his marketing strategy

of killing anyone
who stood in his way,

Escobar transformed
Columbia's mom-and-pop-style

cocaine industry
into a multi-billion
dollar conglomerate.

Along with his compadres
of the Medellin cartel,

he developed a narcotics
distribution network

that created a drug empire,

the likes of which the
world had never seen.

He successfully shipped
tens of thousands of tons

of the precious powder
into the United States

and eventually Europe, donning
him the godfather of cocaine.

Escobar was a very, a
brilliant practitioner

with a strategy to protect
his operations in Columbia

and to develop smuggling
operations in the United States,

which allowed him to
enter more cocaine here

than any other
trafficker at the time.

William
Gately spent 21 years

as a United States
custom special agent.

During that time period,

he was responsible for
numerous drug smuggling

and money laundering
investigations, including two

that specifically affected
Pablo Escobar's cocaine empire.

Pablo Escobar
was a mafia boss.

He was a ruthless
drug trafficker

who probably killed more people

than any individual
drug trafficker

in the history of Columbia.

He was a ruthless killer.

This man aligned himself
with narco terrorism.

He placed bombs on airplanes.

He murdered people.

Pablo Escobar was no folk hero.

He has blood on his
hands in Columbia

that'll be in their history
books for the next century.

Pablo Emilio
Escobar Gaviria was born

on December 1st, 1949, in
the cattle farming district

southeast of Medellin during
Columbia's era of violence.

He was a third child
of farmer Abel de Jesus

and Hermilda, a
primary school teacher.

Two years after his birth,
a family moved to Medellin

before moving to a
series of villages

where Hermilda taught school.

He was a Paisa by birth,
that is an Antioquian,

and identified very
closely with that region

as many of the people from
that part of Columbia do.

It's got a very
distinct subculture.

It's one of the reasons the
Pablo Escobar never wanted

to leave Columbia to
flee to other countries.

Escobar was raised

with strong traditional
Catholic values.

After years of moving
about Columbia,

a family eventually settled in
Envigado outside of Medellin.

Bruce Bagley is a professor
of international studies

at the University of Miami
in Coral Gables, Florida.

He has lived in Columbia
off and on since 1968

and is an expert on Pablo
Escobar and narco terrorism.

He built churches in Columbia

with some of the
money that he had.

He donated right to
the church in Medellin

and in the environments
in Medellin.

At the same time, he saw no
contradiction in killing people,

in acting as an
extremely ruthless leader

of a criminal organization
that grew exponentially

from the mid 1970s into
the 1980s and beyond.

As a young boy,

Escobar developed
a love for soccer,

which he maintained and
supported throughout his life.

Pablo Escobar, who
was also a sports fan,

decided to invest heavily in
building up Colombian soccer,

and he invested the soccer
teams, particularly in Medellin,

and he bought the
very best talent

that he could find
everywhere in Latin America.

And by the mid and late 1980s,

Pablo Escobar and the other
members of the Medellin cartel

had built Colombian soccer
into a world contender.

He became
increasingly discontent

and impatient with school.

Escobar was very ambitious

and quickly learned that
money was the ticket

to higher social
circles in Columbia.

It was at this time

that he began his
career as a petty thief,

stealing tombstones and
sanding them down for resale.

He was a very bright
child from the beginning.

Indeed, many of Columbia's
major law enforcement officials

and ministers have noted

that in their
conversations with him,

his intelligence was stellar.

Pablo Escobar never attended
college in any serious way,

but he was a high
school graduate,

at least he claimed to be, and
he was a very good student.

During the mid 1960s,

Escobar's hometown of Envigado
began to turn violent,

gangs emerged along with a
thriving marijuana trade.

While still a teenager,

he began to associate with
extortionists and car thieves

who gathered in Medellin
City, Jesus Nazareno district.

By the end of the decade,

Escobar was an
accomplished car thief,

an automobile smuggler
with his own gang.

Everybody who knew him

during his youth commented
on his quick intelligence

and his capacity to
absorb information

and to put things
together in ways

that many other people did not.

That's one of his
greatest talents.

It made him an
innovative entrepreneur

in the clandestine trade
of drug trafficking.

Driven by his
desire to become rich,

Escobar's criminal activities
escalated to murder for hire.

Escobar's rise through
Columbia's criminal ranks

was swift and violent.

He was young and ambitious,
but moreover, he was smart.

He knew what he wanted

and would not allow anyone
to stand in his way.

In less than a decade,

Escobar had evolved
from a petty thief

to a cold-blooded
contract killer.

He served a brief stint in jail

for presenting false documents.

It was his first opportunity
to observe hardened prisoners

and the lawyers
who defended them.

They would later become the
core of his organization.

Fueled by his love of
money and fast cars,

Escobar and his
cousin Gustavo Gaviria

reportedly smuggled their
first load of cocaine

in a car race.

They recognized
when Pablo Escobar,

when his was in
his early twenties,

that in comparison with
stealing cars or bicycles

or windshield wipers
or things like that,

that you could make a lot more
money trafficking in drugs.

Escobar overcame
humble beginnings

to become the world's wealthiest

and most notorious
cocaine trafficker.

During the 1970s, coke
became the drug of choice

for the sheik, the
rich, and the famous.

It was also found to
be highly addictive.

As its use exploded in the US,

Pablo Escobar and the Medellin
cartel positioned themselves

to feed the insatiable demand.

The genesis of
Pablo Escobar's rise

to international infamy
began with an airplane flight

from Columbia to
the United States.

In the mid 1970s,

the street value of a kilo
of cocaine was $35,000,

and a small plane could carry
millions of dollars worth.

The innovation was
utilizing airplanes,

dropping off the
loads, offloading them
to cigarette boats,

and then bringing them
into the United States

by boat into South
Florida, particularly.

That transportation
revolution was one

of the major innovations
of the Medellin cartel.

After
Escobar's first flight,

he decommissioned
the small plane

and mounted it above the
entry gate of his farm

so that everyone could see
he was smuggling cocaine.

By the late 1970s with just
a few flights under his belt,

Escobar had already
become a millionaire.

In 1979, cocaine
smuggling would enter

an extremely profitable
and ultraviolet new era.

Pablo Escobar began a
partnership with Carlos Lehder.

Lehder was allegedly the
biggest of the drug kings.

A son of a German engineer,
he grew up in Columbia.

It was Lehder who
persuaded Escobar to begin

smuggling larger shipments
of cocaine in larger planes.

The planes were now equipped
with long range fuel tanks,

radar detectors, and
communication scramblers.

To avoid American airspace,

Escobar, Lehder and others
used The Bahamas as a stopover

for breaking down
the cocaine shipments

before smuggling
them into the US.

They pretty much
brought cocaine into
the country at will.

In South Florida, for
example, private aircraft

and commercial aircraft were
bringing tons of cocaine

into the peninsula
on a daily basis.

In addition to that,

hideaways in the Bahama
Islands were being used

by the Colombian, predominantly
the Medellin cartel.

It was during
one of their trips

to The Bahamas when
they met Robert Vesco.

Vesco, who began his career as
a machine tool manufacturer,

was one of the
first international
criminals to realize

that changes had to be made
in the movement of money

and the shipping of cocaine.

The old practice of
smuggling large quantities

one flight at a time is now
considered to be too risky.

The big loads were coming

across the Atlantic
from The Bahamas.

They were coming in
the private aircraft,

and they were typically 500
to a thousand kilos at a time,

and this is an everyday event.

Entire islands were
purchased by traffickers

and set up with air bases

where they transported cocaine

from the mainland of
Columbia, went to the island.

Norman's Cay
Island, located in The Bahamas,

was purchased by
Escobar and Lehder

and was converted into a
sinister military type base

equipped with sophisticated
communications equipment

and navigational aids.

By the early '80s, Pablo Escobar
was to cocaine trafficking

what Bill Gates would soon
be to the computer industry.

He was making over half
a million dollars a day,

but he had serious competition
from the Ochoa brothers

and the virulent Mafioso
gangster, Jose Rodriguez Gacha.

Jose Gonzalo Rodriguez
Gacha was a genius

in discovering roots
for smuggling into
the United States.

The Ochoas were very
good at laundering money.

Pablo Escobar ran the
organization, if you like,

and he concentrated
in his hands the roots

that were developed
to bring cocaine

through airplane traffic
into the United States,

at first, across the Caribbean
and into South Florida.

And they innovated in a
variety of different ways

in that route.

It was together
that Escobar, Lehder

and the Ochoa Brothers and
Gacha would spread the wealth

and share the risk in the
lucrative cocaine industry.

What made him different

than any other group was
this is the first time

they were really organized
in the cartel-type fashion.

Special agent
Ramiro Escudero spent 12 years

investigating drug trafficking
and money laundering

for the FBI's Los
Angeles field division.

We consumed the largest number

of drugs anywhere in the world.

Pablo Escobar was able
to take advantage of that

and exploit that market.

I think before the
Medellin cartel,

we had a lot of what
we call smaller groups.

Pablo Escobar, along
with the other members

of the Medellin cartel,

were able to mass
market the cocaine.

They controlled
everything from production

to transportation
and distribution.

He became the king of cocaine,

even though in his own
country he had a boss,

a fellow named Jose
Rodriguez Gacha.

But like all bosses,

if you've got a captain
of your industry

that produces more wealth
for you than anyone else,

then he's your man.

A second major innovation
of the Medellin cartel was

what I call their Lloyd's
of London approach

to diversifying the risk.

If we assume that there
were five major participants

in the Medellin cartel in the
late '70s and the early '80s,

what they did was, rather
than send a single shipment

in their own name
into the United States

running the risk of
having it confiscated,

each of the five major
capos would share

one fifth of that load,
so over five loads,

they would get their
entire shipments in.

But if any one of those
loads was captured,

each of them only lost a fifth.

The Medellin
cartel was growing stronger

and more powerful with
every successful shipment

into South Florida.

By the beginning of the 1980s,

Miami was engulfed in
a full scale drug war

between the newly formed
cartel and the Cuban mafia

who had controlled Miami's
cocaine trade since the 1950s.

In 1979 and 1980, the
so-called Cocaine Wars

that took place here
in South Florida

that ended up with shootouts
on various freeways,

some 115 people killed.

Even with all the indicators

that cocaine was
becoming a boom business

in the United States,

the government in
a law enforcement
capacity didn't react

to it until South Florida
became a Wild West show.

Won't you join Nancy,
Vice President Bush and me

in urging all America's
young people to just say no.

President
Ronald Reagan responded

by appointing Vice
President George Bush

to head a special anti-drug
task force in South Florida.

Within a few months, a 500
member task force was in place

and functioning
in South Florida.

I was transferred
there in early '82

as a supervisor in
that task force,

and in that capacity got to
know the cocaine business

intimately within a few
weeks of my transfer.

With South
Florida's drug trade

under the control of
the Medellin cartel,

Pablo Escobar was now
ready to parlay his wealth

and power into a position
in Colombian politics.

His perception,
at least early on

by the average Colombian,
was interesting enough,

a very positive one.

James
Finkenauer was a professor

of criminal justice at Rutgers
University in New Jersey.

He was sort of like
a Robinhood character

in that what he would
do is he would use some

of his enormous wealth to
build housing for the poor

and provide other kinds
of services for the poor.

Well, Pablo Escobar
sought to curry support

with the poor
segments of Medellin.

He recruited many of
them, gave them jobs,

some as [speaking in
non-English] or gunman,

others as employees in various
aspects of his business.

He also sought to curry
the loyalty of members

of his own organization

and those people who worked
for him on the various

farms that he bought in the

Pablo
Escobar had the wealth

and power to buy
anything he wanted,

and what he wanted now
was a political career.

By the early 1980s,

Escobar had developed
political ambitions,

and as he became wealthier,

he began to see a political
future for himself.

And in 1982, he ran for
the Colombian Congress,

and he was elected as
an alternate deputy

to the Colombian lower house.

Rensellear Lee is one

of the nation's former scholars

on international
drug trafficking.

He is the author
of several books,

including "The Andean
Cocaine Industry,"

which paints a
comprehensive picture

of the multi-billion dollar

South American
narcotics business.

He was embarked on
a political career,

which seemed to
be very promising.

The trouble was that
the money that he got

to finance his political
career came largely

from his activities in
the cocaine business.

But people in Columbia
at that time didn't know.

They thought he was
a local entrepreneur.

Escobar's time

in the political
spotlight would be brief.

Political enemies
in the media sought

to reveal the source
of his fortune.

He did, I think, genuinely
care about those people

who were outside the mainstream
of Colombian society.

And I think he was,
he would've been able,

I think, to parlay this support
among the Colombian poor

into a very substantial
political career.

The only trouble was that
he was kind of an interloper

in the political scene
and his political enemies

within the liberal party and
in the media and elsewhere,

they began to check
up on this guy.

Who is Pablo Escobar?

Where does he come from?

And above all, where where
does he get his money?

And gradually they began to
go through the legal records.

They found that he had been
arrested for cocaine trafficking

back in 19, I think, 1976.

The details regarding
his arrest were missing

from the court's files.

The two policemen responsible

for the original arrest had
been mysteriously murdered,

and the judge who had tried
the case could not be found.

It was clear then that Pablo
Escobar had made his fortune

through illegitimate means.

According to people
who did know him,

and one individual
who knew him well,

he was a demanding and
ruthless character.

The Robinhood image
only extended to the PR

that he wanted known to
the rest of the world.

In 1983, Rodrigo
Lara Bonilla was appointed

as Attorney General
and launched a campaign

to crack down on
Columbia's drug trade.

The following year, the
police raided Tranquilandia,

the largest cocaine
laboratory ever built.

As the efforts

by the [speaking in
non-English] administration be

towards extradition
became more intense,

as the Attorney General of
the country at that time,

Rodrigo Lara Bonilla, began
to bust the operations

in the Medellin cartel, most
importantly, Tranquilandia,

the biggest refining complex
ever constructed in Columbia,

capable of producing
some thousand kilos

of cocaine per month,

that bust set the Medellin
cartel back in 1984,

produced a great deal
of ire in Pablo Escobar.

And the Attorney General was
targeted for assassination.

Escobar ordered the
assassination of Bonilla

in retaliation for his crackdown

against the Medellin cartel.

The list of people
murdered at the command

of Pablo Escobar was
becoming long and vast.

He would not tolerate
anyone standing in his way,

including law
enforcement officials

or the Colombian
government itself.

By the mid '80s, Pablo
Escobar and the drug lords

of Medellin had amassed fortunes

rivaling those of big time
legitimate businessmen.

With his worth estimated at
between $2 and $4 billion,

Escobar was written
up in Forbes Magazine

as one of the
world's richest men.

He was able to
be an enormously
successful businessman.

And I mean, let's face it,

the cocaine industry
drives a lot of employment

and provides a lot
of opportunities for
people in Columbia

who wouldn't otherwise
have opportunities.

And he was a big
guy at doing this.

He was the prince
of the capos,

but they were all in
the same ballpark.

Each of the Medellin cartel,

emerged as a billionaire

or a multi-billionaire over
the latter part of the 1980s.

This is a very, very
sophisticated business,

the product of which just
happened to be cocaine

as opposed to TV cameras
or VCRs or something.

But the business
itself structured

very much in the same way.

And Escobar was the head of
one of these two businesses.

You're like the chief
executive officer

for international business.

Like so
many mafia members,

Escobar possessed
a certain duality.

He was a ruthless
murdering drug Lord wanted

by the Colombian and
United States governments.

But at the same time,
he was a husband,

loving father and philanthropist
who provided jobs,

build homes, hospitals, schools,
and recreational facilities

for the people of his region.

Family for many of the
members of the Medellin

and other cartels in
Columbia was very important.

On the other hand, he also
led a rather licentious life.

When he was not with his
wife or with his family,

they had riotous parties at
his farms and in other places

where his wife was not there.

This became widespread
knowledge in Columbia,

and many people who sought to
partake of the huge profits

of the drug trade and the
immense wealth of Pablo Escobar

and others went
to these parties.

Obviously he bought
ranches and farms.

He had, you know,
lots of accoutrements.

He had women, he had horses.

He had beautiful
fixtures in his homes.

He had an antique
car collection.

He had all the rest of it.

He had a zoo, for example.

You could go in there, you
wouldn't have to pay admission,

just go in there
and see the animals.

This was another one
of these free services

that he was giving to the
public to enhance his image

as being a socially
responsible person

and somebody who cared
about the Colombian people.

In reality, he
was a savage entrepreneur,

a cold-blooded killer

who earned his fortune in the
gainful world of narcotics.

His drug trafficking
empire became so large

and so famous that he
was a household word.

By the time '80,
'82 came around,

everyone knew who
Pablo Escobar was.

It was like who's Joe
Gambino or Paul Castellano.

They knew who Pablo Escobar was.

His menacing
product had destroyed

the lives of millions.

At the pinnacle of his power,

the Medellin cartel was making

between $6 and $8
billion a year.

As a result of their
efforts to bring more

and more cocaine into
the United States,

they made up in volume, but
they lost in per unit price.

Americans
were consuming more
cocaine than ever,

and Escobar was wanted
by both the Colombian

and the United
States government.

Pablo Esquire did
fear extradition

as all the Medellin capos did.

They knew full well
that extradition

to the United States meant a
lifelong sentence in the jail.

Carlos Lehder was extradited.

He was given life plus 135
years in Marion, Illinois.

Pablo Escobar was
intelligent enough to know

that if he was ever judged
in the United States,

that the sentence he would get

would be two lifetime
sentences plus 135 years.

They formed a group called
,

the Extraditables, and those
extra Extraditables launched,

if you like, a
terrorist campaign

against the Colombian government

to prevent them
from extraditing,

the major figures of
the Medellin cartel.

The narco
terrorism conducted

by the Medellin cartel

bloody South America's
fourth largest country

for the next seven years.

The cartel targeted anyone

who supported
extradition to the US.

It led to the assassination

of a variety of major
Columbia officials,

judges, police officers,
notables in Colombian society.

Guillermo Cano, the director

of El Espectador newspaper,
was assassinated.

El Espectador headquarters were
bombed during this campaign,

and the violence became
increasingly indiscriminate.

He used the revolutionary
forces of his fighting

against the government
of his country

to protect his operations,

providing them with
arms and money,

housing for their families and
education for their children,

churches for them to worship in.

It was open season
on government officials,

and one of Escobar's methods
of persuading judges,

politicians, and journalists,
was through intimidation.

It was common practice for
Escobar to send a message

through one of his
many attorneys.

He would offer the
targeted official a choice

between plomo o
plata, led or silver.

The messenger would also arrive
with a photo album filled

with pictures of the victim's
home, family, and friends.

In return for his
life and cooperation,

Escobar would pay the
official a large sum of money.

Again, because of his
power and because of his,

I would say, just brute force,

he was able to influence
a lot of people.

The people heard, especially
judges and prosecutors

in Columbia would hear
the name Pablo Escobar,

they would feel like
there was a death threat,

and they would not
get in his way.

In 1985, Columbia's
murder rate

mirrored that of
a country at war.

The city of Medellin alone
reported nearly 1,700 homicides,

the highest per
capita in the country.

No man, woman, or
child was spared

in Escobar's
campaign of violence

against anyone who
dared to oppose him.

One year later, the killings
in Medellin more than double

to 3,500, nearly
10 murders a day.

So Pablo Escobar became
increasingly filled

with his own power,
his own fire power,

his own political power,
and his own economic power.

And he used his billions
to, if you like,

break down the doors of
the Colombian government

and to prevent it
from functioning

as a law enforcement entity
against the Medellin cartel.

They developed
ties with Nicaragua,

with a number of the
Caribbean islands,

with Panama, of course, with
General Noriega in Panama,

with some upper
level functionaries

in the Castro
government in Cuba.

And they were very active in
many parts of the hemisphere.

His cocaine
empire was steadily growing,

and his product was being
pushed throughout the world.

Meanwhile, the casualties
of the drug war

in Columbia continue to rise.

Escobar and his Medellin
cartel were responsible

for countless assassinations,

including the attorney
general, a justice minister,

dozens of journalists,
more than 200 judges,

and over a thousand
police officers.

And the drug war escalated
with the assassination

of liberal presidential
candidate Luis Carlos Galan

in August, 1989.

The terrorist activity
sponsored by the Medellin cartel

and particularly Pablo Escobar,

eliminated three of the
six presidential candidates

running in the 1990 elections.

Three were assassinated
out of the six.

President Gaviria, Cesar
Gaviria was elected

because the man who had been
picked by the liberal party

to be their candidate, Luis
Carlos Galan, was assassinated

at Pablo Escobar's
orders in August of 1989.

Pablo Escobar's relationship
with the Columbia government

changed the face of
Colombian politics.

It changed who was
president of Columbia.

After the
execution of Galan,

the Colombian government
intensified its campaign

of bringing down
the Medellin cartel.

Hundreds of airplanes and
vehicles were impounded,

thousands of weapons
and 25,000 rounds

of ammunition received,
personal property

and commercial real
estate was confiscated.

The cartel responded by
burning or bombing the homes

of numerous politicians.

But the ultimate example of
Escobar's diabolical disregard

for life was demonstrated in
November of that same year.

Over 100 passengers prepared
to board the Avianca 727 jet

from Bogota to Cali.

They had no idea that five
of their co passengers

were informants against
the Medellin cartel.

Reportedly, they
were responsible

for the raid of Escobar's
jungle hideaway,

resulting in the
kingpin's narrow escape

through a cornfield.

The six crew members
prepared for takeoff,

while the unsuspecting
passengers settled
in for the flight.

The plane ascended into the air.

But on route to Cali,

the plane exploded in midair
killing everyone aboard.

Pablo Escobar had struck again.

The charred remains of the
avian campaign were broadcast

throughout the world.

There seemed to be no escaping
the menacing terror inflicted

by the powerful cartel.

The public's cry to
reach a compromise

between the government

and the drug lords
was louder than ever.

The continuing war between
the Colombian government

and the Medellin
cartel was beginning

to take his toll on
the cocaine empire.

For over a decade, Pablo
Escobar had exerted his might

in Columbia through
bribery and murder.

During the beginning
of the 1990s,

Escobar found himself enthralled

in an intensifying campaign
conducted by Columbia

and the United States
to bring him down.

Ultimately, Escobar
became enemy number one.

The Medellin cartel
became a target.

Columbia began to believe

that their national security
depended on the destruction

of the Medellin cartel,

and they went about doing this

with a certain amount of
help from the United States.

So we were, as a government
aware of his power,

and we were trying
to assist Columbia

in either apprehending him

or extraditing him
to the United States.

He saw an opportunity
to strike a bargain

with the Colombian
government to, in effect,

enter into a plea
bargaining situation,

which would reduce his sins,

eliminate the possibilities
of his extradition,

and give him a
few years in jail.

And he would emerge with his
money more or less intact,

his billions intact.

With a guarantee

that he would not be extradited
to the United States,

Escobar turned himself in

under the terms he had dictated
to the Colombian government.

He financed, design
and built his own jail

named La Catedral
outside of Medellin.

It's very hard for the head
of a criminal organization

to continue to influence
that organization

in the same manner
when they're in prison.

You can do it for
a little while,

but the troops begin
to get restless,

and you're not there anymore
to enforce these rulings.

And I think that
happened with Escobar.

He felt that he
could have the best

of all possible worlds.

He had many people at that
time who were after him,

not just the
Colombian government.

He had his enemies
in the Cali cartel.

He had a falling out

with some people within
the Medellin Coalition,

and I think he wanted to,

he wanted to come into
some secure facility

where he could rest and
relax, and, at the same time,

continue to run
his cocaine empire.

He had his own cooks.

He had visitors come in.

The fence around and
kept the military out

and kept his rivals out.

It didn't necessarily
keep him in.

The prison facility

that he built was to
his specifications.

From there, he was able to
manage his cocaine empire.

He had computers, he had fax
machines, he had telephones.

He had everything that he needed

to communicate with
the outside world.

And also he used the prison,

not just to to manage his
cocaine trafficking operations,

but also to conduct trials,

summary judgments
against his enemies

within the Medellin cartel.

Some people who went
there to see him,

talk to him, were
never seen alive again.

So all kinds of things
went on in that prison.

Escobar was also able to
leave the prison at will.

He would leave, for example,

on a Saturday night
to go down to Envigado

and go to a local bar and
have drinks with his friends,

have a good time.

He was seen at soccer
matches, football matches.

He really had quite
a good life there,

until finally it became so
obvious what he was doing,

that the government decided

they were gonna move him
to a military prison,

which would've been
considerably less comfortable.

Rather than
serve out his time

in a military prison,
Escobar fled La Catedral

and lived out the
remainder of his life

as a fugitive on the run
from his numerous enemies.

Escobar had built for
himself a protection network.

I mean, not just his support
structure in Medellin

among the poor, he also paid
officials, paid policemen,

paid army officers, paid
other people in authority,

to tell him, you know,
when a police raid

or dragnet was
going to take place,

and so he could
get out of the way.

Escobar made
many miraculous escapes,

but his reign as a king of
cocaine had come to an end.

The Rodriguez Orejuela brothers
of Cali had gained ground

in the drug
trafficking industry.

They were now in position to
become the dominant figures

in the lucrative yet
dangerous cocaine business.

The Rodriguez Orejuela emerged

as the principle
figures in Cali,

rapidly surfaced over the
latter part of the 1980s

and the early part of the 1990s,

as the principle
traffickers in Columbia

supplanting Medellin
and Pablo Escobar,

precisely because Pablo Escobar
got increasingly caught up

in his own survival and
in his terrorist war

against the
Columbian government.

Escobar was on the run,

and his Medellin drug
cartel was a mere shell

of his former narco glory days.

The ravishing effects of the
cocaine war had taken his toll

on two continents
and expose Escobar

as a diabolical ruthless killer

who would do anything to
push his lethal product.

Escobar's escape from
his luxurious prison

was the ultimate
slap in the face

to the political establishment.

With the backing of
the American president,

a special Colombian
task force was created

for the sole purpose of
apprehending Escobar.

We intend to see them
dismantled and destroyed.

Pablo Escobar had escape
routes that allowed him

to survive in clandestine
for a lengthy period of time,

for a couple of years actually.

But this was a kind of
desperate existence.

The reality was that he
had created an organization

with loyal followers, both
in the Magdalena media

where he had a number of
farms, and throughout Medellin,

where he had a number
of different residences.

First of all, he has a
lot of friends in Medellin.

Other words, he has this
huge political backing

from a lot of the poor
people in that city.

And so there's a
certain loyalty,

and he can depend
on this loyalty

to provide a certain amount
of cover or protection.

So in other words,

there are people who
would not turn him in

because, you know,

they think he's almost
like a deity of some sort.

But his
enemies were closing in.

In 1992 and 1993,

the Columbian authorities were
making a tremendous effort

just to demolish
that organization.

I mean, they arrested people.

They killed something
like 200 top ranking

and middle ranking leaders.

They offered surrender
opportunities,

plea bargain chances
for people to come in.

Basically, they put the
Medellin cartel out of business.

It became more costly.

People simply
didn't stay bought.

And the Colombian government,

with the backing of
the United States,

created new units within both
the police and the military

in order to pursue him.

The
was a new unit created

within the Columbia military

precisely to go
after Pablo Esquire.

Hence, they were not
able to get this group.

They also rotated
many of the people

that he had previously
bought out of Medellin

and brought new ones in.

So we'd either
have to bribe them

or kill them in order
to gain their loyalty.

Colombian
President Gaviria

intensified the manhunt

with additional
command coordination,

electronic bugging interdiction,
and 24 hour surveillance.

United States
assistance was essential,

but the Gaviria
government was committed

to getting Pablo Esquire too,

after he escaped
from La Catedral.

That was a black eye against
the Columbia government

and a violation of the
agreement that they had reached.

When Pablo Escobar did
that and then went out

and killed a bunch of members
of his own organization,

really, the death bell
was ringing already.

Escobar had been
on the run for over a year,

but his luck was
about to run out.

He had taken refuge in an
apartment located in Medellin.

While talking to his son
on his cellular telephone,

the special police were able
to identify his location.

They were able to triangulate
these communications

and focus in on him, and,
you know, found the block

and finally found
the apartment complex

and the specific
place where he was.

Escobar
attempted to escape

by running across the
rooftop of the apartment

in which he sought shelter.

A barrage of gunfire
was exchanged

between Escobar and the police.

Pablo Emilio Escobar
Gaviria was gunned down

by the special police force
on December 2nd, 1993,

one day after his 44th birthday.

In the end, Escobar laid dead
in a pool of his own blood

without any shoes on his feet.

The police celebrated
in the streets

while his family openly
mourned his murder.

He died a bloody death,
'cause at that point,

this support structure,
if you wanna call it that,

you know, the
protection from above

among officials,
police and military,

and among, you know,
his local coteries

of supporters in Medellin,
that had begun to unravel.

And when somebody becomes
a public enemy like he was,

all of this is going to
begin to disintegrate.

And it was that, I think
that created the conditions

that allowed the police,

or the so-called

the search block to kill him.

Like his life,

Escobar's funeral was
a combination of joy

from those who had personally
suffered from his terror

and sorrow by those
who had benefited

from his narco
wealth and kindness.

The Medellin cartel had been
systematically dismembered.

Carlos Lehder was in jail.

Jose Gonzalo Rodriguez
Gacha was gunned down

in the sugar cane fields
along the Colombian coast.

And the Ochoa brothers
all cop plea bargains

and were sent to prison.

The underbosses of that
organization did not disappear.

Some of them were
thrown in jail as well,

but many of them continue
to operate on their own.

And so we have remnants
of the Medellin cartel.

Years after
the death of Pablo Escobar

and the demise of
his Medellin cartel,

the Colombian narcotics
trade is stronger than ever.

The large cartel structure
is given away to smaller,

more efficient organizations
that not only traffic cocaine,

but heroin as well.

So the figurehead has changed.

Pablo Escobar's gone, but we
still have a drug problem.

What has changed for the most
part is the will in Columbia

to do something to
salvage their country

from a gorilla force, which
has aligned itself so well

with the drug traffickers.

They are not a cartel.

They do not traffic
outside of Columbia.

They're only partially
involved in refining,

but nonetheless, they provide
protection for landing strips,

protection for laboratories.

They collect taxes from
the peasant growers

of both coca leaf
and opium poppy.

United States
citizens use more illicit drugs

than any other
country in the world.

Escobar recognized
this and capitalized

upon the American consumers
craving for cocaine.

We don't seem to understand
that this is a huge industry.

This is an industry that
makes a tremendous amount

of difference in the economies

and the lives of people
in South America.

We can't just eradicate
this industry overnight.

And every time we
take steps against it,

we find that something
else crops up in its place.

There are more people
leaving Columbia today

than any time in the
history of the country,

because they no longer believe
that they can win the war.

The legacy of
Pablo Escobar will be felt

for generations to come.

Until the demand for illegal
drugs is neutralized,

there will always be a person

or an entity willing
to satisfy that desire.

I think most of all,

what I would remember
Pablo Escobar for

is for being the major architect
of this cocaine industry,

one of the most
important, most painful,

but also most
important industries

that has developed in Latin
America and really the world.

Regardless of what
he did that was good

and perceived to be good, he
did it for the proliferation

of a criminal organization to
bring billions in drug profits

back to him personally so he
could send more poison out.

I don't believe that a
country outside of Columbia

knows the devastation of drug
trafficking like they do.

He was born as Pablo Escobar.

He died the
godfather of cocaine.

Years after Pablo
Escobar's death,

people in Medellin still bring
flowers to his grave site.

If asked, they might tell you

about the home he built for them

or the food he
distributed within their
impoverished village

or the hospital he
constructed for the sick.

But for the relatives of the
Colombian police officer,

journalists and government
officials he assassinated,

the reply will be different.

They will tell you
that Pablo Escobar,

who was a ruthless,
cold-blooded killer

who seemed to have it all,
but in the end, died alone.

I'm Robert Stack.
Thanks for joining us.