Original subtitles

[narrator] By revealing this playbook,

I've shown you how to reach the top of the food chain,

create a bulletproof business plan,

terrorize your enemies,

and stay one step ahead of the authorities.

I've even shown you what not to do.

For your final lesson, it's time to scale up your ambitions

and find out just how powerful a mob boss can become.

[woman] The best mob bosses spread their tentacles

into every aspect of society

so that they can eliminate any obstacles to their criminal activity.

[narrator] No criminal pioneer rode his influence to greater heights,

or with as much deadly precision, as the cocaine king of Colombia,

Pablo Escobar,

who mastered every page of the playbook

and even added some final chapters of his own.

He had political power, he was a hero within his community...

[in Spanish] A very special greeting...

[Michael]...he was ruthless with his enemies,

very Machiavellian, and he was a good business guy.

You don't make 30 billion by accident.

[crowd cheering]

[narrator] Follow Escobar's lead,

and you too can become the best in your class

by learning how to win friends and influence everything.

[theme music playing]

[narrator] Pablo Escobar rose from the streets of Medellín, Colombia

to become the head of the largest drug syndicate in history,

with an entire nation under his thumb.

He was a mob boss. He was a terrorist.

He was a criminal mastermind, and he was really a global entrepreneur.

[narrator] But before we outline how Pablo made such a killing,

here's a few key details about his first steps

on his path from pawn to kingpin.

[spectators cheering]

[announcer in Spanish] Long live Pablo Escobar Gaviria!

Escobar wanted to make a million Colombian pesos

by the time he was 30.

[in Spanish] His mother was a school teacher.

His father was a farmer who worked on a farm.

They had no economic resources.

[narrator in English] By the time Pablo was a teen,

he was already showing his entrepreneurial flair.

Escobar became a player

in a pretty big cigarette smuggling operation.

Basically expanding it and making more money for his boss.

This sets him up to later be able to build his own empire as a drug trafficker.

Pablo Escobar saw the other traffickers making money off cocaine.

The profit margins were so much higher with cocaine than they were marijuana.

Basically, to get that kilo of cocaine to the United States,

we're talking $5,000 per kilo.

If your return on that pure kilo of cocaine is $80,000...

I'm not an Economics major, but even I can realize that

that's a fantastic return on your investment.

[Asha] In 1975, Pablo Escobar was a low-level drug trafficker

that nobody had ever heard of.

[Steve] An opportunity comes along where an individual named Restrepo

needed someone to help him complete a drug deal in Medellín.

So Pablo helps with the drug deal.

[Asha] Two months later, Fabio Restrepo was murdered.

Reportedly, Escobar ordered the assassination.

And then Escobar takes over his organization

and basically tells his entire operation that they're working for him.

That's a boss move.

[narrator] But Pablo Escobar's ambitions

went beyond running a local drug trafficking operation.

He wanted to change the game.

Pablo Escobar wanted to rule Colombia.

[narrator] To do that,

he'd need to radically expand his sphere of influence,

starting with any criminal leader's most consistent adversary.

POLICE

For an ambitious mob boss on the rise,

local police can be a real thorn in your side.

But we all know even the straightest cops can be tempted by the right offer.

Having corrupt cops on your payroll is an excellent thing for a mob boss.

It gives you more control in the neighborhoods

and over your business.

So, when you have cops in your pocket and you're paying them,

there's nothing better than that.

[narrator] As Medellín's top cocaine dealer,

Pablo knew the value of getting the law on his side.

Especially since he was eyeing a risky move to increase his power.

As Pablo became more involved in the cocaine business,

he realized the additional profits he could make

by manufacturing his own cocaine.

He said, "Let's invest money in making these cocaine laboratories."

[narrator] But Pablo faced a problem when it came to transporting his product.

In the mid-'70s, the Colombian national police

had the responsibility of going after the drug traffickers.

The Colombian police set up roadblocks

on main routes being traveled throughout Colombia.

If you don't have an attitude that makes you persuasive,

maybe with cash in your hand,

you're probably gonna be arrested at those roadblocks for smuggling.

[narrator] Pablo had the right attitude and more importantly, cash to spare.

But in 1970s Colombia,

not all law enforcement organizations played by the same rules.

One night, Escobar and his men are heading back to Medellín

from a supply run to Ecuador

when they run into an unexpected delay.

Pablo knows the drill,

but he's not dealing with the regular cops.

It's the Colombian secret police known as DAS.

[Javier] There was an agency in Colombia called DAS.

Departamento Administrativo de Seguridad.

DAS was like the FBI.

They did a lot of intelligence work.

[narrator] The agents knew Pablo was coming

and quickly discovered 39 kilos of raw coca paste

inside the truck's spare tire.

They've got him dead to rights.

Pablo offers his usual bribe,

but the DAS agents aren't so easily bought off.

They arrest Pablo for trafficking.

Fortunately, Escobar still has options to regain his freedom.

He arranges for a gift to be sent to the judge overseeing his case.

The judge appreciates the gesture...

and shows it.

As for those stubborn DAS agents who refused to bow to Pablo's influence...

[grunting]

[narrator] ...they become an example of what happens

when you don't accept Pablo Escobar's generosity.

From then on, all officers who cross Pablo's path will have a simple choice.

[narrator in Spanish] Plata...

[gun cocks] ...o plomo.

[Asha] Plata o plomo, it means silver or lead.

You can either take money, or you can take a bullet.

It was an offer that no one could refuse.

[narrator] Leaning on law enforcement is a start,

but the next phase of your influence campaign

means getting another troublesome group onto your side,

the competition.

[bell dings]

How do you turn potential enemies into allies?

They say if you want to go fast, go alone.

But if you want to go far, go as a team.

Because together everyone achieves more.

Mob bosses have to have strategic alliances with other mob bosses

'cause they're all working for that same successful outcome, right?

To make money.

There's plenty of money out there to be made,

but if I claim this, and he claims this, and we start shooting at each other,

nobody gets anything.

You just have a lot of dead people.

[narrator] That's how these criminal supergroups were born.

Sicilian mob boss Gaetano Badalamenti partnered with the American Mafia

to traffic heroin stateside.

The operation was nicknamed The Pizza Connection,

because the drugs were moved through New York pizza parlors.

The human trafficking ringleader known as Sister Ping,

who grew a $40 million empire smuggling Chinese migrants into the US,

paid her former rivals, the Fuk Ching gang,

close to a million dollars to assist with her operation

and terrorized those who refused to pay.

While Lucky Luciano, Bugsy Siegel, and Meyer Lansky

merged their Italian and Jewish gangs during Prohibition

to form what they called The Syndicate.

The first American multi-ethnic mob.

Now that's progressive thinking.

As Pablo's ambitions grew,

he had reasons to explore constructive collaboration.

[Asha] The cocaine trade was a competitive market

in Colombia when it started.

You had a number of different players competing for the market share.

[Steve] All these drug traffickers are doing their own thing,

that they're having to create their own sources to secure the chemicals,

which is a challenge because where do you get your chemicals from?

There's only so many chemical companies in the world.

[narrator] Were they still making money? Oh yes.

But Pablo and his fellow narcos were about to face a crisis

that would change everything.

Throughout Colombia, insurgent groups begin kidnapping wealthy citizens

and holding them for ransom.

It's a most profitable racket,

and for those who don't pay, a deadly one.

Before long, they start coming for the drug tycoons and their families.

Marta Ochoa, younger sister of top traffickers, the Ochoa brothers,

is abducted off her college campus

by members of the Marxist guerrilla faction M-19.

They demand millions for her safe return.

In response, Pablo and the Ochoas decide to convene a summit

of Colombia's top traffickers.

[indistinct chatter]

As the drug lords gather, Pablo insists that no more ransoms be paid.

Instead, they should join forces to fund their own private army

with a catchy title.

M.A.S. Muerte a Los Secuestradores.

In other words, death to the people who are kidnapping for ransom.

[narrator] The price to join? A mere two million pesos, around $33,000.

And ten hitmen each.

Within days of forming, M.A.S. starts hunting.

[gunshot]

They slaughter more than 100 suspected kidnappers

across the country...

until Marta Ochoa's abductors finally get the message.

What began as a tactical partnership would soon deepen

as these unlikely collaborators decide to create a more lasting alliance,

which the world will come to know as the Medellín drug cartel.

[people clapping]

[Steve] So they all brought in different things to the table

to share amongst each other.

That's when their profits really started to grow.

They became much, much more powerful as a group than they were individually.

By the late '80s, early '90s, the Medellín cartel was responsible

for 80% of the cocaine that was reaching the world.

They are monopolizing the cocaine business.

In other words, they're the ones who are setting the price.

But the person who's always above all these people? Pablo Escobar.

[narrator] And to the visionary go the greatest rewards.

By the mid-1980s, Pablo Escobar was making a million dollars a day.

[narrator] But when you're running an illegal empire,

your growing bankroll is going to draw ever more unwanted attention.

Our trusty playbook will show you how to keep the wolves at bay

and expand your influence even further.

Love.

We all want that warm feeling of being safe and protected.

That even goes for powerful mob bosses.

[Steve] High-level criminals understand

the benefit of having public opinion behind them.

If you can get that community support behind you,

people tend to maybe not look at the fact that you're doing things that are illegal.

[man] The more public support that a boss is able to garner,

the more he'll be able to ultimately insulate himself.

[narrator] The first step in getting the masses on your team?

Show your charitable side.

Like these guys.

New York City Mafia boss Carlo Gambino's sons, Thomas and Joseph,

who reportedly made 70 million

from a trucking scam in the Garment District,

gave over a million dollars to help fund a children's cancer center,

which still bears the family's name on one of its units.

After a devastating tsunami struck Japan in 2011,

the yakuza, under supreme kingpin Kenichi Shinoda,,

were among the first on the ground delivering aid to devastated areas.

And the Colombo crime family's notorious underboss William Cutolo

was a major benefactor of the National Leukemia Research Association.

He even dressed up as Santa Claus for its annual Christmas party.

Pablo Escobar's charm offensive

also benefited from understanding his audience.

[in Spanish] Pablo Escobar came from a humble background

and knew the needs of his people.

[Asha] The government was only catering to the elites, and so,

Pablo Escobar was able to fill a gap

that the government wasn't filling,

providing services and things that people needed at the ground level.

[narrator] Pablo's generosity takes many forms.

His money helps build roads and power lines,

hospitals,

stadiums,

roller rinks.

Even a 600-unit housing complex for Medellín's neediest citizens,

christened Barrio de Pablo Escobar.

He creates a private zoo with free admission,

featuring 200 exotic animals,

sponsors local soccer teams,

and constructs playing fields all over the city with lights.

[crowd cheering]

Sometimes Pablo even suits up himself.

He hands out money in the city's poorest neighborhoods,

often accompanied by Catholic priests.

He gives money to the church too.

[Asha] Pablo's community saw him as a Robin Hood,

where he stole from the rich capitalists and gave back to the poor.

And so, he was really seen as a hero to the people in his own neighborhood.

What it ultimately meant was loyalty.

You know, people thought Pablo Escobar was the good guy,

and the government people were the bad guys.

When you have the will of the people on your side, you're a winner.

That's how you beat government.

[narrator] But even when it seems that your neighborhood is secure,

outside threats can be another matter entirely.

Drugs are menacing our society.

They're threatening our values and undercutting our institutions.

They're killing our children.

We want you to say no.

Knock drugs out of your life by just saying no.

Just say no.

[newscaster] It's estimated that about 96 tons of cocaine

were smuggled into the US last year.

We are indeed trying to do everything government can do

to combat drug traffickers.

The Colombian government was under a lot of pressure from the United States

to really crack down on the drug traffickers.

[narrator] And that would lead to a most troubling decision.

The United States and Colombia signed this treaty that allowed

Colombian traffickers to be extradited to the United States.

[narrator] Scary stuff, but not to worry.

The playbook will show you

how to capitalize on your newfound popularity.

Politics. It's slow. It's messy.

But when you want to influence public policy,

you have to go right to the source.

And if you're Pablo Escobar,

there's now one law that matters above all.

[Asha] Pablo Escobar was especially scared of extradition,

the possibility that he could be forcibly transferred to the United States

where he would face almost certain justice and jail time.

[narrator] Pablo needed to take that scenario off the table.

Pablo Escobar realized if he really wanted to change the laws,

the best way to do it was from the inside.

He ran as an alternate

for a congressional position out of his district.

[in Spanish] The main ideology of our movement is public spirit,

nationalism, social programs.

[narrator] And as for Pablo's complicated backstory...

Escobar carefully curated his public profile.

He hired a PR person to make him seem

like a legitimate businessman,

to pay off journalists, and basically wipe his past clean.

[Steve] He ran on the coattails of a man named Ortega,

who was an incumbent, and had won.

[crowd cheering]

[Steve] Once the election was over,

Pablo goes strutting into Congress just like he's a normal person.

[narrator] Besides the power and prestige of his office,

Pablo's new position came with some other handy perks.

[Asha] As a member of Congress,

Escobar enjoyed immunity from criminal prosecution.

He got a diplomatic visa to the United States

and was in a position to impact Colombia's extradition treaty,

which he wanted to get rid of.

[narrator] However, Pablo's grand ambitions

brought him face-to-face with a formidable opponent.

Rodrigo Lara was the Minister of Justice who had just been appointed

when Pablo Escobar was elected to Congress.

He was a lifelong politician

and a staunch adversary to the drug traffickers.

The minister knew who Pablo was.

He realized that Pablo was making a mockery of their congressional system

by even being in the room.

[sinister music plays]

[narrator] On Pablo's first day in Congress,

it's clear he doesn't fit in.

Rodrigo Lara is about to make things even more uncomfortable.

He starts the session

and denounces narcotrafficking's devastating effect

on Colombian society,

and then turns his attention to Pablo.

Lara unmasks the new Congressman as a drug kingpin

and declares that Escobar has been lying to the Congress

and the Colombian people.

Pablo continues to deny the allegations.

[in Spanish] From any point of view, we are being slandered and attacked

for false information

and for harmful words

launched against us by our political enemies.

[narrator] But after a yearlong investigation,

Escobar is expelled from Congress.

[Asha] Not only does Escobar lose

any kind of immunity from prosecution that he might have had,

any influence that he would have had on Colombian drug policy,

but he's personally humiliated and exposed.

[narrator] Pablo's attempt to break into politics hit a wall.

But there's more than one way to bend the government to your will.

And this next one isn't nearly as polite.

[narrator] When you're a man of means, you can usually count on your money

to advance your interests.

♪ I'm livin' the life, life ♪

♪ Yeah, I'm livin' the life, life, life ♪

[narrator] And by the late 1980s,

few on Earth had greater means than Pablo Escobar.

♪ I got it made, made, made ♪

♪ I'm doing it right, right, right ♪

[Steve] He's in the limelight.

He's got more money than he knows what to do with.

He's one of the richest, if not the richest criminal in the world.

And he doesn't want to give any of that up.

[narrator] But a new crop of politicians was looking to make their names

by promising to take Pablo and his cartel colleagues down.

[Steve] There was an individual named Luis Carlos Galán

that was running for president of Colombia,

and his platform was pro-extradition for the drug traffickers in Colombia.

His popularity rate was phenomenal.

[in Spanish] It arrived in our homeland

as it arrived in more than 60 countries of the world.

[crowd cheering]

[narrator] If you're Pablo Escobar,

that's the last type of person you can allow to run your country.

[crowd continues cheering]

[narrator] Time to exert your influence more directly.

[gunshots]

Galán is assassinated on Escobar's orders.

[narrator] But Galán's ideas aren't as easy to snuff out.

For Escobar, his problems haven't gone away

because Galán's chief of staff,

César Gaviria, becomes the presidential candidate.

[newscaster 1] Gaviria was also the only candidate

who promised to continue extraditing

some cartel leaders to the United States for trial.

[narrator] Guess he didn't get the message.

So, Pablo decides he'll take Gaviria out,

and he goes through the level of getting intelligence

that César Gaviria is going to be on the flight going from Bogotáto Cali.

Pablo decided to authorize to put a bomb on the flight.

Plane takes off, that bomb explodes in midair.

[newscaster 2] 107 are dead in Colombia in a plane crash.

The plane went down minutes after taking off from Bogotá.

It might have been a bomb,

and there is one claim that drug dealers planted it.

[narrator] But there was one problem.

Gaviria did not travel.

[Steve] So 110 people died

simply because Pablo thought one man was going to be on that plane.

[Javier] After the airline bomb by Pablo Escobar,

people were starting to say this guy needs to be locked up somewhere.

And this is where all the efforts were now being focused

on finding Pablo Escobar.

[newscaster 3] Colombian police continue to find and destroy hidden runways,

dismantle cocaine labs, and search for Pablo Escobar,

head of the Medellín drug cartel.

[narrator] It may seem like the walls were closing in,

but Pablo still had one more card up his sleeve

to impose his will and secure his future.

After making billions and becoming Colombia's most influential citizen,

Pablo Escobar now had the Colombian authorities on his trail...

[TV announcer speaking in Spanish]

[narrator] ...and a population cheering for his capture.

He needed to shift the odds back into his favor.

Violence is Escobar's bargaining chip.

It's the only leverage that he has at this point,

and the only way that he thinks he can bring the government to the table.

[siren wailing in distance]

Colombia's drug lords responded today to the government's new get-tough policy.

They declared war on the government.

As the heat is turned up on Escobar, everything becomes a target,

and basically Bogotábecomes a war zone.

Thousands and thousands of innocent people were killed.

Then he placed leaflets at car bomb sites.

The extraditables. Los extraditables.

"I prefer a tomb in Colombia to a jail cell in the United States."

And it was signed "the extraditables."

We knew "the extraditables" was Pablo Escobar.

That was his calling card.

[narrator] It didn't take long until Pablo's campaign bore fruit.

[Steve] You get this public opinion mounting and growing,

going to the government to say, "What are you gonna do about violence?"

"We've had enough of this. How are you gonna keep us safe?"

[narrator] Fearing public revolt,

the government had no choice but to offer Pablo a deal.

[Steve] President César Gaviria

came up with an idea of the "self-surrender program."

And what that entailed was you as a criminal come in

and agree to plead guilty to one crime of your choosing.

And in exchange, we will absolve you of every other crime

you've ever committed in your life, to include murders.

This was primarily aimed at bringing in or bringing down Pablo Escobar.

[narrator] The only thing better than bringing the government to the table

is having them come on their knees.

[Javier] Pablo Escobar called up the government of Colombia and said,

"I am willing to stop my bombing campaign,

and I am willing to self-surrender."

"However, I have certain conditions."

They said, "Okay. What is it you want?"

He said, "Well, first of all, I'm gonna build my own prison."

"Because I need to know that it's a place that I feel safe in."

And what did the government say? "Okay."

He said, "Second of all, I need to handpick

all my fellow prisoners because I got a lot of enemies."

"I've got to make sure there's not people that would kill me while in prison."

And the government of Columbia said, "Okay."

"I'm gonna hire my own prison guards."

"Don't worry about their salaries. I'm gonna pay their salaries."

And the Colombian government said, "Okay."

On top of that, there were no stipulations to take any of Pablo's assets.

"The big factor is I need that extradition thing gone."

The government of Colombia said, "Okay."

It was the worst plea deal in the history of law enforcement

in the entire history of the world.

Basically, Pablo Escobar had won, and we had lost.

[narrator] But what about that prison sentence?

The facility of his choice is known as La Catedral.

[upbeat salsa music playing]

This prison has big-screen TVs, a jacuzzi, a pool with a waterfall,

and all of the things that Escobar needs to continue his business

safely inside walls with guards outside.

[music ends]

[narrator] And when after a year at La Catedral,

the Colombian government decided to renege on their deal

and transfer Escobar to a less comfortable prison.

[guns firing]

Pablo's men took up arms,

and Escobar walked right out the back door.

[newscaster 4] Hundreds of Army troops

scouring the countryside for Colombia's most wanted man.

So far, Pablo Escobar has outfoxed them.

[narrator] Though he didn't stay on the run forever,

the man who said he preferred death in Colombia to prison in the US

ultimately got his wish.

Thanks to the Colombian police and the American Drug Enforcement Agency.

[newscaster 5] Pablo Escobar died as he had lived, violently.

His death may well be the final blow to the Medellín cartel.

[narrator] By carving his unique path through the playbook,

Pablo Escobar became one of the 10 richest people in the world

with a reported net worth of $30 billion.

Who says crime doesn't pay?

[Michael] The mob mentality is this.

Anyone that hasn't took the oath is a sucker.

Going into this business you're gonna make money,

but we don't just kill people.

We see what the public wants, and we give it to them.

At least the Mafia is not looking to pull wool over everybody's eyes.

[narrator] Each of these criminal giants took control of their own destiny

and achieved heights most mortals can only dream of.

Mob bosses are so respected, so feared.

[narrator] If you're satisfied with your current existence,

then maybe you're not cut out for this sort of career change,

but let's be real.

It's plain and simple. You want money, power, respect?

You want to be the boss.

[narrator] Couldn't we all use more of the finer things in life?

I've given you the tools.

So, what are you waiting for?

[theme music playing]

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