I’m Pablo Escobar’s first son who was kept hidden from the world
Escobar’s operation had reached the height of its murderous power with his cartel controlling 80 per cent of the global cocaine market. But with that power came enemies, on both sides of the law.
“At that time Pablo had started to get out of control and in serious trouble with the authorities in Colombia,” explains Phillip, 53. “When he was in charge of his life and in control of things in the 1980s, no one would cross him, so anyone related to him or associated with him was inevitably safe. That began to change. I didn’t know I was his son, of course, but that wasn’t the point My adoptive father knew who I was. My dad had been doing business with these people so he was more than aware what they were capable of.”
Patrick’s summit with his adopted son was no mere clearthe-air chat: it was a warning.
“He cautioned me then that as Pablo Escobar’s son there could be problems and that I should have my own personal security. People were beginning to come after anyone who was related to Pablo. In those days there was nothing to stop someone getting on a plane, going to sort someone out and then slipping away again.”
It was not only Escobar’s enemies that Phillip suddenly had to contend with. “I was contacted in Spain by people from Colombia and asked to help ‘facilitate’ certain things,” he says, though he won’t go into further detail. “And of course I said no, and that put me in a bit of a tricky situation.
“You have to see it from their point of view. There I am, the son of Pablo Escobar, manoeuvred out of Colombia but in a situation where I’m able to run an operation for the family embedded in Europe. But then I tell them I don’t want to know. So that’s a bit of an issue.”
Phillip followed his father’s advice, and contracted a team of full-time security guards, concerned, not only for his own safety, but for the welfare of wife Sue and their two children, Jonathan, then three, and Anna, then just one.
Perhaps thankfully for all concerned, history overtook Escobar before Phillip found himself in any serious trouble. In 1993 the drugs lord was gunned down by the police in Medellin and in the ensuing fallout the big players in the cartel were all jailed or else killed themselves. Tragically, both his adoptive father Patrick and wife Sue also died the same year.
NOW Phillip lives in Mallorca, where he works as an artist. But he has spent the past two decades researching the history that for nearly half his life he didn’t realise was even his and is now writing a book about his experiences. He has also been contacted by one of Pablo’s legitimate sons, though he remains circumspect about pursuing that relationship.
Does he fear repercussions, even now, 25 years after Pablo Escobar’s death? He pauses a moment before answering. “My motivation for writing the book is simply that emotionally, I’ve got to get this all out,” he says. “It’s driving me mad. I’ve been living with this for 30 years, I need to get it out.”
Despite the fact his real father is long gone, some habits die hard. Phillip still keeps a gun in the house. “Of course there are potential problems going public like this,” he says. “On the one hand those from the old days don’t have any real power any more. But on the other, I am the first born son of Pablo Escobar!
“It’s blood, it’s family, that’s the way it works down there. That’s the reality of Escobar’s life.”