Rats ate $2.2 billion of cocaine king’s cash
Pablo Escobar, the “King of Cocaine”, was the richest criminal in history.
At the height of his career the boss of the Medellin drug cartel was turning over $22 BILLION a year in personal income.
And, at the time of his death 25 years ago this week, his net worth of more than $50bn made him one of the wealthiest men in the world.
It’s been estimated that the Medellin cartel brought in more than $70 million a day and that meant they had to spend $1,000 a week just on rubber bands to wrap the stacks of cash piled in their warehouses.
Incredibly, the cartel was content to write off 10% of the cash each year because of “spoilage” – basically rats eating the bills.
Escobar was so wealthy he could purchase almost eight square miles of land in the region, building his luxury house, the Hacienda Napoles, complete with a zoo, lake, sculpture garden and private bullring.
It’s also believed he funded Atletico Nacional, Medellin’s football team, who won South America’s premier tournament, the Copa Libertadores, in 1989.
But he could afford it. His cartel supplied fully 80% of the cocaine smuggled into the United States in the mid-80s, shipping up to 80 tons of the stuff every month.
Other figures are even more grim.
The cartel’s determination to maintain their supremacy saw Colombia become the murder capital of the world with 27,000 violent deaths in 1992 alone.
Many of these came as a result of Escobar giving money to hitmen to kill police officers, more than 600 of whom died.
But while he was an enemy of the Colombian and US governments, Escobar was seen as a hero in Medellin.
He cultivated a Robin Hood image, building football pitches and sports venues, even sponsoring children’s teams.
He built houses and often distributed some of his ill-gotten gains through housing projects and civic activities.
As a result the people protected Escobar from the authorities, acting as lookouts and refusing to cooperate with the police.
But when the cartels assassinated politician Luis Carlos Galan, the government moved against the cartels and persuaded Escobar to surrender in 1991 in exchange for a reduced sentence and preferential treatment.
His “jail” was basically a luxury hotel but, because the authorities were planning to move him to a standard prison as he’d continued his criminal activities behind bars, Escobar escaped.
He spent 16 months on the run, but was finally cornered by the “Search Bloc”, a team trained by US special forces, and shot dead a day after his 44th birthday.