How Did Pablo Escobar Die? Bio, Net Worth, Age, Wife, Family
One of the richest people in the world and one of the most infamous criminals was Pablo Escobar.
Escobar, who was born in 1949 in Colombia, began committing crimes while he was still a teenager. According to Britannica, he allegedly started out by fabricating false transcripts and diplomas, as well as robbing gravestones, stereos, and cars to make money. When Escobar was in his mid-20s, he was first detained for auto theft.
Escobar quickly expanded into drug smuggling and started working on creating an empire of illegality. He amassed a multimillion dollar wealth as a result of his leadership of the Medelln narcotics cartel, which also brought about the 1993 firefight that claimed his life at the age of 44.
There is still a lot unknown about Escobar, despite official probes, nonstop media attention, and Hollywood biopics. He is a subject of intense discussion among politicians, members of competing gangs, and Colombians in general. Here are some of the ways he has polarized opinion, prompted questions and skepticism, and ultimately had a lasting effect on the public.
PABLO ESCOBAR WAS CALLED COLOMBIA’S “ROBIN HOOD.”
Pablo Escobar’s paradoxes play a role in why he is such a fascinating subject. Escobar was referred to as the “Robin Hood” of Medelln, Colombia in a story published in the Spanish news magazine Semana in 1983, according to NBC News. Escobar famously described his 1991 surrender as “a sacrifice for peace” and frequently highlighted the problems with police violence in his neighborhood. He portrayed himself as the people’s hero and the government and its institutions as the true adversaries through this type of message.
According to a 2018 New Yorker article, Escobar was hailed as a hometown hero and cherished in Medelln. As any famous person would, the “charismatic” and ambitious drug boss posed for pictures and signed autographs. Roberto, his brother, explained to The New Yorker why Pablo had such an impact on so many Colombians. He explained, “It’s because Pablo aided this country’s poorest citizens.” Roberto responded, “To me, he was,” when asked “whether his brother was a good man.”
According to the BBC, Pablo Escobar was once regarded as “the seventh-richest person on earth.” Another way to put it is that the legendary felon actually didn’t know what to do with all the money he had. According to a September 2020 BBC article, Nicolás Escobar, the nephew of Pablo Escobar, found a small bag with $18 million concealed under the wall of his uncle’s former Medelln apartment. The money was “decayed and no longer usable” in large amounts. The stench inside was incredible, according to Nicolás, who told the BBC. “A scent a hundred times worse than death” According to reports, Escobar had multiple million-dollar stashes hidden around his homes, and Nicolás told the news organization that this was not the first time he had discovered one of them.
Escobar was careless with his money in many aspects, not simply the squandering of it. The drug dealer allegedly once set $2 million ablaze to keep his daughter warm when they were evading the cops in the early 1990s, according to Britannica. Each year, the billionaire is said to have written off $2.1 billion because it was “eaten by rodents,” “destroyed by the environment,” or “just lost.”
The “cocaine hippo” issue in South America is one of Pablo Escobar’s greatest long-term legacies. While the growth of the “cocaine hippos” started after Escobar’s passing, the drug lord’s private zoo at his opulent estate, known as Hacienda Napoles, is where the phenomena originated, according to the BBC.
Many of Escobar’s animals were transferred to other zoos after authorities confiscated the estate in 1993, but the hippopotamuses remained. According to Nataly Castelblanco, a Colombian biologist, “it was logistically challenging to transfer them around, so the authorities just left them there, perhaps believing the creatures would die.”
Instead, the species proliferated and grew to be the biggest herd outside its native Africa, posing a hazard to the ecosystem. Since there are no droughts or predators in South America like there are in Africa, it has proven to be a good place for hippos to breed. The BBC quoted Castelblanco as saying, “It is apparent that we feel bad about these animals, but as scientists, we need to be honest.” In Colombia, hippos are an invasive species, and if we do not eliminate some of their numbers now, things might get out of hand in just 10 or 20 years.
Pablo Escobar notoriously turned himself in 1991 despite years spent eluding capture. However, one of the richest and most powerful men in the world wasn’t ready to rough it in any old jail. Instead, according to the New York Post, he had his own opulent prison constructed, complete with views of Medellin and his own business partners in command. He gave the alleged prison the name “La Cathedral.”
Pea called La Cathedral “surprisingly tidy” and “a country club replete with luxury stuff, like state-of-the-art televisions, freezers, and radio equipment” in their 2019 book “Manhunters: How We Took Down Pablo Escobar” (via the New York Post). Pea said that the suites were “beautifully decorated, with planters, hanging baskets, and sumptuous upholstery and curtains” throughout the compound.
Every time we raided a safe house that Escobar utilized, we always discovered a curiously dazzling bathroom with brand-new fixtures, according to Pea. “Escobar had a thing with immaculate and well-proportioned bathrooms.
Escobar is said to have kept a collection of self-published, leather-bound books in his office, some of which contained caricatures that parodied the United States and others that were devoted to “how to take care of homing pigeons,” since the birds were employed to carry messages between cartel members. Additionally, he kept files with copies of his own wanted posters and, in Pea’s words, “threat notes from his opponents” (via the New York Post).
THE DETAILS OF PABLO ESCOBAR’S PASSING HAVE BEEN THE SUBJECT OF SOME DEBATE
On December 2, 1993, Pablo Escobar was shot and died. According to Business Insider, Escobar was shot while fleeing from military personnel and Colombian police on a rooftop in Medelln. After Escobar was killed, the US government released a picture of his bloody, strewn-about body on the roof, surrounded by jovial, armed police and military personnel.
However, there has been significant disagreement regarding the specifics of Escobar’s passing. Escobar’s own family members, gang members, and even intelligence reports have questioned whether Escobar was indeed slain by the soldiers in the photo. According to official sources, Escobar was slain by the Search Bloc, a specialized police team tasked with concentrating on the cartel.
Escobar was reportedly firing back at the moment with his own gun, which led to some conjecture that he may have shot and killed himself during the gunfight.
According to a different account from Diego Fernando Murillo, aka “Don Berna,” one of Escobar’s competitors who belonged to the Los Pepes organization, the Search Bloc and Los Pepes joined the raid on that particular day, and Berna’s own brother fired the fatal shot.
Source: Ngnews247.com