10 facts about the incredible wealth of Pablo Escobar

Escobar became a true legend, he turned out to be one of the most outstanding drug lords in history. How rich was he?

Escobar's income

In the mid-eighties, the Escobar cartel yielded a profit of $ 420 million a week, giving a total of about $ 22 billion a year.

One of the richest people in the world

Escobar was in the world ranking of billionaires from Forbes for seven years, from 1987 to 1993. In 1989, he was in seventh place in the ranking of the richest people in the world.

80 percent

By the end of the eighties, he supplied 80 percent of the world's cocaine.

He carried about 15 tons of cocaine to the United States of America daily

According to journalist Ioan Grillo, the Medellin cartel transported most of the drugs right across the coast of Florida. "Between the northern coast of Colombia and the coast of Florida for an entire 1,500 kilometers, and all this time, the one who moved along this route was in the palm of all. Colombians and their American partners dumped bundles of goods directly into the sea, and to them from the coast immediately waited for the delivery of high-speed boats. Sometimes the goods were dumped directly to the coast of Florida, "Grillo said.

King of America

In other words, four out of five Americans who consumed cocaine used the product that El Patron supplied them.

Each month the King of Cocaine bore $ 2.1 billion in losses, but it did not matter

Escobar's incredible wealth became a problem when he could not launder money fast enough. According to Roberto Escobar, the chief accountant of the cartel and brother of a well-known drug lord, he began to bury huge sums of money in Colombian fields, to hide them in dilapidated warehouses and the walls of the houses of members of the cartel. "Pablo earned so much that every year we wrote off ten percent of earnings, as money was eaten up by rats in warehouses, damaged by water or lost," he said. Based on how much Escobar earned, ten percent represents an amount of $ 2.1 billion. Escobar had simply more money than he could use, so casual losses due to rodents or mold were not a problem for him.

Every month he spent two and a half thousand dollars on gum

While the constant need to hide, as well as losing money, was one problem, the brothers faced another, more basic problem - how to organize banknotes accurately? According to Roberto Escobar, the Medellin cartel spent about two and a half thousand dollars on rubber bands, which were used to form bundles of banknotes.

Once he lit a bonfire out of two million dollars, since his daughter was cold

In 2009, the son of Pablo Escobar, Juan Pablo, now known as Sebastian Marroquin, described how life on the run looked like the King of Cocaine. According to Marrokin, the family lived in a shelter on the slope of the mountain in Medellin, when the daughter of Pablo Manuela had a hypothermia attack. Escobar decided to burn two million dollars worth of banknotes to warm his daughter.

Local Robin Hood

He was nicknamed "Robin Hood", when he gave money to the poor in the streets, built houses for the homeless, created seventy public football fields and organized a zoo.

He went on a deal with the Colombian government and agreed to go to jail, however on the condition that he himself build it. So there was a magnificent prison Escobar "La Catedral"

In 1991, Pablo Escobar was imprisoned under the name La Catedral, which he himself designed. Under the terms of the agreement concluded with the Colombian government, Escobar could choose who would be imprisoned with him. He also could calmly continue to deal with the affairs of his cartel and receive visitors. On the territory of the "La Catedral" was a football field, lawn for barbecue and patio, as well as this prison was located near another residential complex, which he built for his family. Also, representatives of the Colombian authorities could not drive closer than five kilometers to the prison.