10 Things You Didn’t Know About Pablo Escobar (the wealthiest criminal of all time)

It’s often said that we’re living through a new golden age of TV; The latest series to aim for the zenith occupied by Breaking Bad, Mad Men and Hannibal is the Netflix original series, Narcos. The show charts the staggering rise from a farmer’s son to all-powerful drug lord of Pablo Escobar, the infamous Colombian psychopath who practically ruled the country between the 1970s and ’90s. No matter how brilliant the show is, however, it would be an achievement to cram in all the insane facts and figures about Escobar’s life without leading to an epic run-time.

Pablo Escobar was born in December, 1949, to a poor farmer and an elementary school teacher. His inauspicious beginnings certainly didn’t limit his ambition; he grew up telling friends that he would be a millionaire by 22 and the future President of Columbia. He found novel ways to earn cash during his teens, filing names off headstones to steal and sell to smugglers and selling contraband cigarettes. By the time he moved into the drug trafficking trade in the mid-70’s, his thirst for power and money was unstoppable.

As the head of the Medellin cartel, Escobar was to become the richest criminal in history by the time he met his end in a shoot-out with the Colombian National Police. To explore the dizzying figures behind his empire is to peer into another world entirely, one which is tinged with cocaine madness – and a huge amount of blood.

1. Before becoming a drug kingpin, Escobar sold stolen cars and tombstones to smugglers.2. Escobar's open support for the poor and his wish to become Colombia's president earned him the nick name 'Robin Hood'.3. After becoming the reigning lord of Medellin Cartel, Escobar was minting as much as $420 million a week!4. His drug trade flourished so much that he was smuggling nearly 15 tonnes of cocaine every day!5. So much so that he smuggled cocaine into the United States by hiding it in airplane tires. 

7. At one point, Escobar's had amassed so much wealth that it reached 30 billion dollars!8. The man had so much money that he spent $2500 a month just on rubber bands to bind his money together.

9. Once in hiding, Escobar even burnt 2 million dollars to keep his daughter from catching cold.

10. At the height of his reign, Escobar was making roughly $420million every week

11. In 1989, according to Forbes, escobar was ranked 17th in the richest people in the world list

12. Escobar was celebrated in Columbia for his charitable activities. He gave money to churches, schools built stadiums

13. He was responsible for the death of 4,000 including 200 judges,1,000 police officers, journalists and government workers

14. He built himself a luxury prison and incarcerated himself in it, form there he carried on with his criminal activities