Narcopedia

M-19 put its name on the map when they broke into La Quinta Museum and took Simon Bolivar’s sword. But there are two conflicting theories on where the sword ended up. The first is that M-19 gave the sword to Escobar who then gave it to his son as a birthday present. In his son’s book, he states that he remembers playing with the sword around the house. This is the theory we used in the show. The second theory is that the sword was sent to Cuba in the ‘80s and stayed there until 1991 when they returned it to the government as part of a peace deal. Whatever the case may be, someone had a pretty badass collectible lying around the house for almost two decades.

A drug dealer running for President? Sounds crazy, right? But true. Pablo’s biggest fear was extradition and, by gaining a seat in Congress, he would quite literally have a Get-Out-Of-Jail-Free card. He wanted to prevent the extradition treaty from ever getting signed. But Pablo’s political run is considered by many to be his biggest mistake. He made himself a public figure and hence the target of moral scrutiny. Once on the big stage, the image of Robin Hood Paisa started to disappear as his secret narco life was brought into the limelight.

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The Cali Cartel was quite the opposite of the Medellin Cartel as shown in this clip. They were sophisticated instead of flashy and flew under the radar. It was clear by the territories they operated in. Medellin had Miami and Cali had New York. They had politicians and cops on the payroll allowing them to operate more freely. At the height of their power they had control of 90% of the world’s cocaine.

The bombing of Avianca flight 203 wasn’t the only act of terrorism Escobar committed. From May to December of ’89 there were 175 deaths and 720 injured, along with over 88 car bombs. Escobar did everything he could to force the government to quit hunting him down for extradition.

View the documentary Sins Of My Father on Netflix now to get an inside look into the life of Escobar’s son.

Unlike what was shown on the show, Barry Seal wasn’t snatched up from a whorehouse and asked to “rat.” He also didn’t conveniently have a photo of Escobar smuggling coke laying around. In reality, he became a DEA informant after being sentenced to prison in a Florida federal court. In an effort to reduce his 10-year sentence, he allowed the CIA to install cameras in his plane to capture images of Escobar and company loading a shipment of cocaine bound for the U.S. Things escalated when they also discovered that the Nicaraguan government was also in on this. 

On July 22, 1992, the Colombian Army stormed the prison to save Vice Minister of Justice Eduardo Mendoza and they were successful, but Escobar was nowhere to be found. He used that time to get away presumably in a tunnel dug up by his men specifically for that reason. Washington D.C. had put out a court ruling that it could kidnap criminals in other countries to face trial in the U.S. But how Escobar escaped is still a topic of hot debate. Some claim it was solely through a tunnel. Some say he dressed as a woman and ran up the dark mountains. Others say that he flat out just walked out. Guess we’ll have to wait until Season 2 to find out.

Escobar of course wasn’t happy about this transfer. He made a pact with the government that he would end the bombing if he could stay in his own prison. They feared that he would start bombing again, so they brainstormed ideas to trick him. They said they had Intel that his rival, the Cali Cartel, was plotting to kill him. The government hired the Fourth Brigade of Medellin led by General Ariza to carry out the transfer, but it wouldn’t be easy.

Fernando Galeano and Kiko Moncada were in charge of a big chunk of the Medellin Cartel’s finances. They were given one of the best routes, La Fany, which travelled to Mexico and then to Los Angeles. But the money really did start to fall short as portrayed in this episode. Pablo had also heard that they were getting friendly with the Cali Cartel, so when a big chunk of money was found in one of Kiko’s hideouts, he ordered them to be killed along with their brothers, bodyguards and drivers. They were tortured, beaten to death and dismembered so the bodies could be burned in the prison bonfire. Escobar then called Galeano’s and Moncada’s families and told them what he had done. He then proceeded to request that they turn in all of their possessions in exchange for their own lives.

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Escobar was skeptical about the idea that the government wanted to transfer him to a safer prison while they added security to La Catedral. Why would they try to protect a known killer? He asked to speak to high-ranking government officials in person so the Vice Minister of Justice came to the prison. His real name was Eduardo Mendoza. After General Ariza failed to complete orders to secure the prison, Mendoza entered the prison unarmed and unescorted to negotiate . Escobar seized the opportunity to snatch guns from his prison guards and take him hostage along with the national prison director and assistant justice minister. Popeye, one of Pablo’s main sicarios, has said that kidnapping people was the biggest leverage the cartel could have, and they used it countless times to evade tough situations. Mendoza said there was an Uzi cocked to his head and they debated killing him several times until explosions and gunfire were heard. The army managed to rescue him, but not his job. Mendoza was forced to step down after naively facing the world’s most dangerous man without protection.

Moncada and Galeano’s widows were worried after Escobar killed their husbands at La Catedral prison. They reached out to the press and made the information public. Once the government got wind of Escobar’s prison killings and the fact that he continued to have dominance of his drug operations from within the prison, they decided they had to end his little party by transferring him to more secure army barracks.

Some estimates put Pablo Escobar’s body count as high as 60,000 people.

In the early 80s, the street value of a kilo of cocaine in Miami was $50,000.

In 1982, the Narcos made $42,300 in profit for every kilo they sold.

Pablo made so much cash he had to hide a million dollars in his mother’s couch.