At his extravagant estate in Puerto Triunfo, Escobar also built a private zoo filled with hippos, giraffes, elephants, and other animals. Hippos still roam the grounds today. 1)
Escobar sold stolen vehicles and tombstones to smugglers before becoming a drug lord. 2)
Escobar's outspoken sympathy for the underprivileged, as well as his desire to become Colombia's president, earned him the moniker “Robin Hood.” 3)
Escobar was earning up to $420 million per week as the ruling lord of the Medellin Cartel.4)
His narcotics trade thrived to the point that he was transporting roughly 15 tonnes of cocaine every day! 5)
So much so that he smuggled cocaine into the US by concealing it in plane tires. 6)
Escobar purchased a Learjet for the sole purpose of flying his money in order to deal with the unending flood of income that came his way. 7)
Escobar's fortune had grown to 30 billion dollars at one time! 8)
The man was so wealthy that he spent $2500 a month only on rubber bands to keep his money together. 9)
When he was in hiding, Escobar even burned two million dollars to keep his kid from becoming sick. 10)
Escobar's greatest fear was extradition, and he poured terror on Colombia in order to avoid prison time in America. 11)
Escobar was so afraid of extradition that he volunteered to pay off the Colombian government's debt, which had risen to a staggering ten billion dollars! 12)
According to an arrangement with the Colombian government, Escobar constructed a luxury prison named 'La Catedral,' which was guarded by his own faithful servants. The accords were that Escobar serves prison time (which he did) and that the Colombian government not extradite him to the United States. The penitentiary was unlike any other jail. From the inside, La Catedral was a flourishing casino, spa, and nightclub, but it also became a center for more drug deals and killings. 13)
Escobar was responsible for the deaths of around 4,000 people, including 200 judges and 1,000 police, journalists, and government officials. 14)
Escobar's Medellin cartel was responsible for 80 percent of cocaine supplied to the United States in the 1980s. 15)