Image obtained from: http://www.rotten.com/library/bio/crime/criminals/pablo-escobar/

After 10 years of booming business, it seemed as if the Medellín cartel’s reign would soon be over. The Ochoa brothers had turned themselves in and were now in prison, Leder was extradited to the United States, and Gatcha had been killed in a gun fight with the police. Profits had also slowed considerably by 1989, due to decreasing cocaine prices in the States. Tired of running not only from the police but from the numerous rivals and enemies Escobar had made throughout his ruthless stint as Columbia’s top drug lord, Escobar turned himself in to authorities in 1990. Rather than being brought to a maximum security prison, Escobar was allowed to serve his time in what resembled a maximum security palace, which Escobar had built himself. The prison was called “La Catedral” or sometimes “Club Medellín”. La Catedral was extremely well fortified, designed not to keep Escobar in but mainly to keep others out. From his prison, Escobar lived luxuriously, and still threw lavish parties, conducted business deals, and still maintained his duties as the head of the Medellín cartel. The Columbian government had had enough of Escobar’s abuse of their lenient treatment, and made plans to move him to a normal Columbian prison after word got out that Escobar tortured and killed for of his under-bosses at the prison itself. Escobar was dead set against this new arrangement, and escaped from his prison on July 22, 1992.

For the next 17 months, Escobar was on the run from not only Columbian authorities but American Delta forces which were called in to aid the Columbians in tracking down Escobar. Escobar began offering $300 for the heads of any police officer or American. Escobar’s main rivals, the Cali cartel, also wanted to see Escobar disposed of, a move which would make them the largest cocaine traffickers in the world. Aside from the government, a new threat to Pablo Escobar emerged. A vigilante group of people who had been personally victimized by Escobar, or had had a loved one who was made to suffer Escobar’s wrath cropped up in Medellín, and they used the same tactics Escobar himself had used, including the torture of Escobar’s closest friends and family and the destruction of Escobar’s property. This group called themselves Los Pepes, an acronym for People Persecuted by Pablo Escobar. In an attempt to escape the violence, Escobar’s wife and children tried to flee to the United States, but they were refused at customs, and their visas were revoked. Escobar spent every night in a different safe house that he had established around Medellín. He couldn’t talk to his family for more than 3 minutes because if he did so, he could potentially be tracked down.

Escobar’s constant worrying over his family’s safety is what ultimately caused his downfall. On December 2nd, 1993, Columbia’s special police task force, the Search Bloc, who had been trained by American Delta Forces, intercepted a call from Escobar to his son. The origin of the equipment used to track down Escobar is disputed, with some saying it came from the American government, and some saying it was donated to the Columbian government by the Cali cartel. Escobar was found in one of his safe houses, armed with only one bodyguard and two guns. He engaged the police in a rooftop bloodbath as he tried to escape, but was unsuccessful. Escobar was shot right below the ear, rendering him dead.

The death of Pablo Escobar was celebrated as a landmark victory in the war on drugs and narco-terrorism. But in reality, Escobar’s death did little to slow down the fast pace of cocaine trafficking. Escobar’s death might have even helped to increase international drug trafficking. Escobar was well-known for maintaining strict control of the Columbian cocaine industry and for maintaining impossible entry barriers into the business which he dominated. After he died, the Columbian drug scene once again became a free-for-all.