Thisauction is for (2) different Pablo Escobar Wanted Posters 8.5x11 inches and a4x6 inch photograph of Pablo and his son Juan Pablo standing in front of theWhite House (please note the 4x6 White House photo is grainy). Both of the Wanted Posters and the White House photograph arereprints however they are very nice collectibles. The Wanted Posters areprinted on thick parchment paper. You will receive the same 2 Wanted Postersand the photograph that is pictured in the scan for this auction. Please notethe blue “Do not copy” water seals only appear in the scans of the auction to preventpeople from copying the wanted posters and the photo. If you purchase the 2Wanted Posters and the White House 4x6 photograph the blue “Do not copy” waterseals are not on the actual posters or White House photograph. Pablo Escobar is the inspiration for NetFlixs hit show "Narcos".
BELOWIS A BIO OF THE LEGENDARY PABLO ESCOBAR: Pablo Escobar (1949-1993) was a notoriousColombian drug lord who headed the Medellin Cartel, at the height of hiscareer, supplied an estimated 80% of the cocaine smuggled into the UnitedStates. Often called "The King of Cocaine", he was the wealthiestcriminal in history, with an estimated known net worth of US$30 billion by theearly 1990s, and approximately US$100 billion when including money that wasburied in different places throughout Colombia. He was also one of the top tenrichest men in the world at his prime.
InThe Accountants Story, Roberto Escobar discusses the means by which Pablo rosefrom middle-class simplicity and obscurity to one of the worlds wealthiestmen. In 1975, he started developing his cocaine operation. He even flew a planehimself several times, mainly between Colombia and Panama, along smugglingroutes into the United States. When he later bought fifteen new and biggerairplanes, including a Learjet and six helicopters, he decommissioned the firstplane and hung it above the gate to his ranch at Hacienda Napoles. In May 1976,Escobar and several of his men were arrested and found in possession of 39pounds (18 kg) of white paste after returning to Medellín with a heavy loadfrom Ecuador. Initially, Pablo tried unsuccessfully to bribe the Medellínjudges who were forming the case against him. Instead, after many months oflegal wrangling, Pablo had the two arresting officers killed and the case wasdropped. Here he began his pattern of dealing with the authorities, by either bribingthem or killing them. Roberto Escobar maintains Pablo fell into the drugbusiness simply because other types of contraband became too dangerous totraffic. There were no drug cartels then and only a few drug barons, so therewas plenty of business for everyone. In Peru, they bought the cocaine paste,which they then refined in a laboratory in a two-story house in Medellín. Onhis first trip, Pablo bought a paltry 13.5 kilos (30 pounds) worth of paste inwhat was to become the first step towards the building of his empire. At first,he smuggled the cocaine in old plane tires and a pilot could earn as much as$500,000 per flight depending on how much he could smuggle.
Soon,the demand for cocaine was skyrocketing in the United States and Pabloorganized more smuggling shipments, routes, and distribution networks in SouthFlorida, California and other parts of the country. He and cartel co-founderCarlos Lehder worked together to develop a new trans-shipment point in theBahamas, an island called Normans Cay about 220 miles (350 km) southeast ofthe Florida coast. (According to his brothers account, Pablo did not purchaseNormans Cay; it was, instead, a sole venture of Carlos Lehder.) Carlos andRobert Vesco purchased most of the land on the island, which included a 1kilometre (3,300 ft) airstrip, a harbor, a hotel, houses, boats, and aircraft,and built a refrigerated warehouse to store the cocaine. From 1978 to 1982,this was used as a central smuggling route for the Medellín Cartel. With theenormous profits generated by this route, Escobar was soon able to purchase 7.7square miles (20 km2) of land in Antioquia for several million dollars, onwhich he built his home, Hacienda Napoles. He created a zoo, a lake and otherdiversions for his family and organization.
Atone point, it was estimated that seventy to eighty tons of cocaine were beingshipped from Colombia to the United States every month. In the mid-1980s, atthe height of its power, Escobars Medellín Cartel was shipping as much aseleven tons per flight in jetliners to the United States (the biggest loadshipped by Pablo was 23,000 kilograms (51,000 lb) mixed with fish paste andshipped via boat, as confirmed by his brother in the book Escobar). In additionto using the planes, Roberto Escobar also claimed that Pablo employed two smallremote-controlled submarines to transport the massive loads (these subs were,in fact, manned and this is again documented in Robertos book).
In1982, Escobar was elected as an alternate member of the Chamber ofRepresentatives of Colombia as part of the Colombian Liberal Party. He was theofficial representative of the Colombian government for the swearing-in ofFelipe González in Spain. Escobar quickly became known internationally as hisdrug network gained notoriety; the Medellín Cartel controlled a large portionof the drugs that entered the United States, Mexico, Puerto Rico, the DominicanRepublic, Venezuela, and Spain. The cocaine was produced with coca from Peruand Bolivia through other drug dealers such as Roberto Suárez Goméz, sinceColombian coca was initially of substandard quality and demand for more andbetter cocaine increased. Escobars cocaine reached many other countries in theAmericas, and Europe through Spain; it was even rumored his network reached asfar as Asia.
Corruptionand intimidation characterized Escobars dealings with the Colombian system. Hehad an effective, inescapable policy in dealing with law enforcement and thegovernment, referred to as "plata o plomo" (literally "silver orlead", colloquially "[accept] money or [face] bullets"). Thisresulted in the deaths of hundreds of individuals, including civilians,policemen and state officials. At the same time, Escobar bribed countlessgovernment officials, judges and other politicians. Escobar was allegedlyresponsible for the 1989 murder of Colombian presidential candidate Luis CarlosGalán, one of three assassinated candidates who were all competing in the sameelection, as well as the bombing of Avianca Flight 203 and the DAS Building bombingin Bogotá in 1989. The Medellín Cartel was also involved in a deadly drug warwith its primary rival, the Cali Cartel, for most of its existence.
Itis sometimes alleged that Escobar backed the 1985 storming of the ColombianSupreme Court by left-wing guerrillas from the 19th of April Movement, alsoknown as M-19, which resulted in the murder of half the judges on the court.Some of these claims were included in a late 2006 report by a Truth Commissionof three judges of the current Supreme Court. One of those who discusses theattack is Jhon Jairo Velásquez, aka "Popeye" a former Escobar hitman.At the time of the siege, the Supreme Court was studying the constitutionalityof Colombias extradition treaty with the U.S. Roberto Escobar stated in hisbook that indeed the M-19 were paid to break into the Palace of Justice andburn all papers and files on Los Extraditables — the group of cocaine smugglerswho were under threat of being extradited to the US by their Colombiangovernment. But the plan backfired and hostages were taken for negotiation oftheir release, so Los Extraditables were not directly responsible for theactions of the M-19.
Duringthe height of its operations, the cartel brought in more than $60 million perday (making roughly $22 billion in a year). Smuggling fifteen tons of cocaineper day, worth more than half a billion dollars, into the United States, theoperation spent $1000 per week purchasing rubber bands to wrap the stacks ofcash, storing most of it in their warehouses. Ten percent had to be written offper year because of "spoilage" by rats that crept in at night andnibbled on the hundred dollar bills. Pablo Escobar said that the essence of thecocaine business was "Simple: you bribe someone here, you bribe someonethere, and you pay a friendly banker to help you bring the money back."In1989, Forbes magazine estimated Escobar to be one of 227 billionaires in theworld with a personal net worth of close to US$3 billion while his MedellínCartel controlled 80% of the global cocaine market. It is commonly believedthat Escobar was the principal financier behind Medellíns Atlético Nacionalwho won South Americas most prestigious football tournament, the CopaLibertadores, in 1989.
Whileseen as an enemy of the United States and Colombian governments, Escobar was ahero to many in Medellín (especially the poor people); he was a natural atpublic relations and he worked to create goodwill among the poor people ofColombia. A lifelong sports fan, he was credited with building football fieldsand multi-sports courts, as well as sponsoring childrens football teams. Escobarwas responsible for the construction of many hospitals, schools and churches inwestern Colombia, which gained him popularity inside the local Roman CatholicChurch. He worked hard to cultivate his Robin Hood image, and frequentlydistributed money through housing projects and other civic activities, whichgained him notable popularity among the poor. The population of Medellín oftenhelped Escobar by serving as lookouts, hiding information from the authorities,or doing whatever else they could to protect him. At the height of his power,drug traffickers from Medellín and other areas were handing over between 20%and 35% of their Colombian cocaine-related profits to Escobar, because he wasthe one who shipped the cocaine successfully to the US. TheColombian cartels continuing struggles to maintain supremacy resulted inColombia quickly becoming the world's murder capital with 25,100 violent deathsin 1991 and 27,100 in 1992. This increased murder rate was fueled by Escobarsgiving money to his hitmen as a reward for killing police officers, over 600 ofwhom died in this way.
Afterthe assassination of Luis Carlos Galán, the administration of César Gaviriamoved against Escobar and the drug cartels. Eventually, the governmentnegotiated with Escobar, convincing him to surrender and cease all criminalactivity in exchange for a reduced sentence and preferential treatment duringhis captivity. Declaring an end to a series of previous violent acts meant topressure authorities and public opinion, Escobar surrendered to Colombianauthorities in 1991. Before he gave himself up, the extradition of Colombiancitizens had been prohibited by the newly approved Colombian Constitution of1991; this was controversial, as it économies was suspected that Escobar and other druglords had influenced members of the Constituent Assembly. Escobar was confinedin what became his own luxurious private prison, La Catedral. Accounts ofEscobars continued criminal activities while in prison began to surface in themedia. When the government found out that Escobar was still operating his drugbusiness from within La Catedral, it attempted to move him to a moreconventional jail on July 22, 1992. Escobars influence allowed him to discoverthe plan in advance and make a well-timed escape. He was still worried that hecould be extradited to the United States.
In1992, the United States Joint Special Operations Command (consisting of membersof USN DEVGRU and Delta Force) and Centra Spike joined the manhunt for Escobar.They trained and advised a special Colombian police task force known as theSearch Bloc, which had been created to locate Escobar. Later, as the conflictbetween Escobar and the United States and Colombian governments dragged on andthe numbers of his enemies grew, a vigilante group known as Los Pepes (LosPerseguidos por Pablo Escobar, "People Persecuted by Pablo Escobar")was financed by his rivals and former associates, including the Cali Cartel andright-wing paramilitaries led by Carlos Castaño, who would later fund thePeasant Self-Defense Forces of Córdoba and Urabá. Los Pepes carried out abloody campaign fueled by vengeance in which more than 300 of Escobarsassociates and relatives were slain and large amounts of his cartels propertywere destroyed.
Membersof the Search Bloc, and also of Colombian and United States intelligence agencies,in their efforts to find and punish Escobar, either colluded with Los Pepes ormoonlighted as both Search Bloc and Los Pepes simultaneously. This coordinationwas allegedly conducted mainly through the sharing of intelligence in order toallow Los Pepes to bring down Escobar and his few remaining allies, but thereare reports that some individual Search Bloc members directly participated inmissions of the Los Pepes death squads. One of the leaders of Los Pepes wasDiego Murillo Bejarano (also known as "Don Berna"), a former MedellínCartel associate who became a drug kingpin and eventually emerged as a leaderof one of the most powerful factions within the AUC.
Thewar against Pablo Escobar ended on December 2, 1993, amid another of Escobarsattempts to elude the Search Bloc. Using radio triangulation technology, aColombian electronic surveillance team, led by Brigadier Hugo Martínez foundhim hiding in a middle-class barrio in Medellín. With authorities closing in, afirefight with Escobar and his bodyguard, Alvaro de Jesús Agudelo (a.k.a."El Limón"), ensued. The two fugitives attempted to escape by runningacross the roofs of adjoining houses to reach a back street, but both were shotand killed by Colombian National Police. Escobar suffered gunshots to the legand torso, and a fatal gunshot through the ear. It has never been proven whoactually fired the final shot into his head, or determined whether this shotwas made during the gunfight or as part of a possible execution, and there iswide speculation about the subject. Some of Escobars family members believethat he could have committed suicide. His two brothers, Roberto Escobar andFernando Sánchez Arellano, believe that he shot himself through the ears:"He committed suicide, he did not get killed. During all the years theywent after him, he would say to me every day that if he was really corneredwithout a way out, he would shoot himself through the ears."
AfterEscobars death and the fragmentation of the Medellín Cartel, the cocainemarket soon became dominated by the rival Cali Cartel, until the mid-1990s whenits leaders, too, were either killed or captured by the Colombian government.The Robin Hood image that Escobar had cultivated continued to have lastinginfluence in Medellín. Many there, especially many of the citys poor who hadbeen aided by him while he was alive, mourned his death. About 25,000 werepresent for his burial.
