Pablo Emilio Escobar Gaviria

Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar's ambition and ruthlessness made him one of the wealthiest, most powerful and most violent criminals of all time.

Who Was Pablo Escobar?

Pablo Emilio Escobar Gaviria (December 1, 1949 to December 2, 1993) was a Colombian drug trafficker who eventually controlled over 80 percent of the cocaine shipped to the U.S., earning him the rank of one of Forbes Magazine’s 10 wealthiest people in the world. Escobar entered the cocaine trade in the early 1970s, collaborating with other criminals to form the Medellin Cartel. He earned popularity by sponsoring charity projects and soccer clubs, but later, terror campaigns that resulted in the murder of thousands turned public opinion against him. He was killed by Colombian police in 1993.

Escobar’s Wife, Son and Daughter
In 1976, Pablo Escobar married 15-year-old Maria Victoria Henao. The couple had two children together: a son, Juan Pablo Escobar, and a daughter, Manuela.

Today Escobar’s son Juan Pablo is a motivational speaker who goes by the name Sebastian Marroquin. Marroquin studied architecture and published a book in 2015, Pablo Escobar: My Father, which tells the story of growing up with the world’s most notorious drug kingpin. He also asserts that his father had committed suicide.

'My father's not a person to be imitated,” Marroquin said in an Agence France-Presse interview. “He showed us the path we must never take as a society because it's the path to self-destruction, the loss of values and a place where life ceases to have importance.”

Pablo Escobar’s Net Worth
By the mid-1980s, Pablo Escobar had an estimated net worth of $30 billion and was named one of the 10 richest people on Earth by Forbes. Cash was so prevalent that Escobar purchased a Learjet for the sole purpose of flying his money. At the time, Escobar controlled more than 80 percent of the cocaine smuggled into the United States; more than 15 tons were reportedly smuggled each day, netting the Cartel as much as $420 million a week.