Pablo Escobar was trapped. The murderous drug cartel lord, and one lone bodyguard, were holed up in a Medellin, Colombia, house, and the Bloque de Busqueda or “Search Bloc”— special operation units of the country’s national police — were closing in.
Javier Pena and Stephen Murphy, retired U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency agents, and consultants and inspiration for the Netflix show, “Narcos,” told Escobar’s sordid story, and their parts in his demise, during the Tuesday afternoon General Session.
“Pablo grew up poor in Medellin,” Pena said. “He started experimenting [with selling] one, two kilos of cocaine. Before it was all over, Pablo Escobar was producing and sending 80% of the cocaine that was reaching the world. … We called him the inventor of narcoterrorism.” At any time, Escobar had 40 to 50 tons of cocaine ready to sell. During Escobar’s heyday, Forbes ranked him the seventh-richest person in the world, Murphy said, with estimated total worth of $8 billion to $30 billion.
Read More