"Pablo Emilio Escobar Gaviria"(December 1, 1949–December 2, 1993) was a Colombian drug lord. He is known as one of the "World's Greatest Outlaws". Escobar was the hardest cocaine dealer to catch.He is probably the richest and most successful criminal in world history.Some sources say that he was the second richest criminal ever, after Amado Carrillo Fuentes. In 1989, Forbes magazine said that Escobar was the seventh richest man in the world. The magazine said that he had about US $25 billion. He owned many luxury residences and automobiles. In 1986, he entered Colombian politics with success. He had to stop his political career because he was charged as criminal.
The Life of Pablo
Pablo Emilio Escobar Gaviria once said that the cocaine business was "simple - you bribe someone here, you bribe someone there, and you pay a friendly banker to help you bring the money back. In 1989, his Medellín cartel controlled 80% of the global cocaine market.
The United States and Colombian governments saw Escobar as an enemy. At the same time, Escobar was a hero to many people in Medellín, especially to the poor people as he built houses for them. He was a sports fan, and built football fields and multi-sports courts. He also sponsored children's football teams.
Escobar was responsible for the construction of many hospitals, schools and churches in western Colombia. This made him popular with the local Roman Catholic Church. He worked hard for his "Robin Hood" image. Escobar often gave money to the poor through housing projects and other civic activities. The population of Medellín often helped Escobar by watching the police. They also hid information from the authorities, and did whatever else they could do to protect him.
Despite his popular image among Medellín's community, Escobar was well-known among his business associates to be a calm and sensible partner to deal with. He preferred to use his money before his gun. His brother said that Pablo Escobar knew that money generated more loyalty than fear. Violence was often unnecessary.
The Colombian cartels quickly managed to make Colombia the world’s capital for murder with 25,100 violent deaths in 1991 and 27,100 in 1992.Escobar gave money to his hitmen as a reward for killing police officers. 600 officers died this way.Today, other countries, such as Guatemala, South Africa and Venezuela have more murders than Colombia.
The fight against Escobar ended on December 2, 1993. The police used radio triangulation technology to find Escobar. The United States provided this technology to a Colombian electronic surveillance team. The group was led by Brigadier Hugo Martinez.The team found him hiding in a middle-class barrio in Medellín. With the permission from authorities, a firefight with Escobar and his bodyguard, Alvaro de Jesús Agudelo AKA "El Limón", happened. They tried to escape by running across the roofs of nearby houses to reach a back street, but both were shot and killed by Colombian National Police. Escobar suffered gunshots to the leg, torso, and the fatal one in his ear. It is not known who actually fired the final shot into Escobar's head. It is also unknown whether this shot was made during the gunfight or as part of possible execution. There is wide speculation about this. Some of the family members believe that Escobar could have committed suicide.His two brothers, Roberto Escobar and Fernando Sánchez Arellano, believe that he shot himself through the ears. "He committed suicide, he did not get killed. During all the years they went after him, he would say to me every day that if he was really cornered without a way out, he would shoot himself through the ears. 
The autopsy showed that there was no stippling pattern found around the ear, which suggested that the shot which killed Escobar was fired from further than an arm's length away. May Pablo Emilio Escobar Gaviria rest in piece. En pas descanse El patron.
After Escobar's death and the fragmentation of the Medellín Cartel, the rival Cali Cartel rose to power.
