Pablo Escobar

1949 – 1993

Pablo Emilio Escobar Gaviria was a Colombian drug lord and founder of the Medellín Cartel, which at its 1980s peak supplied an estimated 80 percent of the cocaine smuggled into the United States and made him one of the wealthiest people in history. To resist extradition he waged a campaign of narcoterrorism against the Colombian state that included the 1984 assassination of Justice Minister Rodrigo Lara Bonilla, the 1989 bombing of Avianca Flight 203 which killed 110 people, the 1989 truck-bombing of the DAS headquarters in Bogotá which killed 63, and the murder of presidential candidate Luis Carlos Galán. He was killed by Colombian National Police on a Medellín rooftop on December 2, 1993.

Last checked: May 10, 2026, 1:06 PM