The new brand of drug lord: The men who replaced Pablo Escobar
The new brand of drug lord: The men who replaced Pablo Escobar
By Debbie Schipp
6:35 AM Monday Dec 5, 2016
It's more than two decades since Pablo Escobar, the drug lord who pioneered Colombia's cocaine trade and became the leader of one of the most powerful, and fearsome criminal organisations ever assembled, was killed on a rooftop in his native Medellin.
The death of the man who made and lost billions, ordered the executions of thousands, and had his own army of kill-on-demand "soldiers" signalled the end of an era of drug trafficking.
And the birth of another.
The megalomaniac the world knew variously as El Doctor, Don Pablo, El Patron and El Senor was legendary for his ruthlessness. He dealt with his enemies with what he called "plate o plomo" - literally, "silver or lead".
It meant if bribes didn't work, bullets came next.
Regarded as one of the most notorious and wealthy drug lords of all time, at the height of his reign he was on the Forbes rich list as the seventh richest man in the world, and in the 1980s was reportedly responsible for up to 80 per cent of the cocaine imported to the United States.
More:
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=11760431
