Source: The Daily Beast
Source: Forbes
According to journalist Ioan Grillo, the Medellín cartel smuggled most of its cocaine straight over the Florida coast.
"It was a nine-hundred-mile run from the north coast of Colombia and was simply wide-open. The Colombians and their American counterparts would airdrop loads of blow out to sea, from where it would be rushed ashore in speedboats, or even fly it right onto the Florida mainland and let it crash down in the countryside," Grillo wrote.
Source: Killing Pablo, El Narco: Inside Mexico's Criminal Insurgency
Source: GQ Magazine
Escobar's immense wealth became problematic when he couldn't launder his cash quick enough.
He resorted to stashing piles of cash in Colombian farming fields, dilapidated warehouses, and in the walls of cartel members' homes, according to Roberto Escobar, the cartel's chief accountant and the kingpin's brother, in his book, "The Accountant's Story: Inside the violent world of the Medellín cartel."
"Pablo was earning so much that each year we would write off 10% of the money because the rats would eat it in storage or it would be damaged by water or lost," Escobar wrote.
That would be about $2.1 billion, given how much money he was reportedly making.
Escobar simply had more money than he knew to do with, and therefore haphazardly losing money to rodents and mold wasn't an issue.
Source: The Accountant's Story: Inside the violent world of the Medellín cartel
While hiding or destroying the exorbitant amount of money was one issue, the brothers faced another much more elementary problem — neatly organizing the banknotes.
According to Roberto Escobar, the Medellín cartel spent an estimated $2,500 a month on rubber bands which were needed to hold stacks of bills together.
Source: The Accountant's Story: Inside the violent world of the Medellín cartel
In a 2009 interview with Don Juan magazine, Escobar's son Juan Pablo, 38, who has since changed his name to Sebastián Marroquín, described what life was like on the run with the "king of cocaine."
According to Marroquín, the family was living in a hideout in the Medellín mountainside when Escobar's daughter Manuela became hypothermic.
Escobar decided to torch $2 million in crisp banknotes to keep her warm.
Source: Don Juan magazine
Source: Forbes, A History of Modern Latin America, 1800–2000
In 1991, Escobar was incarcerated in his self-designed prison he named "la catedral."
In the terms of his agreement with the Colombian government, Escobar was allowed to select who was imprisoned with him and who worked in the prison. He could also continue to run his cartel business and receive visitors.
La catedral was equipped with a soccer field, barbecue pit and patios and was nearby another compound he built separately for his family.
Also, the Colombian authorities were not allowed within 3 miles of his prison.
Source: Airship Daily
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