Pablo Escobar. In the 1980’s the head of the Medellin drug cartel was the most powerful criminal in the world.
He had politicians in his pocket and so much money he started burying it in the ground. His trademark method of justice: plato o plomo, silver or lead. You took his bribes, or you took a bullet. He killed Colombian presidential candidates, supreme court justices, and journalists. Members of congress, police chiefs and children. Nobody could stop the demand for cocaine in America, so nobody could stop Escobar’s growing power. He bombed a commercial airplane out of the sky, kidnapped the sons of politicians, and then built his own luxury prison to avoid extradition.
But the US didn’t just want him arrested, extradited, and incarcerated. They wanted him dead. Journalist Mark Bowden tells the story of the Killing of Pablo Escobar.
(Hosted by Nina Totenberg)
Guests:
Mark Bowden, journalist and author of “Killing Pablo”