Pablo Escobar

Pablo Escobar was born on December 1, 1949. He grew up in Rio Negro, Colombia just miles away from his future empire headquarters in Medellin. His mother was a schoolteacher, which didn't seem to stop Pablo from being suspended from his school on numerous occasions. Pablo once told his mother that he wanted to be "big" someday but I don't think this was what she had in mind.

Pablo started out making money by sneaking into grave yards at night and stealing the tombstones from the deceased he would then sand blast the engraving off of the tombstone and sell them as new grave markers to the Panamanians. By age twenty Pablo was also an accomplished car thief. He also had a habit and made a name for himself as a small time marijuana dealer, which he smoked all to often. Pablo also sold contraband cigarettes and selling fake lottery tickets.

In the early sixties Colombian farmers grew and sold coca plants to outsiders never questioning their motives or why this crop was of such high demand. During the mid-sixties is when cocaine exploded across the United States and everyone from Ronald Reagan to Sammy Davis Jr. seemed to be snorting this so called "nose-candy." Escobar soon realized the feeding frenzy that was taking place in the United States, so when he came of age in the late sixties he decided that he wanted to take control of the coca industry.