Despite starting off his life as a lowly son of a poor Colombian farmer, Pablo Escobar climbed his way up the drug dealing ladder to become one of the world’s wealthiest men by the age of 35.
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As many of you may already know, Escobar gained his riches through his work as the leader of the Medellin cartel – the organisation responsible for 80% of the world’s cocaine market.
His riches are hard to imagine, which is why The Independent put together a list of ten facts that put his wealth into perspective for us. Here goes:
Yearly salary
In the mid-1980s, Escobar’s cartel brought in an estimated $420 million a week, which totals almost $22 billion a year.
Home run
Escobar made the Forbes’ list of international billionaires for seven years straight, from 1987 until 1993. In 1989, he was listed as the seventh-richest man in the world.
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Pusher
By the end of the 1980s, he supplied 80% of the world’s cocaine.
Smuggler
He smuggled about 15 tons of cocaine into the US every day.
Main source
In other words, of the Americans doing cocaine, four out of five were snorting lines supplied by “El Patron.”
No skin off his back
The “King of Cocaine” factored in a $2.1 billion loss in profits each month, but that didn’t really matter.
Elastic fantastic
And he expensed $2,500 on rubber bands each month (in order to organise the bank notes).
Resourceful
Once he started a fire with $2 million because his daughter was cold.
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Robin Hood
He was nicknamed “Robin Hood” after handing out cash to the poor, building housing for the homeless, constructing 70 community soccer fields, and building a zoo.
Send me to church
He cut a deal with Colombia to be imprisoned, but in a luxurious prison he built and named “La Catedral” — the cathedral.
You just can’t even imagine being even close to that level of rich – it makes Bill Gates seem like a minimum wage sap. The fact that he spent over my monthly wage on rubber bands alone, just to organise his masses of dollar bills, is just insane.
To see pictures of Escobar at Disneyland like every other standard dad, click HERE.