Pablo Escobar’s net worth was estimated at $30 billion at the time of his death, an equivalent of about $70 billion today. The Columbian drug lord accrued billions of dollars primarily from his cocaine trade and was the wealthiest criminal in history at the time.
However, following his demise, the wealth vanished as the Columbian government acquired a significant portion of it and forced his family to sign over any liquid assets he left behind. Not only that, but the drug lord’s money also went into thin air as the government went ahead to seize any money that it could trace around his close associates.
Regardless of his countless criminal activities, Pablo Escobar was regarded by many as a philanthropist, providing millions of money and resources for the poor in Columbia. He deployed his massive wealth to bribe officials and gain political power and positions. This is a tidbit as there is quite a lot more to know about Pablo’s fortune, power, and what became of his vast wealth following his death.
How Much Was Pablo Escobar’s Net Worth?
Pablo Escobar was worth $30 billion at the time of his demise. He accumulated his wealth by engaging in different kinds of illegal drug trade. Meanwhile, considering today’s inflation term, Pablo’s net worth would be around $70 billion. Born on 1st December 1949 and died on 2nd December 1993, Pablo Escobar was a Colombian drug lord, narcoterrorist, and politician.
Dubbed “the king of cocaine”, Pablo Escobar was, in all of its forms, famous and wealthy. In fact, some people believe that he was worth more than $30 billion, but in any way, the fact remains that his wealth ran in billions of dollars. Escober is widely remembered as not only one of the wealthiest but also one of the most powerful men of all time.
His lifestyle suggested his worth as he splashed millions on luxury cars, opulent houses, and other expensive assets and properties like hotels and tourist attraction centers. Meanwhile, his Medellin Drug Cartel, at the peak of its power, was responsible for thousands, if not even tens of thousands, of murders, with many of its victims being innocent civilians.
Including murders, Pablo and his cartels were responsible for numerous crimes, bombing, and kidnapping. He is infamous for ordering the killings of police officers, judges, and politicians who dared to stand in his way. Pablo Escobar died after he was fatally shot by Colombian policemen. He had been in a hideout but was unearthed by the cops who had been in a serious search of him.
How Did Pablo Escobar Get So Rich?
In his lifetime, Pablo made a staggering amount of money every day. The drug kingpin ran The Medellin Drug Cartel, known as one of the most violent gangs in the history of time. Meanwhile, from time immemorial, drug peddling and money laundering have remained illegal activities that people engage in to get rich quickly. However, every government of the world is always hunting for this set of people as it is such a highly rated risky affair.
In Columbia, the government authorities and drug lords have constantly been in battle. Thus, Pablo Escobar’s money which he accrued primarily through this trade, has remained under discovery to date, even after many years of his death. Below is a detailed trace of how he was able to make a whopping sum of money.
Pablo Escobar Got Rich Primarily By Supplying Prohibited Substances and Kidnapping
Pablo Escobar is known for supplying prohibited substances to the United States of America. He started his criminal career and cocaine operation titled the Medellin Cartel in 1976. Alongside his gangs, Pablo was known for stealing tombstones, scraping them, and reselling them. Although he was still in high school then, he shortly dropped out and started joining gangs to steal cars.
Soon, he got involved in violent crime, employing criminals to kidnap people and demand ransom. So, it is notable that a good part of Escobar’s wealth also comes from kidnapping prominent people and politicians, after which a ransom would be paid to him before releasing the person. His most famous kidnapping victim was Diego Echavarria, who was eventually killed in the summer of 1971.
The Medellín Cartel, though established in the early 1970s, expanded in April 1978 after Pablo met with different drug lords on a farm. As the demand for cocaine kept on increasing in the US, Pablo organized more smuggling shipments, distribution networks, and routes in South Florida, Puerto Rico, California, and other parts of the States.
He generated enormous profit via these routes, through which he purchased 20 square kilometers (7.7 sq mi) of land in Antioquia for hundreds of millions of dollars. The drug lord once alleged in an interview that his wealth came from a bicycle rental company he established back in the days when he was 16 years old.
During his lifetime, Pablo employed over 10 accountants that helped launder hundreds of millions of dollars in illicit currency. He was said to be spending nothing less than $2500 a month just on rubber bands to wrap his money. Records show that Pablo made a minimum of $50 million in cash every single day through the sales of his illegal and prohibited substance.
At the peak of its power, his cartel, The Medellin Drug Cartel, distributed over 80% of the world’s cocaine market. It reportedly smuggled 15 tonnes of illegal substances into America every day. Pablo was so wealthy that he once burned $2 million to keep himself warm while on the run.
Also, he had a tradition of writing off $500 million every year due to spoilage, as much of his money was stored in basements and walls. At the peak of its operation, his cartel raked in over $70 million daily and made about $420 million weekly.
The Peak of His Power
As of the late 70s, Pablo Escobar had already become a public figure and got involved in philanthropy, which was also a strategy he deployed to divert the attention of the authority away from him. He spent millions of dollars building roads, soccer fields, and power lines.
He also developed some of Medellín’s poorest neighborhoods and built several housing complexes for the homeless. Due to his charity works, he was called “Robin Hood Paisa.” Pablo further decided to join politics in the 1970s and supported the formation of the Liberal Party of Colombia.
In 1982, he joined the Columbian Congress, but Minister of Justice Rodrigo Lara-Bonilla became his core opponent and was the one that investigated his arrest in 1976. Rodrigo Lara-Bonilla kept on accusing him of criminal activities, and in 1984, Escobar was expelled from the party. Three months later, Rodrigo Lara-Bonilla was murdered, and Pablo kept on bribing and murdering several judges throughout the mid-1980s.
Pablo Escobar Acquired Several Properties
Already raking in wealth, Pablo Escobar bought several safe houses and residents. His most popular property, Hacienda Nápoles, which is located in Puerto Triunfo, Columbia, featured a sculpture park, a colonial house, a kart-racing track, an airport, and a zoo with animals from different continents, including elephants, giraffes, and hippopotamuses.
Pablo also owned a home in the US, a 6,500-square-foot waterfront mansion situated at 5860 North Bay Road in Miami Beach, Florida. The home was, however, seized by the US government. Moreover, the drug lord owned a huge Caribbean getaway on Isla Grande, located about 35 km (22 mi) from Cartagena. The compound is now half demolished and overtaken by wild animals and vegetation.
Another significant property Pablo had was La Catedral. After he was captured and arrested, Pablo negotiated with the government authorities to build his own prison rather than going to the regular ones. So, he constructed the prison called La Catedral, where he lived like a king. The luxury prison contained a disco area for hosting wedding receptions, a bar, a jacuzzi, a billiards room, and a waterfall.
After his death, the property has since remained deserted. Other expensive properties Escobar owned include La Manuela party mansion, Tulum house, and Miami house, all of which the government seized and later resold to other people.
Pablo Escobar’s Arrest and Death
The Colombian judiciary remained a target of Escobar throughout the mid and late 1980s. However, the government eventually started making serious moves toward arresting Escobar after he kidnaped Luis Carlos Galan, a Columbian politician and journalist who was a major threat to the drug cartels. The government and Pablo reached a deal to end all criminal acts in exchange for a reduced sentence.
He once offered the Columbian government $10 million for a full pardon for his crime. Then, in 1991, he surrendered to the authorities and was jailed in his own private luxury prison, La Catedral. The space was the height of luxury with every comfort one can ever need. However, even while in the “prison”, Escobar continued to operate the Medellin Cartel from there.
This made the government move him from there to a conventional prison in July 1992. Pablo, however, quickly escaped and remained on the run from an army made up of American special forces soldiers, Colombian drug police, and DEA agents. He was finally shot and killed by the Columbian policemen on 2nd December 1993 while trying to escape from the rooftop of an apartment complex.
Soon after his death, the cocaine market was dominated by his rival, Cali Cartel. This was until the mid-1990s when its leaders were either captured or killed by the Columbian government.
What Happened to Pablo Escobar’s Wealth?
The Columbian government acquired a significant portion of Pablo’s money after his death. The government authorities also seized all money that could be in any way traced to his close associates and forced his family to sign over any liquid assets he left behind. In addition, Pablo Escobar’s wealth vanished into thin air after his death as his rivals acquired some of them.
The two groups, Los Pepes and The Cali cartel wanted to get paid for their involvement in taking down the drug lord. They further forced Escobar’s family to sign over any liquid assets left by the government. The cartel members also had their ways and stole cash and assets from the family. Because of their selfish desire to remain financially built even after the death of their leader, they looted the remaining money.
However, after all this, there was very little money left, which his immediate family lived off after his demise. Pablo did not will or leave a specific amount of money for his children, but his two siblings, Roberto and Alba Marina, have some access to his estate. Not long after his death, his children ran out of money to live on, and his son Sebastian went and asked his aunt Alba to help relieve a $60 million his father kept in a secret hiding place.
However, Alba returned and said there was no money left. Sebastian claimed his aunt stole the money. He further accused his uncle Robert of betraying the family and even wrote a book with claims for personal gains. Pablo Escobar’s immediate family would later live across different countries due to security reasons. They eventually settled in Argentina, where they live just as middle-class.
Escobar’s Money is Still Being Discovered To Date
In 2015, Jose Mariena Cartolos, a Columbian farmer digging an irrigation drench on his family farmland, found $600,000,000 in several big blue drums, and the money was said to belong to the infamous drug lord. Jose Mariena Cartolos surrendered the cash to the Columbian government and was rewarded with a $3,000 grant which he used to start a palm oil plantation on his land.
According to reports, Escobar’s money is still being discovered to date as the kingpin was notorious for hiding stacks of cash in various hidden places like walls and beneath the floor. Sometime in 2020, several news headlines had it that Pablo’s money was discovered inside a wall in one of his homes. His nephew, who reportedly found it, said it was about $18 million.
However, most of the notes had already been damaged and unusable. The nephew also added that he had discovered money in the property where he had lived for over five years as of then. Furthermore, a television show called Finding Escobar’s Millions was launched in November 2017, and it is strictly about finding any remaining money the drug lord may have hidden.
In the TV show, two ex-CIA agents traveled on a mission, using modern technology to unearth the millions of dollars he buried in different places in Columbia. Moreover, his brother Roberto revealed that 10% of his money, which amounts to over $2 billion, was destroyed by rats.