Title: How Pablo Escobar's Medellín Cartel Became The Most Ruthless In History
Headings: How Pablo Escobar’s Medellín Cartel Became The Most Ruthless In History
How Pablo Escobar’s Medellín Cartel Became The Most Ruthless In History
Though he's the face of the organization, there's so much more to the Medellín Cartel than just Pablo Escobar.
The Rise Of The Medellin Cartel
The Crimes
The Fall Of The Medellin Cartel

Content: Though many of their crimes were well publicized, thousands of murders, kidnappings, and terrorist attacks went unreported, due to fear of retaliation or bribery to keep quiet. The Fall Of The Medellin Cartel
Getty Images A late 80s drug bust, turning up pounds of cocaine from Colombia. By the early 1980s, cocaine had become an epidemic and the War on Drugs had been declared. Crack cocaine, a cheaper and more addictive alternative to the pure powder had ravaged America’s inner cities and sparked the government to increase pressure on Colombia to capture the kingpins — namely Escobar and the rest of the Medellin Cartel. However, despite a formal extradition order from the U.S., and increased Colombian police presence, Escobar managed to evade capture. He vowed never to surrender to the United States or anyone else, and continued to run his ring from inside Colombia. Running out of options, the newly organized Drug Enforcement Administration sent two officers, Javier Peña and Steve Murphy, down to Colombia, to assist the Colombian government in capturing Escobar and extraditing him to the U.S.
Within days, Escobar had put a $300,000 hit out on Peña and Murphy. The two officers were immediately placed under watch by local authorities, unable to move about Medellin unsupervised. However, the bounties drove other organizations to up their search efforts, and soon the PEPES (People Persecuted by Pablo Escobar) was formed, a militant group determined to bring him to justice. In 1991, it seemed as if they would get their wish.