Moeketsi M🇿🇦

Pablo Escobar, worth an estimated $3 billion in 1989, had his own prison built, with a waterfall and a football pitch. in 1993 police traced a phone call that ran past two minutes, and he died in a shootout on a rooftop in Medellín. Forbes first listed him among the world’s billionaires in 1987, and in 1989 estimated his wealth at about $3 billion. one estimate put the Medellín cartel’s income at around $420 million a week. his brother Roberto, who kept the books, said the cartel spent about $2,500 a month on rubber bands and wrote off roughly 10% of the cash every year to rats and water damage. his son Sebastián said Pablo once burned about $2 million to keep his daughter Manuela warm while the family hid in the mountains. in 1991 he surrendered under a deal of five years at most and no extradition to the United States. the prison, La Catedral, was built to his own specifications. it had a football pitch, a jacuzzi, a bar, a waterfall and a telescope pointed at his family’s home in Medellín. in July 1992, after reports that he had four of his own men killed inside, the government ordered him moved to an ordinary prison. he refused and walked out through a section of wall built to be kicked open. then came about 16 months on the run, hunted by a 600 man unit called the Search Bloc. by the end he reportedly had no men and no money. he kept in touch with his family by phone, pretending to be a journalist and keeping every call under two minutes. on December 2, 1993, a day after his 44th birthday, one call ran longer. police traced it to a house in Medellín and tried to arrest him. a gunfight broke out, and he died on the roof. how exactly he died is still disputed, and his family says he shot himself. five years in a prison built to his own design: a deal or a joke?