PABLO ESCOBAR - HUUMEKAUPAN KUMMISETÄ

Hän oli kolumbialainen PABLO ESCOBAR - HUUMEKAUPAN KUMMISETÄ. Amerikkalais ten William Cranin ja Stephanie Tepperin ohjaama dokumentti Pablo Escobarista kertoo maailman kuuluisimman huumekauppiaan väkivaltaisen imperiumin nousun, kukoistuksen ja tuhon, miten hautakivivarkaasta tuli monimiljardööri?

Escobarin rikollinen ura alkoi nuorena poikana, kun hänet erotettiin koulusta. Hän eteni hautakivivarkaasta palkkamurhaajaksi lyhyessä ajassa, kunnes ryhtyi salakuljettajaksi ja vähitellen kokaiinitehtailijaksi.

Escobar organisoi huumeteollisuuden sellaiselle tasolle, että se oli kuin mikä tahansa suuri liikeyritys, toteaa Thomas Cash USA:n huumevirastosta.

Escobarin lentokoneet toivat Yhdysvaltoihin joka lennolla 300 kiloa kokaiinia. Yksi lento tuotti hänelle noin 10 miljoonaa dollaria. Hieman yli 30 vuotiaana Escobar ansaitsi jopa 40 miljoonaa dollaria viikossa.

Tavalliselle kansalle totuus Escobarista on toisenlainen. Kotikaupungissaan Medellissä hänet muistetaan sankarina, Etelä-Amerikan Robin Hoodina, joka jakoi kansalle rahaa, ruokaa ja rakennutti heille asuntoja.

• Amerikkalaisen PBS:n tuottama dokumentti Pablo Escobar - huumekaupan kummisetä nähdään Kakkosella 20.3.1996.

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Godfather on Cocaine

Over the past fifteen years, cocaine use has risen from a trendy recreational drug on fashion with New York and Los Angeles jet sets to a cocaine and crack invasion taxing the resources of much of the United States and Europe. The significantly responsible for the widespread availability of the drug was Pablo Escobar, the chief enforcer on Colombia's Medellin cartel and one of a handful of criminals who revolutionized the cocaine drug trade.

"Escobar was a modern day Al Capone, a powerful and violent gangster operating on the world stage," says producer William Cran. "In Capone's days, gangsters aimed to control city hall. In this increasingly international world, Pablo Escobar wanted to control entire countries."

In the beginning, he used small planes each carrying two to three hundred kilos of cocaine. But Escobar knew that by improving the scale of his business he would make more money. He began using bigger planes, ultimately, smuggling up to three tons at a time.

While the cartel perfected its smuggling operation, the U.S. government was preoccupied by marijuana and heroin; it wasn't until 1982 that the U.S. realized the scale of cocaine production undertaken by the Medellin cartel. In a joint operation, the DEA (U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration) and Colombian officials traced the supply of cocaine to an enormous facility operated by the cartel deep in the Colombian jungle.

One of Escobar's biggest fears was extradition to the United States. To ensure Columbia did not allow extradition, sources say he ordered dozens of executions, including the slaughter of the country's Supreme Court justices on the day they were to decide to the constitutionality of extradition and the assassination of the leading presidential candidate who favoured extradition.

After an intense international effort to capture Escobar, the DEA and a Colombian anti-narcotics squad traced a phone call he placed to his son. They tracked him down and killed him in a rooftop shoot-out.