TRAFFICKING COCAINE:-

In Peru, the Cockroach introduced Pablo and Gustavo to suppliers of cocaine paste who were offering it for $60 a kilo at a time when a kilo of cocaine was selling for up to $60,000 in America. The Narcos scene with the Cockroach surviving a military firing squad in Chile is false.

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In Renault 4s, Pablo smuggled the paste from the Andean mountains, across three countries: Peru, Ecuador and Colombia. He had a separate Renault 4 for each country, with the relevant country's license plate. Sometimes, he raced his cousin, Gustavo who had penetrating dark eyes, a square face and a tidy moustache similar to Pablo's - to see who could get back to Medellin first. The winner kept all of the proceeds. The paste was hidden in a compartment installed above the passenger's-side wheel, which the checkpoint police never searched.

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In a residential neighbourhood, the paste ended up in a house with covered windows, where it was transformed into cocaine. The cooks lived on the second floor. Most of the first floor had been converted into a kitchen. The cocaine was cooked in old refrigerators that Pablo had converted into ovens. Hoping for feedback on his first batch, he gave ten samples away. The majority said they preferred it to weed and requested more. Some

said it gave them energy. Others said it calmed them down. Pablo didn't like it. He preferred smoking pot.

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With the coca plant growing widely in the jungles and mountains of Peru, cheap paste was readily available. Due to drug laws, the price of cocaine in America was sky high. The US authorities were focused on marijuana and heroin coming in from Mexico, not cocaine. Pablo calculated that he could make more from a single load of cocaine sold in America than he could from a convoy of trucks smug. going normal contraband.

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Testing the export business, Pablo discovered that he'd underestimated the demand for cocaine. He could sell any amount to any country, especially to America, the largest consumer of cocaine in the world.

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Pablo's smugglers took drugs on flights and returned with large amounts of cash. Trucks replaced the Renault 4s. More workers were hired.

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Vulture was one of Pablo's drivers. As he racked up profits from his trips, Vulture started showing off by buying an expensive car, a motorbike and clothes. This did not go unnoticed by one of his relatives in the DAS, the Colombian equivalent to the FBI. Vulture told his relative that he was transporting potatoes.

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The DAS stopped one of Pablo's trucks and demanded the driver call his boss to pay a bribe. After Pablo and Gustavo showed up, they were arrested. The next day, Pablo's mugshot was on the front page of the newspaper. His mother sobbed for hours.

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After spending eight days in jail, Pablo paid to be transferred to a facility with outdoor recreation, including soccer. He bribed the judge but after two months, it was decided that he would be tried in a military court which was more difficult to corrupt. His lawyer warned that he could get a long sentence. One night, Pablo told a guard that he needed to stretch his legs to reduce his stress. After being allowed onto the soccer field, he escaped.

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The prison director called Pablo's mother, begging her to get her son to return, otherwise he'd end up in jail. When Pablo called her, she insisted that he return. Pablo and his mother showed up at the prison, with some X-rays of a sick person. Claiming he'd been ill, Pablo showed them to his military escorts, who were satisfied about his absence. In the end, Pablo bribed the judge. Pablo and Gustavo

Walked free. Sentenced to five years, the driver ended up in a prison with good facilities. Pablo gave the driver's family a house, a car and money.

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Upon his release, Pablo resumed his cocaine enterprise, but now the police knew about it. He and Gustavo were pulled over by the two DAS agents who'd previously arrested them. They took him and his cousin to a remote area by a garbage dump, tied their hands together and forced them onto their knees. After roughing them up, the agents demanded a million pesos in exchange for

their lives. While Gustavo went to get the money, Pablo offered more cash for the name of the person who'd arranged for them to kidnap him. He was surprised to learn it had been the Cockroach.

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Once freed, Pablo plotted revenge that he would carry out himself. Being forced onto his knees at gunpoint was unforgivable. Emboldened by their success, the two DAS agents were about to kidnap one of Pablo's workers. They considered Pablo just another easy drug-trafficker target. Pablo's men kidnapped the agents and took them to a house. Pablo made them get onto their knees. As they begged for their lives, Pablo put a gun to their heads and shot them multiple times. The news reported the discovery of their bodies.

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In 1974, Pablo fell in love with Maria Victoria Henao Vellejo, a local beauty. Because of her age, fourteen, and Pablo being twenty-five, Maria's mother was unenthused. He persisted, including showing up outside her home one night accompanied by a guitar player and serenading her. By 1976, she was pregnant, so they married. Three months after the marriage, Juan Pablo was born. It took two years for Maria's mother to warm to Pablo, but she did, accepting that he loved her daughter.

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Fabio Restrepo was an early cocaine boss in Medellín. By 1975, Restrepo was exporting up to one hundred kilos of cocaine a week to America, where it sold for roughly $40,000 a kilo in Miami. Pablo asked a childhood friend and future business partner, Jorge Ochoa, to set him up with Restrepo. Jorge met Pablo at a small untidy apartment in Medellín, where he bought fourteen kilos of cocaine from Pablo. Two months later, Pablo had Restrepo murdered and informed the Ochoa brothers that he'd taken over Restrepo's business.

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Whether Pablo really had Restrepo killed is in dispute. According to Kings of Cocaine, Jorge Ochoa was behind the slaying. In the mid-70s, Jorge was selling cocaine in Miami for the old- time smuggler Restrepo. In 1977, Restrepo made the mistake of telling a DEA (Drug Enforcement Administration) informant that he was smuggling up to a hundred kilos a week into America. On October 12, he gave the informant twenty-seven kilos to transport to Jorge in Miami.

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