42 Sobering Facts About Drug Cartels
In movies and on TV, drug smugglers are depicted as sophisticated criminal masterminds, romantic anti-heroes, and, of course, violent gangsters. Sometimes they are all three.
But who they are, and how they make billions of dollars trafficking drugs from country to country, can prove even more complicated. Here are 42 facts about Latin American drug cartels.
42. Born in a Prison Cell
Carlos Lehder and George Jung met while they were cellmates at Danbury prison in Connecticut. Lehder had a connection with a Colombian drug dealer; Jung had experience as a pilot and smuggler. Together, they devised a plan to purchase drugs in Colombia and smuggle them into the United States, changing the way people buy drugs forever. Jung was later immortalized in the Johnny Depp film Blow.
41. Say Hello to My Little Friend
Lehder's Colombian friend led him to none other than Pablo Escobar, a major drug trafficker from the city of Medellin.
Lehder and Jung gave Escobar an opportunity to expand his operation, and together the three began channeling drugs from Colombia to the United States via a tiny island in the Caribbean called Norman’s Cay.
This was the birth of the Medellin cartel.
40. King Pin
Escobar became the undisputed king of Colombian drug lords. Throughout the 1980s, Escobar supplied 80% of the world’s cocaine, earning $420 million every week.
39. Our Biggest Client
With the help of Jung and Lehder, Escobar was dropping 15 tons of drugs on US soil every single day.
