Medellin Cartel

Medellin Cartel
Weapons	Machete, Mini Uzi, M60 Machine Gun, Car Bomb
Origin	Colombia
Activities	Cocaine trafficking, Narcoterrorism
Service	1975-1993
Battle Status	Lost vs. Somali Pirates
Experts	Michael Corleone Blanco (Medellin Cartel Boss's son) Kenny "Kenji" Gallo (Fmr Cocaine Smuggler)

"Cocaine is the goose that laid the golden egg. And the Medellin Cartel would do anything in its power to keep that flow of money going and going and going." - Kenny "Kenji" Gallo

The Medellin Cartel, Colombia's killer drug lords who built the world's largest cocaine empire

Pablo Escobar, the "King of Cocaine"

vs. Somali Pirate, Africa's deadly new breed of high-seas hijackers who make millions holding merchant ships hostage

Stats

• 1975 - 1993
• Height - 5' 9"
• Weight -175 lbs
• Crimes - Cocaine trafficking
• Symbol - Razor and cocaine lines

History

The term 'War on Drugs' was originally coined after a press conference given on June 18, 1971, by United States President Richard Nixon. Nixon along with every president who succeeded him (including most noticeably; Ronald Reagan) continued the War on Drugs. Originally designed to be a crackdown on drug trafficking and usage in the USA, the War on Drugs devolved into a literal war involving military operations and militarization of police within North, Central and South America. The USA would even assist other American nations by sending the US military to invade land operated by the criminal cartels. The USA sometimes justified this by claiming that the cartels were supported by communist nations, which in some cases they were to destabilize American allies. However this increased hostility against drugs was a double edged sword; creating racial tensions, political instability, poverty, political corruption, violence and prison overpopulation on a massive scale while drug usage overall has not decreased. The War on Drugs still continues today, and is one of the most controversial policies in US history. Some historians and politicians claim that the War on Drugs has caused more casualties than the entire War on Terror.

The Medellín Cartel was an organized network of "drug suppliers and smugglers" originating in the city of Medellín, Colombia. Colombia is one of the places where coca plants grow naturally, making cocaine production easy. The Cartel operated in Colombia, Bolivia, Peru, Central America, the United States, as well as Canada and even Europe throughout the 1970s and 1980s. It was founded and run by Pablo Escobar together with the Ochoa Vázquez brothers Jorge Luis, Juan David, and Fabio.

During the height of its operations, the Cartel brought in more than $60 million per day, with Pablo Escobar making at least half a million dollars a week. The total amount of money made by the Cartel was in the tens of billions, and very possibly the hundreds of billions of dollars. This drug trade has made the Cartel richer than most undeveloped nations.

Once authorities were made aware of "questionable activities", the group would be put under Federal Drug Task Force surveillance. Evidence would be gathered, compiled and presented to a Grand Jury, resulting in indictments, arrests and prison sentences, for those convicted. The number of Colombian Cartel Leaders actually taken into custody as a result of these operations, was very few.

Most Colombians targeted, as well as those named in such indictments, lived and stayed in Colombia, or fled before indictments were unsealed. However, by 1993 most, if not all, Cartel fugitives had been imprisoned or hunted and gunned down by the Search Bloc, a unit of the Colombian National Police specially trained and assisted by U.S. Delta Force units and the CIA. This was maybe in response to the death of the Cartel's leader Pablo Escobar, who was gunned down by police on December 2, 1993 (the day after his 44th birthday). Some splinter groups have formed after the Cartel's collapse.

The cocaine market in Colombia is now controlled by the Medellin Cartel's old rivals, the most powerful today maybe the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, aka FARC, with a military force of several thousand. On August 24, 2016, Farc declared a peace treaty with the Colombian government; however it's still too soon to tell if both parties will agree to the ceasefire and if the details of the treaty will be followed.

As of 2018: American drug imports continue to grow. Colombia still has high cocaine exports; but Peru and Bolivia have recently challenged their dominance of the cocaine market. Mexico is the primary exporter of American heroine (controlling 80% of the American market) with the poppy cultivation in Mexico tripling from 2013 to 2016. Marijuana has been gradually gaining legalization in many nations, and the USA has already legalized the drug in some states.

Weapons

weapon got the edge Weapon	Medelin Cartel
Close Range:	Machete*	54
Mid Range:	Mini Uzi	188
Long Range	M60 Machine Gun	96
Explosive Weapons:	Car Bomb*	140

In close range, the Medellin Cartel's Machete took the edge. It being able to cut the ballistic gel torso's hand clean off, slash his neck, and was generally meant to kill.

In Mid Range, the Mini Uzi was tested against the AK-47. The Uzi tested in a reinvented motorcycle drive by shooting, the manner in which it was most used. The Uzi killed both the targets, and was undeniably more powerful at closer range, the AK-47 was tested from a moving riverboat, and against shore mounted targets, which it hit accurately. The AK-47 got the edge, while the Uzi showed superior fire rate, and close range killing power, it had problems with its accuracy at longer distances, making it very ineffective.

For Long Range the Medellin Cartel's M60, was tested against the Somali's PKM. As both were challenged to fire down range and hit moving targets. While the PKM jammed once, the Medellin Cartel's M60 jammed twice.The PKM was given the edge.

For Explosive Weapons, the Medellin Cartel's Car Bomb was pitted against the Somali RPG-7. The Car bomb was tested on the set of an average city street. The resulting explosion was larger then the set itself. The RPG-7 was used against a small house set. While it couldn't deliver the same power as the car bomb, it could be used for repeated fire. The Car Bomb was given the edge for its destructive force.

Battle

Somali Pirate

Medellin Cartel

The battle starts with a group of Somali Pirates approaching a warehouse near pier via motor boat. Inside the warehouse, Pablo Escobar and one of the Medellín Drug Cartel thugs are preparing packages of cocaine while a third member practices swinging his machete and a fourth dances to salsa music. Outside, the Somali pirates dock their boat and advance towards the warehouse. The head pirate and two of his men enter the warehouse while a third stays behind. Inside, they see the Cartel men relaxing. Escobar giving one of them a package of cocaine. As the thug goes to put it away, the Somali pirate leader jumps out and kills him with the PKM Machine Gun. Escobar and one of his men grab an Uzi and M60 Machine Gun, respectively, and fire back. The other remaining Cartel thug tries to sneak up on one of the Somali pirates with his machete while he's distracted by the gunfire. The pirate spots him, however, and tries to fight back with his Grappling Hook. He hits the Cartel thug in his stomach, who in response cuts off the pirate's hand and then slashes his neck. The lead Somali pirate hears the commotion and kills the Cartel man with his AK-47. The other Cartel henchman continues to fire his M60, but it gets jammed. He drops it and picks up an Uzi. Both he and Pablo Escobar try to make a run for it. A Pirate tries to shoot Escobar with the PKM, but misses. The head pirate signals for him to run after the remaing Cartel members. Escobar runs down stairs, and turns around when he hears the pirate leader chasing him. The pirate takes cover behind a corner, and the two begin to exchange gunfire. The Somali pirate eventually manages to shoot Escobar, who falls to the floor and lies motionless. The pirate takes his cigar and smokes it in satisfaction. Meanwhile, the other Cartel member climbs up stairs and enters a room. When the other Somalian pirate opens the door, the Cartel thug opens fire with his Uzi and kills him. He sneers at the dead body and spits at him. Meanwhile, the head pirate sees a car with cocaine and a bag of money. He gets in the driver's seat and begins honking the horn to get the pirate who chose to stay outside. He hears the horn and makes his way toward the garage. However, the head pirate is unaware that Pablo Escobar, who is behind the car, managed to survive the gunshots. Escobar struggles to get up, but his wounds are so bad that he cannot. He sees the pirate in the car and pulls out a remote. He sets himself up with his remaining strength and looks under the car, where a bomb is situated. Realizing that he has no other options, he presses the button on the remote as the other pirate approaches the garage. The bomb goes off, killing both Escobar and the head pirate while sending the last pirate to the floor. The last Cartel member hears the explosion and runs for an exit. The Somali pirate sits up and starts to clean off the debris when he sees the last Cartel member exiting from a door. He stands up and prepares his RPG-7 Rocket Launcher. The Cartel member sees him and desperately tries to go back inside, only to find that the door is locked from the inside and cannot be opened. The pirate fires the rocket, which flies at the Cartel thug and blows up. The remaining pirate roars in victory and walks away.

Expert's Opinion

The experts deemed that the reason why the Somali Pirates were victorious was due to the reliability of the PKM and the fact that the Medellin Cartel chose weapons that were fear-based instead of battle efficient.

Trivia

• In 1989 Pablo Escobar was estimated to be the 7th richest man in the world with a net-worth of $30 billion. [1]
  • The annual income of the Medellin Cartel was estimated to be $48 billion at its peak (2017 USD).
• CIA allied millitary dictator of Panama, Manuel Noriega, was also secretly assisting the Medellin Cartel in the drug trade. When news of this drug conspiracy was revealed, the US invaded Panama and captured Noriega in the Navy SEALs Operation Nifty Package. This is one of the most famous faliures of the CIA and US foriegn policy.
• On September 3rd 2012, Griselda Blanco at age 69, was shot to death by drug lord sicarrios. This is the first named character on the show to die after the "end" of the Deadliest Warrior series.
• Colombia's drug trade in 2014 is worth about US$10 billion. That's one quarter as much as the country's legal exports. The Medellin Cartel's annual income was estimated to be about $22 billion in the 1980s.
• At its peak; the Medellin Cartel supplied 80% of the world's cocaine.
  • Every day; 15 tons of cocaine entered the USA from the Medellin Cartel.
• The Medellin Cartel lost 10% of their annual income to rats, rain and other poor conditions; as there was so much money that the Cartel didn't know where to properly store it without alerting authorities.
• Over 50 hippos live in Colombia today. They were the decedents of zoo hippos that Pablo Escobar owned, as Escobar's luxurious estate had a private zoo called Hacienda Nápoles. When the zoo was confiscated by Colombian authorities the hippos were too heavy to be moved and so they escaped into the wild jungles of Colombia. If they continue to thrive they could be classified as an invasive species.
• When Pablo Escobar's daughter wanted a unicorn, he bought her a horse and stapled a cone to its head and wings to its back. The horse died from infection.
• Cofounder Carlos Lehder bought the island of Norman's Cay to create a private 1km long airstrip for cocaine smuggling. Other methods of smuggling included submarines and massive underground tunnels. [2]
• Pablo Escobar was temporarily elected as an alternate member of the Colombian Liberal Party: House of Representatives during the peak of his cocaine smuggling. Obviously this position was terminated due to his drug background. However it still shows how much political influence the Cartel had.
  • Pablo offered to pay the $20 billion Colombian national dept in exchange for obtaining such political power.
• Despite his brutality, many Colombians honor Pablo Escobar. He constructed public buildings like schools and churches across the nation and funded charities. However many argue that these actions were to assist his money laundering: quickly investing the money so that it could not be connected to the drug trade and thus declared 'dirty money'.
• 1981 was the most violent year in recent American history; murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, and simple assault was 52.3 incidents per 1,000 people in this year (estimated 1.2 million incidents). This was partially created from the rise of the cocaine drug trade.
• Pablo Escobar began his criminal career making tombstones for the victims of the gang.
• Pablo Escobar was arrested in 1991; however built his own prison 'La Catedral'. This allowed him to make escape tunnels to sneak in an out. The prison was strategically located in a naturally foggy area to prevent aerial surveillance. Pablo even managed to maintain criminal activity; including torture and execution. The Colombian Army discovered Pablo's comfort and attempted to arrest him on July 1992. However Pablo had enough hitmen and bodyguards to resist arrest; creating a siege. This gave Pablo plenty of time to escape.
• The Medellin owned large trucks that acted as movable hospitals, schools, coke farms, ect. These were functionally like small towns. [3]
• Andrew C. Thornton II was a druglord that died while attempting to skydive with 80lb of smuggled cocaine attached to him. His plane intentionally crashed into the woods and Andrew planned to retrieve the drugs later, only to die from a failure in his parachute. A black bear found the plane and ate most of the cocaine; suffering an absurd overdose. This bear, named 'Pablo Esko-Bear' was stuffed and his body was sold to various people including country singer Waylon Jennings and druglord Ron Thomson. [4]

• The last remaining Cartel thug was portrayed by sword fighting instructor David Hernandez who ironically represented the pirate in the first season.
• Pablo Escobar is the only named warrior on the show not fighting another famous individual.
• This is the only battle where a warrior (Pablo Escobar) kills himself along with an opponent in a suicide explosion.
• This is the second battle in where the leader of a group (Escobar) does not die last, the first being the Taliban.

Gallery