All In The Family - Escobar Sent His Son To Negotiate A Surrender
Pablo Escobar and his Son, Juan Pablo.
After years pursuing Escobar, the Colombian National Police and the DEA began to turn the screw. Pablo could feel the walls closing in. He was on the run in the backstreets of his hometown, Medellin.
Lucky for him, he knew this city like the back of his hand. Along with his personal bodyguard, Alvaro de Jesús – AKA ‘El Limón –, Escobar sneaked around Medellin in the back of a taxi. He was a fugitive. He knew that if he raised his head above the parapet, or if he stayed in one place too long, the cops would be able to trace his phone calls.
Pablo was terrified his enemies would take his absence from the Cartel leadership as a chance to take out his beloved family. And he was right to fear that. One day, a massive bomb was detonated outside the Escobar family apartment.
They escaped with minor injuries. But it was a close call. Getting wind of this failed hit, Escobar was desperate to get his family out of the country. The DEA team had come to expect the unexpected. But Pablo’s next move floored them.
“You’re not gonna believe who’s downstairs... ”
DEA Special Agent in Charge, Joe Toft, remembers what happened next: “One day, the Ambassador calls me, and he says, ‘Joe’, he says, ‘You’re not gonna believe who’s downstairs.’ And I said, ‘Who?’ And he says, ‘Pablo Escobar’s son.’ So I went down and met with him.”
Toft couldn’t believe what he was seeing, or hearing: “I was very impressed with the young man, with his maturity. He basically said, ‘Myself, my mom and my sister are afraid we are gonna get killed here… Will you please help us get out of the country?’”
Helping the Escobars flee Colombia was out of the question. But the agents now realised that the family held the key to capturing Pablo. There was no deal to be done with the teenage son. But this was an opportunity the agents were not about to miss.
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