The beginning of the end for drug lord Pablo Escobar shows just how much power he had
In the process, Escobar brought many Colombian officials and security forces onto his payroll in order to protect himself and his business from both rivals and government intervention.
His control over the security apparatus in his home base of Medellín, in Antioquia state, was so extensive that, as Mark Bowden detailed in his book "Killing Pablo," the drug lord was able to deliver a swift, bloody, and nearly debilitating blow to the government's Search Bloc - the first force that set out to bring him down.
According to Bowden:
Antioquia, in northwest Colombia, has been a hub for drug trafficking because its heavy jungle and rugged landscape help obscure operations, and because its proximity to the Caribbean and Central America make it a prime departure point for drug shipments heading north.
It has long been a locus for violent criminal groups involved in illicit operations like drug trafficking and illegal mining. The left-wing Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) are present there, and Los Urabeños - Colombia's most power criminal organization - have based their operations there.
In the first days of the Search Bloc, the group was in over its head. Escobar and his sicarios, or assassins, had a marked advantage.
And Escobar - who didn't become the most feared drug lord in history because he shied away from bloodshed - pursued his new enemies.
Bowden continues:
The Search Bloc's violent introduction to Escobar came in early 1990, as Colombia's efforts to combat the Medellín cartel and other traffickers began to intensify with heavy US assistance.
While, as Bowden notes, the heavy losses frightened the Search Bloc, they were not cowed. With 200 additional men supplied by the Colombian government, they continued their pursuit, which would last another three violent years, until December 1993.
Most accounts put the Search Bloc at the center of Escobar's last stand - a shootout that left the world's most powerful drug dealer sprawled across a dingy Medellín rooftop in a bloody heap.