Pablo Escobar built one of the wealthiest criminal empires in history. During the 1980s, his Medellín cartel reportedly brought in an extraordinary $420 million per week, nearly $22 billion annually. Although these estimates have never been independently verified, they illustrate the enormous scale of his drug trafficking operation. According to his brother Roberto, the cartel lost approximately 10% of its hidden cash to rats, humidity, and decay. The organization allegedly accumulated so much money that enormous sums were destroyed simply because they couldn’t store it properly. In 1984, Escobar and other cartel leaders reportedly offered to pay off Colombia’s national debt, estimated at around $10 billion, in exchange for protection from extradition and prosecution. Colombian authorities refused the proposal. Despite his immense fortune and influence, Escobar ultimately couldn’t escape the law. On December 2, 1993, Colombian security forces tracked him to a property in Medellín, where he was killed during a police operation, bringing his notorious criminal reign to an end.