Pablo Escobar Was Empowered By The U.S. And U.K.Militaries For Their Own Purposes

columbiareports |  The Medellin Police Department and Colombia’s 4th Army Brigade played a key role in the Medellin Cartel and the formation of what is now known as the Oficina de Envigado.

In the 1960’s and 1970’s, when Colombian marijuana was in fashion in the United States, the so-called “gentlemen of drugs” as narcos like Pablo Escobar, were considered respectable businessmen who received support from the local police department and the 4th Brigade.

The gentlemen from Medellin provided the Caribbean mafia with pot from the surrounding Antioquia province and even as far south as Cauca.

Medellin’s current crime syndicate, the Oficina de Envigado, originates from the Security and Control Department (DSC) and the Civilian Order Department (DOC).

The DSC from Envigado and the DOC from Medellin were formed in 1968, and gained force under Escobar with the support of police and mayors in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s.

The ties between the narcos, the local gangs, the Medellin Police Department and the 4th Brigade got even stronger in 1981 when they found a common enemy, the M-19 guerrilla group.

After these guerrillas kidnapped Martha Ochoa, the sister of two founding members of the Medellin Cartel and a personal friend of Uribe, Escobar and his associates founded Death to Kidnappers (MAS), a paramilitary group that would later become the Medellin Cartel.

The “gentlemen” lost their social status in Bogota after Escobar got kicked out of Congress in 1983, the cartel assassinated Justice Minister Rodrigo Lara in 1984, and the US demanded their extradition.

The terrorism used in opposition to an extradition pact with the US government was mainly a problem for innocent civilians, politicians and the National Police in Bogota.

In Medellin, the cartel could still find loyal allies in the local elite, the Medellin Police Department and the 4th Brigade.

The cartel’s 1989 bombing of Avianca flight 203 that killed 107 people, for example, would not have been possible without former Army mayor Oscar Echandía and Medellin Cartel founder Gonzalo Rodriguez, a.k.a. “El Mexicano,” who in flew in 11 British mercenaries to give explosives lessons to cartel members and paramilitaries.