The Chilling True Story Behind Pablo Escobar's Smile In First And Final Mugshot

When you look into the stories of some of the world's most well-known criminals, you'll usually stumble across a fair few of their police mugshots.

Well, except in the case of Pablo Escobar. There is one mugshot of the Colombian drug lord, who was the founder and sole leader of the Medellín Cartel in Colombia.

In that photo - somewhat unusually for a police mugshot - he's smiling.

PA

Escobar, who was eventually shot and killed in December 1993, was at one stage responsible for supplying 80 percent of the world's cocaine and he even got into politics.

In 1991, he struck a deal with Colombia's then-president Cesar Gaviria to prevent him from being extradited to the US.

It's not difficult to imagine how a man of such notorious influence might only have a single mugshot to his name - but why, one might wonder, is he smiling in it?

OK, it's worth noting that we can't know for sure why he's smiling and he never said anything to explain his expression.

However, the most popular theory is that he was toying with the police because he knew he would be released.

CARCEL DTTO JUDICIAL MEDELLIN

Funnily enough, that's exactly what happened, before he went on to become one of the biggest narcoterrorists in the world.

Over on YouTube channel Legion of Weirdos, Christopher Mast explains: "In May of 1976, Escobar and some of his men were arrested for transporting cocaine.

"Apparently they found 40lbs of the stuff in a spare tyre.

"By then, Escobar was gaining infamy for his policy of plata o plomo, which basically means 'silver or lead' - 'you take the bribe or I'll kill you'.

"But this time Pablo was unable to bribe his arresting officers and he was taken in.

"As he sat in jail, the case got handed off to several different judges but none of them got around to assembling the case.

"Meanwhile, his arresting officers were mysteriously killed and his case was dropped with all record of it apparently disappearing.

"Escobar was smiling because he knew he would eventually get out and be a free man.

"And that he did."

Chilling stuff.

Topics: News, Interesting, Pablo Escobar

Rebecca Shepherd

I'm Becky - a journalist at LADbible. I graduated with a First Class BA in Journalism before going on to cover criminal court cases, medical tribunals and breaking news for the national media - which inevitably and eventually became as glum as it sounds. Can often be found rocking a bag for life - which I made a 'thing' way before Rihanna. You can contact me at [email protected]

@RJShepherd94