Medellín Cartel
The Medellín Cartel () was a powerful and highly organized Colombian drug cartel and terrorist organization originating in the city of Medellín, Colombia, that was founded and led by Pablo Escobar. It is often considered to be the first major "drug cartel" and was referred to as such; (a cartel) due to the organization's upper echelons and overall power-structure being built on a partnership between multiple Colombian traffickers operating alongside Escobar. Included were Jorge Luis Ochoa Vásquez, Fabio Ochoa Vásquez, Juan David Ochoa Vásquez, José Gonzalo Rodríguez Gacha and Carlos Lehder. Escobar's main partner in the organization however was his cousin Gustavo Gaviria who handled much of the cartel's shipping arrangements and the more general and detailed logistical aspects of the cocaine trafficking routes and international smuggling networks which were supplying at least 80% of the world's cocaine during its peak. Gustavo, also known as León seems to have also had a strong hand in the cartel's unprecedented acts of narcoterrorism, right alongside his cousin Pablo and was considered to be second in command of the cartel and therefore one of Colombia's most wanted men, with both him and Escobar having arrest warrants pending from other nations where their criminal activity had spread to, such as in Spain and the U.S. Meanwhile, Pablo Escobar's brother Roberto Escobar acted as the organization's accountant. The cartel operated from 1976 to 1993 in Colombia (Antioquia), Bolivia, Panama, Central America, Peru, the Bahamas, the United States (namely in cities such as Los Angeles, New York and Miami), as well as in Canada. Although Escobar started profitably smuggling contraband by the early 1970s, the true beginnings of what would eventually become the notorious mafia-like organization itself officially turned to trafficking cocaine as their main contraband product by 1976, (largely through the assistance of Carlos Lehder and George Jung) which greatly influenced the infamous sociocultural cocaine boom phenomenon of late 70s and early 80s in the United States. This "boom" was noticeably demonstrated by the impact of the violent street crimes which characterized the Miami drug war due to the cartel's trafficking operations significantly increasing the drug's overall availability and access through these newly enhanced markets as well as the further complexified and proliferated distribution networks. At the height of its operations, the Medellín Cartel smuggled multiple tons of cocaine each week into countries around the world and brought in an upwards of US$200 million daily in drug profits, and thus billions per year. Additionally, despite being well-known for once dominating the international illicit cocaine trade (along with expanding it) throughout the late 1970s and early 1980s, the organization, particularly in its later years, was also noted for its use of violence for political aims (mainly in protest of judicial extradition to the U.S.) as demonstrated by their societally straining and volatile asymmetric war against the Colombian state itself, primarily in the form of bombings, kidnappings, indiscriminate murder of law enforcement and political assassinations. Many of the victims included non-combatants or random citizens as attempts to