Editing Pablo Escobar (section)

=== Medellín Cartel ===
[[File:CIA Map of International illegal drug connections.gif|thumb|400px|International drug routes]]
Escobar had been involved in organized crime for a decade when the cocaine trade began to spread in Colombia in the mid-1970s. Escobar's meteoric rise caught the attention of the [[Administrative Department of Security|Colombian Security Service]] (DAS), who arrested him in May 1976 on his return from drug trafficking in Ecuador. DAS agents found 39&nbsp;kg of cocaine in the spare tire of Escobar's car. Escobar managed to change the first judge in the lawsuit and [[bribed]] the second judge, so he was released along with other prisoners. The following year, the agent who arrested Escobar was assassinated. Escobar continued to bribe and [[intimidate]] Colombian [[Law enforcement agency|law enforcement agencies]] in the same fashion. His [[Carrot and stick|carrot-and-stick]] strategy of [[Bribery|bribing]] public officials and political candidates in Colombia, in addition to sending [[Contract killing|hitmen]] to murder the ones who rejected his bribes, came to be known as "silver or lead", meaning "money or death".<ref>{{cite web |last1=Torres |first1=Rubén Ortiz |title=Plata O Plomo O Glitter |url=https://www.royaleprojects.com/exhib-plata-o-plomo-o-glitter |website=royaleprojects.com |access-date=19 June 2023 |date=9 February 2020 |archive-date=18 October 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231018195913/https://www.royaleprojects.com/exhib-plata-o-plomo-o-glitter |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="about" />{{sfn|Bowden|2001|pp=40–42}} The Medellín Cartel and the [[Cali Cartel]] both managed to bribe Colombian [[politician]]s, and campaigned for both the [[Colombian Conservative Party|Conservative]] and [[Colombian Liberal Party|Liberal]] parties.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |last=Rubio |first=Mauricio |title=Colombia: Coexistence, Legal Confrontation, and War with Illegal Armed Groups |url=https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/dangerousliasons_ch4_colombia.pdf |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211115171649/https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/dangerousliasons_ch4_colombia.pdf |archive-date=2021-11-15 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1987/11/14/colombias-drug-lords-waging-war-on-leftists/482456d3-9ec7-484d-adf1-d2c020d72124|title=COLOMBIA'S DRUG LORDS WAGING WAR ON LEFTISTS|first=Merrill|last=Collett|date=14 November 1987|newspaper=The Washington Post|access-date=13 August 2023|archive-date=15 March 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230315194406/https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1987/11/14/colombias-drug-lords-waging-war-on-leftists/482456d3-9ec7-484d-adf1-d2c020d72124/|url-status=live}}</ref> Hence, Escobar and many other Colombian drug lords were [[Political corruption|pulling strings in every level of the Colombian government]] because many of the [[Candidate|political candidates]] whom they backed financially were eventually elected.<ref name=":0" /> Although the Medellín Cartel was only established in the early 1970s, it expanded after Escobar met several drug lords on a farm in April 1978, and by the end of 1978 they had transported some 19,000 kilograms of cocaine to the United States.<ref>{{cite book| author = Chepsiuk, Ron| title = The War on Drugs: An International Encyclopedia| year = 1999| page = 133| location = Santa Barbara, California| publisher = ABC-Clio| isbn = 978-0-87436-985-4| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=V1rjd3cBI84C| language = en| access-date = 2022-06-07| archive-date = 2022-06-07| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20220607125129/https://books.google.fi/books?id=V1rjd3cBI84C}}</ref>