Editing Pablo Escobar (section)

=== Rise to prominence ===
[[File:CocaineHydrochloridePowder.jpg|thumb|Powder cocaine was manufactured, packaged, and sold by Pablo Escobar and [[Medellín Cartel|his associates]], and eventually distributed to the U.S. drug market.|alt=]]
Soon, the demand for cocaine greatly increased in the [[United States]], which led to Escobar organizing more smuggling shipments, routes, and distribution networks in [[South Florida]], [[California]], [[Puerto Rico]], and other parts of the country. He and cartel co-founder [[Carlos Lehder]] worked together to develop a new trans-shipment point in the [[Bahamas]], an island called [[Norman's Cay]] about {{convert|220|mi|km|order=flip|abbr=on}} southeast of the Florida coast. Escobar and [[Robert Vesco]] purchased most of the land on the island, which included a {{convert|1|km|ft|adj=on}} airstrip, a harbor, a hotel, houses, boats, and aircraft, and they built a refrigerated warehouse to store the cocaine. According to his brother, Escobar did not purchase Norman's Cay; it was instead a sole venture of Lehder's. From 1978 to 1982, this was used as a central smuggling route for the Medellín Cartel. With the enormous profits generated by this route, Escobar was soon able to purchase {{convert|7.7|sqmi|km2|sigfig=2|order=flip}} of land in Antioquia for several million dollars, on which he built the [[Hacienda Nápoles]]. The luxury house he created contained a [[zoo]], a lake, a sculpture garden, a private bullring, and other amenities for his family and the cartel.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/programs/transcripts/1309.html|title=The godfather of cocaine|work=Frontline|publisher=WGBH|access-date=7 September 2017|archive-date=2 April 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160402034547/http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/programs/transcripts/1309.html}}</ref>