this colombian drug lord controlled 80% of the world's cocaine pablo escobar was the boss of the medellín cartel in the 1980s at its peak his cartel supplied 80% of all the cocaine smuggled into the united states you can get up to $420 million flowing into his pockets every single week that's over $20 billion a year this operation served the massive us market (and beyond) from huge processing labs hidden in the colombian jungle you will get netflix's narcos, dozens of documentaries, and books with all the information about his insane empire and dramatic downfall this one man was literally connecting colombian coca farms with the direct global customers who craved the product