Pablo Escobar was a drug dealer.
Pablo Emilio Escobar Gaviria ( [ ˈpaβ̞lo eˈmiljo eskoˈβ̞aɾ ɣ̞aˈβ̞iɾja ] ; 1 December 19492 December 1993 ) was a Colombian drug lord and narco-terrorist . In the 1970s , he began to work for various contraband smugglers , often kidnapping and holding people for ransom before beginning to distribute powder cocaine himself , as well as establishing the first smuggling routes into the United States in 1975 .