Pablo Escobar almost moved family to UK — but response saw him shot dead on roof
Infamous drug kingpin Pablo Escobar was on the verge of moving his whole family of 14 to the UK in a secret deal.
Colombian authorities said that the former Medellín Cartel leader urged the British government to offer his wife and children sanctuary in return for his surrender, newly released files revealed.
And it wasn’t just any old island that would do. He was set on them starting their new life in none other than Blighty during the early 1990s.
READ MORE: ‘I visited Pablo Escobar’s notorious crime-riddled slum – it felt safer than Birmingham’
Rewind to the mid 1970s and Escobar’s drug empire was taking traction from the slums of Medellín, Colombia.
But by the height of his reign in the late 1980s, El Patron was running a whopping £340m-per-week operation and controlled 80% of the world’s cocaine trade.
Colombia’s former attorney-general, Gustavo de Greiff, arrived in Britain in September 1993 with a proposal in mind.
“He said that Pablo Escobar was ready to surrender himself provided that his family could go abroad for a time until things quietened down,” read a memo sent to London, obtained by The Times.
“Britain had been indicated as the preferred destination. De Grieff said that the family members concerned were his wife, son, daughter, two sisters, one brother and eight nephews and nieces.”
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As Colombian diplomats lay waiting for a drawn-out month with high hopes of a deal being cemented, Britain finally had a response.
It read: “Escobar is a ruthless drugs trafficker and terrorist. He is responsible for the murder of hundreds and perhaps thousands of people.
"His family live on Escobar’s earnings from the drugs trade."
In 1989, Escobar’s gang engaged in a brutal act of terrorism blowing up a domestic airliner and killing 110 people.
The report continued: “To allow them even temporary sanctuary in the UK would not sit well with the government’s well-known commitment to law and order and the fight against drugs trafficking and terrorism.”
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Just weeks after Escobar’s sneaky deal was rejected, the drug baron was shot dead on December 2, 1993, on a Medellín rooftop in a battle with security forces.
Shortly after her husband’s demise, Maria Victoria Henao and her children were given asylum in Argentina after being rejected by Germany and Mozambique.
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