(wondrous music)
(motorcycle revs) (dramatic piano music)
(Juan Pablo laughs)
(truck honks)
- This is a sentence I never said to anyone.
Just for you to know.
(intense music)
- [Narrator] The heir to Pablo Escobar.
What is the son of the greatest
drug lord in history doing now?
How was growing up at the heart of the Escobar empire?
A wealthy childhood,
upended by the death of his father at 16.
Death threats.
Betrayal.
Exile.
How did Juan Pablo and his family
face their descent into hell?
Exclusive testimonies, family members,
bodyguards, reformed criminals,
and even Pablo Escobar's old rivals.
Family secrets and revelations.
(dramatic music)
Unpublished family archives, historical documents.
This is Juan Pablo Escobar's story.
(dramatic music)
The shocking fate of the heir
to the greatest drug lord in history.
(dramatic music)
In 1976, Pablo Escobar created the Medellin Cartel.
He turned it into the most profitable
and feared drug trafficking organisation in the world.
It didn't take him long to gain control of practically
all the cocaine market.
From Colombia, to the US and Europe.
Pablo Escobar launched a full on attack
upon the Colombian state.
They in turn decided to dismantle his empire,
and extradite all the drug lords to the United States.
And so, war between them broke out.
By the end of the 1980s,
Medellin had up to 7,000 victims per year,
and it was the most dangerous city in the world.
But there's a family in the shadow of Pablo Escobar.
His wife, son, and daughter
lived in the midst of extreme violence.
(dramatic synth music)
At the beginning of the 1990s,
after many years of conflict,
Pablo Escobar and the Colombian government
started to negotiate.
A political deal was struck.
Drug lords are no longer extradited to the US.
Colombia's public enemy number one agreed to surrender,
but on his own terms.
(machine beeping)
(mellow music)
(cars honking)
(foreboding music)
(helicopter blades whirring)
His father's surrender was a relief
for Juan Pablo and his family.
They no longer needed to hide or run away.
The manhunt was over.
In the summer of 1991,
Pablo Escobar was imprisoned in La Catedral,
a luxury prison which he himself had built
on the hills of Medellin.
Juan Pablo went to La Catedral for the first time
at the age of 14 to visit his father.
30 years later, he finds an old acquaintance
of Pablo Escobar.
This journalist knows the place like the back of his hand.
(calming music)
(intense music)
- Escobar, a ruthless killer,
escaped from his own luxury prison
when authorities tried to transfer him to another jail.
- [Narrator] Under house arrest, Escobar's influence waned.
He heard that the Cali Cartel wanted to bomb La Catedral,
and that the Colombian government wanted to transfer him
to a state prison.
For his 14 year old son, the nightmare began.
(intense music) (helicopter blades whirring)
(tense music)
Los Pepes stands for "People Persecuted By Pablo Escobar".
This vigilante group was formed at the time
of his escape from La Catedral.
It brought together all his enemies in Colombia.
The goal of these vigilantes was to hunt down
and eliminate the leader of the Medellin Cartel,
and his associates by any means.
(intense music)
At the beginning of 1993,
while a manhunt was organised for Pablo Escobar,
he reunited with his family in a secret apartment.
In this hideout, he convinced his wife and children
to leave Colombia without him.
He wanted them to move to the US.
He thought it was the only way
for Juan Pablo and his family to survive.
(melancholic music)
(dramatic music)
On the morning of February the 19th, 1993,
Juan Pablo Escobar, his mother, sister, and girlfriend
got ready to drive to the Rionegro Airport in Medellin.
A few days before turning 16,
the son of public enemy number one
organised his family's departure.
(tense music)
(dramatic music)
After being on the run for months,
Pablo Escobar separated from his family
and found them shelter in a building in Medellin.
Juan Pablo, his mother, sister, and girlfriend
were on their own again.
(dramatic music)
(intense music)
The net closed in on the Escobar family.
The Los Pepes killers laid siege night and day
at Altos Del Campestre,
where Juan Pablo and his family were hiding.
(tense music)
(objects clanging)
(tense music)
On November the 28th, 1993,
5 days before Pablo Escobar's death,
Colombian authorities gave the family permission
to leave the country.
They chose Frankfurt, Germany.
(tense music)
(intense music)
(plane humming)
(dramatic music)
(machine beeps)
Less than 24 hours after landing on German soil,
the Escobar family was sent back to Colombia.
Separated from his father,
the 16 year old son of the leader of the Medellin Cartel
felt more responsible than ever for his family.
Upon their arrival, the Colombian state awaited them.
They put them in the Tequendama residence
under close surveillance.
(siren blares)
(dramatic music)
(tense music)
(TV reporter speaks)
(phone rings)
(dramatic music)
(phone rings)
(tense music)
(phone rings)
(dramatic music)
Pablo Escobar is dead.
At 16, Juan Pablo Escobar can no longer escape his destiny.
Hunted down, living under death threats,
he will have to fight to protect his family and survive.
(dramatic music)
(intense synth music)