I have a mate who went back packing in South America.

When in Medellin Colombia he was told by people Paplo Escobar was only a scapegoat and was never the top boss in Medellin.

A powerful Medellin family were the real bosses.

Is this right story or wrong story.

One of the guys in the Cocaine Cowboys documentary (his name escapes me at the moment) said that the Fabio Ochoa was the real head of the Medellin cartel. Whether that's true or not, Escobar certainly wasn't a scapegoat. If not the top leader of the cartel, he was certainly one of the top leaders and was responsible for countless murders.

Yes Escobar may have been a leader certainly but story gos he was not what they say he was that he was a scapegoat for much of the top cartel people who were never arrested for anything at all.

Always possible but idk.Pablo had tremendous power in his day and I just don't know if id want some1makin so much noise when there my front boss.Pablo got the u.s involved when he blew up that plane.why allow that when he's just a front boss? Like I said I guess its possible tho

Front boss ? we have seen them before New York other places.

Yea but the don't blow planes out of the sky or build there own prisons then execute people in it

The ochoa family were leaders along with escobar and a couple of others..From what i've read it looks like escobar, carlos lehder and another guy were the most violent leaders, and they were the one's the G went after the hardest ..The ochoa's were more business like , turned themselves in and got slap on wrist sentences and now live like kings..But escobar was the boss, no boss would let an underling do what he did on a weekly basis, and he would be too much of a threat to any boss..if there was a boss over him, he would probably have had to take him out long before the G did, just to protect himself from the threat of escobar..That's my opinion anyway

I've seen a documentary that had El Gordo highlighted in it. Ochoa raises those fancy dancing horses and his daughters are champion riders. They truly live like royalty. Giant haciendas and all. Escobar may have taken the fall, but he was definately one of the five cartel leaders. He was one of the bosses.

Escobar was a very powerful drug lord no doubt about it. But even though it is said he was the boss of the Medellin Cartel it isn't true. He was perhaps the most violent and had the most wealth but he started his business with the help of the Ochoa brothers, Juan David Ochoa (died 2013), Jorge Luis (released 1996 in Colombia) and Fabio (serving 30 years in a US federal prison). Jhon Jairo Velasquez Vasquez (an Escobar hitman) said that Jorge Luis Ochoa was Pablo's boss. Escobar is believed to be the boss because of his famous war against the Colombian govt. and for having ordered the assassinations of Rodrigo Lara Bonilla(1984,Colombian Minister of Justice), Luis Carlos Galan(1989, Presidential candidate), the attack on the Colombian Supreme Court (11 Supreme Court judges were killed), the bombing of the Avianca Flight 203, the bounty he put on Colombian police officers, judges, journalists, politicians, etc., and because he resorted to extreme acts of violence, like the bombing of the DAS building which resulted in 52 deaths and 1,000 injured(the target was the director of the DAS). In short, Escobar was the Medellin Cartel's John Gotti.

Your backpacking friend got taken for a long ride..Pablo still has godlike status in Medallo for a reason. Although he wasn't the sole boss of the Medallo Cartel, he was the one at the forefront. He wanted everyone to chime in with his decisions, but the Ochoas disagreed with alot of the orders he put out. That's why the Ochoas were the sole survivors of the bloody war with the Cali cartel adn the gov't. Asides from his head assasin, alias Popeye (who gout out Sept.2013 after 21 yrs and also avoided extradition before the treaty), the Ochoas were the only ones who remained alive to tell the tale.

Is Alberto Santofimio (Santomafio), Escobar's political cover-up, still in jail? I read he has been convicted, then acquitted and then convicted again for Luis Galan's murder, which Escobar ordered as a favor to him.

Jhon Jairo Velasquez Vasquez aka "Popeye" was not not released from prison on September 2013. He is now scheduled to be released from prison in 2020. He was supposed to be released this year but because he was convicted in 2008 of drug trafficking and some other crime, he was sentenced to 12 1/2 years in prison. On Spanish Wiki it says he has been freed but according to this article he is still in jail finishing his sentence.

http://www.elespectador.com/noticias/judicial/popeye-no-quedara-libertad-articulo-446629

Oh yea I agree Escobar had power but he was no Ochoa.