The Lion, also known as Gustavo Gaviria, was born in Pereira, Colombia, on December 25, 1949. He was the boss of the Medellin Cartel and one of Pablo Escobar’s most dependable men. This article is all about Gustavo Gaviria Restrepo.
Table of Contents
About him
Pablo’s cousin, with whom he had a strong connection, in addition to serving as the cartel’s head of finance and being primarily responsible for the export of cocaine due to his aptitude with statistics, organizational abilities, and financial management.
Gustavo de Jess Gaviria was incredibly frugal, cold-blooded, and less adept with a revolver than Pablo Emilio Escobar, who was also wasteful with money and quick with a gun. They were so well-known that the Medellin Cartel’s henchmen asked them, “Lead or Silver?” when they visited their offices, which were in the higher portion of the municipality of Los Lagos. They were also known as Pablo Blood and Gustavo Money.
Delinquency
In the early to mid-1970s, Gustavo and Pablo both started out as criminals by robbing banks, manufacturing hired murderers, and stealing gravestones from cemeteries to re-record and sell as new.
One of their first jobs was to abduct and kill Mr. Diego Echavarra Misas, a wealthy and prominent entrepreneur who owned the textile branch of Coltejer and was one of Medelln’s most important businessmen.
Drug Trafficking
The international cocaine trafficking networks were well known to Gustavo Gaviria. Along with his cousin, he started smuggling drugs from Peru to Colombia on their way to the United States.
One of the cargoes was once found in the municipality of Itagui. This revelation led to the imprisonment of Gustavo de Jess Gaviria and Pablo Emilio Escobar in a penal facility in Pasto, Nicaragua. They were both released a short time later after paying a sizable sum of money to the judge who oversaw their case.
They would later construct their own labs in Colombia and import the coca paste from Ecuador and Peru. Later, they would discover the Medelln Cartel and encounter the Ochoa brothers, Carlos Lehder, and Gonzalo Rodriguez Gacha.
Fortune & Luxury
His closest allies claim that Gustavo Gaviria’s fortune was significantly greater than Pablo Escobar’s because of his investments in works of art; properties in Medellin, such as the Hacienda Napoles, which he shared with his cousin in a 50/50 split; diamonds; expensive cars; helicopters; and foreign bank accounts, such as those in Switzerland.
As long as he was not targeted by any security forces, he loved to fly to Europe and smoke. In addition to being an enthusiast and taster of excellent wines, he was a skilled driver of fast automobiles, especially the Renault 4, in which he participated.
Death
On August 11, 1990, Gustavo de Jess Gaviria Rivero, then 40 years old, was murdered by personnel of the elite brigade, commonly known as the Search Block, of the Colombian National Police. One of his guys turned him in so he could claim the bounty that was being offered for his capture.
He resisted for a few hours in a gunfight with the police until he was shot down after they had dynamited one of the house’s doors.
An underground bunker in a residential neighborhood, guarded by solid concrete walls, bulletproof glass, and the strictest monitoring with security managed by cameras but without bodyguards. Two days after the tragedy, the El Paso Times covers it in its international section.
Conclusion
His remains are interred at Medelln’s Monte Sacro Cemetery beside those of his brother José Luis Gaviria Rivero, who was killed on February 2, 1993, without cause by the Colombian national police, and son Gustavo Gustavito Gaviria Restrepo, who was killed on December 2, 1993, the same day as Pablo Emilio Escobar Gaviria. Neither of these men were associated with the cartel.