Pablo Escobar’s Rise & Fall | The Godfather of Cocaine (full documentary) | FRONTLINE (PBS)

An investigation into the bloody rise and fall of Pablo Escobar and how the empire he built set the stage for the modern narco-trafficking industry. (Aired 1997)

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This archival FRONTLINE documentary examines how one drug, cocaine, began flowing into the U.S. at an industrial scale in the 1970s and 1980s — and the pivotal role of the notorious Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar, the boss of the Medellin cocaine cartel.

With remarkable access to Escobar’s family, relatives of his victims, and both Colombian and U.S. officials, “The Godfather of Cocaine” traces how Escobar built a multi-billion-dollar fortune through international cocaine smuggling alliances and a sophisticated operation to traffic cocaine into the U.S.

Escobar maintained his dominance through violent repression and extreme brutality, with his cartel funneling drug profits into attacks and killings that brought Colombia to a state of virtual civil war.

Colombian police and the U.S. DEA hunted Escobar down and assassinated him in 1993, but it didn’t end the narco-trafficking model he built.

“The death of Escobar was a landmark in the history of an industry, but it wasn't a victory, in the sense that it didn’t put anything out of business,” Senate investigator Jack Blum said in the documentary. “It didn't change the pace of trafficking. It didn't raise or lower the price of cocaine.”

“The Godfather of Cocaine” was produced by William Cran and Stephanie Tepper. The associate producers were Christopher Buchanan and Marcela Gaviria. The documentary was written and directed by William Cran. Cran, a prolific and acclaimed documentary filmmaker, passed away in 2025

Explore additional reporting on “The Godfather of Cocaine” on our website:

#Documentary #Colombia #PabloEscobar #DrugTrafficking

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The editor-in-chief and executive producer of FRONTLINE is Raney Aronson-Rath. Funding for FRONTLINE is provided through the support of PBS viewers and by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, with major support from Ford Foundation, and The Fialkow Family Foundation, as part of the Plum Bush Foundation. Additional support for FRONTLINE is provided by the Abrams Foundation, Park Foundation, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Heising-Simons Foundation, and the FRONTLINE Trust, with major support from Jon and Jo Ann Hagler on behalf of the Jon L. Hagler Foundation, and Corey David Sauer, and additional support from Koo and Patricia Yuen.