DAUNTING DEMISE OF COLOMBIAN DRUG LORD CHRONICLED

The title of a 1964 B Western would perfectly fit the life of Pablo Escobar
- -- "Law of the Lawless."

Escobar was the Colombian drug lord who truly lived up to the nickname. His
own government was helpless to control him in any way. He forced it to
treat him like the head of a more powerful nation.

Colombia turned desperately to the United States for help, and got it
lavishly. U.S. Army Delta forces moved into Colombia and worked with the
official police establishment and the Colombian military as well as a
vigilante force comprising victims and survivors of victims of Pablo Escobar.

Even so, the war between Escobar and the international coalition against
him was slow and costly -- hundreds of millions of dollars and thousands of
lives were spent before it all ended on a red tile rooftop in Medellin on
Dec. 2, 1993.

A two-hour History Channel documentary, "The True Story of Killing of
Pablo," begins on that day, with pictures of bloated, barefoot, dead
Escobar surrounded by Colombian police and Delta team members grinning into
the cameras.

The documentary is based on the book of the same title by "Black Hawk Down"
author Mark Bowden, who also comments extensively on camera. He was
interviewing a Delta team member for "Black Hawk Down" and saw the picture
framed on his wall. When Bowden asked about it, the Delta guy said it was a
reminder that no matter how powerful you become, you can still get too big
for your britches.

Escobar's saga could use the artistry that Francis Ford Coppola put into
the first two "Godfather" films, a tale of the triumph of a criminal empire
over the official legal establishment. Escobar amassed his power the
old-fashioned way. He grew from marijuana smoker to dealer, wormed his way
into a drug establishment, got a foothold of real power and then began
killing his partners.

Once he had consolidated that power, he began systematically neutralizing
the police. As several veterans of the Escobar campaign explain, Pablo gave
hundreds of cops a blatant choice: You can have my silver, or you can have
my lead. Join the circus and get rich. Try to stop it and die.

Strangely enough, plenty took both. Most cops were happy to multiply their
salaries on Escobar's payroll. Joining the police was for some a step into
joining Escobar's empire. But others resisted, and not a week passed
without dead cops littering the streets, sometimes with other family members.

The same tactic worked in the government, courts and business. Some judges
were shot or killed in explosions. Others either played ball or found ways
to sit out the game. Lawyers, bankers and elected officials were on the
payroll, and everyone prospered. Lots of footage shows Pablo with Yankee
dollars by the bale. He built neighborhoods and social service centers and
just gave away money.

He entertained the rich and powerful in his villas. At one party a waiter
was caught stealing. Pablo had him bound and thrown into the pool to drown.
A throng of witnesses meant nothing to Pablo.

Pablo owned Colombia and was getting richer, but his problems grew in
Washington, D.C. Pablo graduated from grass to cocaine and from cocaine to
crack. Grass and coke were manageable, but crack posed a deep danger on
American streets and in police station houses. Nancy Reagan was advising
that we all just say "no," but way too many on both sides of the law were
just saying "more."

"The Killing of Pablo" details the long, long struggle to get Pablo to the
rooftop. American cops, disguised Delta team members, Colombian cops and
government officials tell the cameras of their parts in the war against
Pablo. In the end it took the U.S. military in Colombia, the police, and
the vigilante force to bring Pablo down, and the extralegal vigilantes were
vital. They adopted the law of the lawless. They whittled away at Pablo's
organization by assassination, and he retaliated. Bystanders died in the
hundreds.

The ending is no surprise. The title tells it. But the epilogue may
discourage some viewers. Pablo's death caused not even a hiccup in the
flourishing Colombian drug industry. If the Colombian cartels could somehow
be listed on Wall Street, the bears would go into permanent hibernation.