When you are out in the city you realise why he said that. A Colombian man once told me that “if you put a roof over Medellin it would be the biggest brothel in the world”. ‘Biggest brothel in world’Įscobar himself was known for paying thousands of dollars to have sex with models, actresses and even television presenters. Money has never been an obstacle for them and in a city used to the flow of easy money, everything has a price.
The narcos have always had an appetite for beautiful women. Today “The Office” is not only involved in drug trafficking but also in extortion, prostitution and human trafficking. Years later they developed into one of the biggest criminal organisations in the history of Colombia. They started literally as an office where anyone could hire a hit man.
La Oficina – or “The Office” – is one of the most notorious groups that sprung up. But soon, criminal gangs started to appear to fill the gap. When Pablo Escobar was killed in 1993 the Medellin cartel was left without a boss – and most of the assassins, traffickers and foot soldiers were left without a job. Unfortunately the years of evil and greed have marked this city for life, and the beauty hides a violent and disturbing criminal underworld. I have been travelling to Medellin for nearly 20 years and during that time I have witnessed the city’s mutation from one of the murder capitals of the world to one of Colombia’s booming cities.
