Disappearing Act

Without doubt, he was the most pampered prisoner in all Colombia. Drug kingpin Pablo Escobar, the head of the Medellin cocaine cartel who surrendered 13 months ago in exchange for a promise of no extradition to the U.S., was locked up in a suite in a luxurious prison of his own design in his hometown of Envigado. By most accounts, Escobar continued to run his billion-dollar business from behind the walls. So when Colombia's director of prisons and a deputy minister of justice entered the jail last week to tell Escobar he was being transferred to a harsher military prison, the drug boss would have none of it; his lieutenants produced hidden weapons and took both men hostage.

After a night of inconclusive negotiations, 400 army commandos stormed the jail at dawn and freed the hostages unharmed, but Escobar was gone. He and his brother Roberto and nine of their henchmen were nowhere to be found. They had somehow absconded, apparently with help from prison guards and military officers whom they had paid off. As troops combed the surrounding mountains, an embarrassed President Cesar Gaviria Trujillo, who has come under criticism for dealing leniently with drug traffickers, could only remark, lamely, "I wish I had an explanation for everything that has happened."