NewStats: 3,265,402 , 8,186,614 topics. Date: Saturday, 14 June 2025 at 07:02 PM h2e6w

Tirso ‘TJ’ Dominguez says Escobar paid him $20m monthly to fly planeloads of coke

A man who eventually became Pablo Escobar’s go-to cocaine pilot has revealed that he first turned down an employment offer from the notorious Colombian drug lord because he was content with the $4m a month he was earning while flying for a competitor.

But, in a new podcast containing what is believed to be his first interview since authorities arrested him at his Florida mansion in 1988, Tirso “TJ” Dominguez recounted how he changed his mind about working for Escobar when the so-called Patrón – or boss – offered him a salary that was five times higher: $20m monthly.

I had 30 Lamborghinis, and I dressed well, Dominguez says of his ensuing lifestyle during the eight-part documentary podcast titled Cocaine Air, a copy of which was provided to the Guardian. They brought me the car that matched the shirt that I decided to wear that day.

The interview that Dominguez granted the Cocaine Air host Johnathan Walton after spending more than a dozen years in prison for drug trafficking and money laundering provides a stark, first-hand of what would motivate someone to work for one of the world’s most infamous criminals. Escobar had a hand in murders, kidnappings and bombings before Colombia’s special forces shot him to death in 1993.

As he told it to Walton, Dominguez only became involved in drug smuggling in the late 1970s after his father, a south Florida real estate developer, unexpectedly died from cancer in the middle of building a sugar mill in Haiti.

Dominguez says he was 20 at the time, and he was subsequently scammed out of $100,000 by two ruthless Miami bankers who refused to give him the $14m loan his father had secured before dying. Desperate to raise capital for the sugar mill, Dominguez – whose mother was a homemaker – learned to fly airplanes so he could earn some money from drug dealers by illicitly smuggling marijuana into the US from the Bahamas and Colombia.

He says he graduated to illegally flying cocaine over American skies after he dropped $800,000 worth of marijuana into the wrong smuggling boat, prompting his suppliers to kidnap him and threaten to kill him along with his family if he did not quickly make them whole. The quickest path to regaining the lost investment was to fly a planeload of coke to be dealt on behalf of another supplier, so Dominguez did it, according to his .

I never wanted to get into cocaine because cocaine [smugglers] were the bad guys … doing all the killing, Dominguez says on Walton’s podcast, which is unrelated to an Netflix documentary of the same name but on a different subject. I don’t condone drugs. I’ve never done any drugs. I was the victim of a con which actually pushed me in the direction that I ended up in.

Nonetheless, that first flight brought Dominguez a cool $1m to pay back his irate weed suppliers, he says. He says that was lucrative enough for him to decide to begin flying smuggled cocaine full-time, proving himself to be someone who was punctual as well as professional – and he never lost a shipment.

Dominguez said his reliability ultimately captured the attention of Escobar, who tried to recruit him to his cartel. Yet Dominguez, also nicknamed Tito, initially was unmoved, saying he was fine with four flights a month at $1m a pop.

I’ll be honest with you – Pablo Escobar didn’t mean anything to me, Dominguez says on Cocaine Air. I [was] full of myself. I walk on water, you know? I’m making $4m a month. What the hell’s wrong with that?

Escobar then offered to pay Dominguez for four flights a month at $5m a trip. Dominguez thought $20m monthly – the equivalent of $60m today when factoring in inflation – was too much to up. And he says that was when he opted to begin flying for Escobar exclusively.

That fee evidently became too much even for Escobar, who later started paying Dominguez in cocaine. Dominguez at that point went from a cocaine smuggler to a dealer, meaning he could fly the product, sell it, collect the proceeds, launder the money and invest the funds – all on his own, without needing to count on middlemen.

I did what no other smuggler had ever done in the history of smuggling, Dominguez bragged to Walton, whose prior projects include the hit Queen of the Con: The Irish Heiress podcast series.

In a particularly noteworthy moment on Cocaine Air’s series opener, Dominguez reads from a memoir co-authored by Escobar’s brother – his ant Roberto Escobar – that asserts TJ had a fleet of 30 airplanes and was one of the “main transporters” for Pablo’s drug empire.

Dominguez recalled accumulating a mansion, a company that sold cellphones at a time when the devices cost $5,000 a piece, a housing development, a charter airplane and boat business, and an exotic car dealership at the peak of his powers. He even raised a pet mountain lion whom he dubbed Top Cat.

But it all came crashing down one early morning in April 1988 when federal investigators – equipped with rifles and helicopters – descended on his house and arrested him. Prosecutors had charged him and 12 associates with illegally bringing more than five tons each of marijuana and cocaine into south Florida from at least July 1984 to December 1985, as the Miami Herald and Sun Sentinel newspapers reported.

Officials contended that Dominguez’s exotic-car dealership in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and his other businesses in the area were fronts for a multimillion-dollar drug-smuggling ring. They seized two dozen luxury cars – Lamborghinis, Ferraris, Excaliburs and Panteras – and five airplanes collectively worth nearly $3m to auction them off, among other consequences for Dominguez.

In 1991, about two years before Escobar’s slaying, Dominguez pleaded guilty to distributing cocaine and marijuana as well as illicitly laundering money. He spent 13 years imprisoned, including two in solitary confinement after one of his fellow inmates reported Dominguez after he managed to buy a helicopter from within his cell and plotted to be flown out to freedom.

Dominguez explains on Cocaine Air that, before being caught, he had instructed the helicopter pilot to land on the grounds of the prison and then “just jump me over the fence”.

“There was a canal, not too far away – I had a car waiting for me, Dominguez says on Cocaine Air, which premiered on Wednesday with plans to release new episodes weekly through 23 July on podcast platforms such as Apple and Spotify.

Now aged 73, Dominguez told the podcast that he considers his debt to society repaid and aspires to become a legitimate entrepreneur.

Failing is when you quit, Dominguez says of his desire to write a new chapter in his life. You’re going to fall? You fall forward. That means you gained two steps already.

"The glass is always half full for me.”

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jun/06/pablo-escobar-cocaine-pilot

I don't know if there's any drug pusher that can make the same impact in that business line like Pablo Escobar.

Imagine paying a pilot $20m a month.

NNtv:
I don't know if there's any drug pusher that can make the same impact in that business line like Pablo Escobar.

Imagine paying a pilot $20m a month.

The drug trade as of today is more than 10X of what it was during the days of Escobar.

The major things is that, cartels and Mafias are now financially smart in money laundering. Imagine if crypto was around during Escobar’s days, the government might not recover up to $1m from him.

Now, they invest in big cover up businesses they use to launder money and operate. All those New York and Illinois mafias have either a bakery or restaurant but it’s not really what you see.

Also, they are more aligned with the government now than before. Don’t be surprised El chapo might get a presidential pardon.

Thinking what I'm thinking? Bleep Nairaland bots.

One from Chicago forfeited proceeds of drug dealing in the early 90s, he would have been worth more than Escobar now even after adjusting for inflation.

#Back to Bourdillon 2027 is still a must

Top A list musicians, comedians, footballers. You name it, all launder money for these guys. Tech startups, manhattan, California mansions are all proceeds of the illicit drug trade.

Even most governments are funneled with drug money for elections etc. It is bigger than anything else!!

Hmmm.... Bad things brings huge amount of money.

Crime pays obviously,,, but only for a while, be legit!

20meter


The Almighty US na drug money plenty inside dere system if Dem wipe out drug money from dere system Dere economy go feel m....

If Nigerian government wants to help Nigerian farmer, they should just declare cassava products illegal. I wonder what people derived from cocaine that we don't derive from cassava. Most especially Garri.
In life, value is everything

Omo... This is wow. What an exposure. Money na water


Nairaland taking steps to stop space bookers. Impressive

This is a typical example and illustration of " Money na water"

Drug money drives the drug Baron crazy...

It is expected

I will only fly him ones and I'm done.... can't risk my life for nothing

He worked for government don't be deceived .
Truth is no drug organization can succeed in the west without CIA and FBI co-operation .
His daughter confessed her daddy worked for the FBI

They are same in every country. Pablo could have bought Colombia. Same as a man who claimed he attended St Peter Aroloya, GCI, Chicago University, but none know him.

Kingzjayzee:


https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jun/06/pablo-escobar-cocaine-pilot

DEF no LAMBA in ur GARAGE but jus LAMBOS

Isnt it supposed to be Barry Seal?
If you have not seen the movie American made. Please do

NNtv:
I don't know if there's any drug pusher that can make the same impact in that business line like Pablo Escobar.

Imagine paying a pilot $20m a month.

What do you mean by "impact he made"...?

How many Pablo himself come get .? ?? ? ?? ?? ? ?? ?....??

Pablo was everything, that guy was just too wealthy but he died in a very miserable way

Na wa o
This is the person that people want to emulate.

There own na to just get the money in respectively of how it comes

Wonderful. And the Nigerian version of it here, the one who forfeited over $460,000 in drug proceeds to the U.S. government whose ers claim it was merely a charitable donation, has mortgaged an entire state, siphoning and milking its commonwealth through a blueprint conduit that connects the state’s coffers directly to his personal pocket.

He has done this for over two decades and counting, eventually scaling it to the national level through the machinery of state capture.

PlayerMeji:
Okay nah..

Soo I cannot book space again

No way 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

Sorry to all space bookers.

And is that an achievement for you to be flaunting and be proud about? Think about the lives that you have destroyed by your trafficking of cocaine.....that's more important....I still await the day a criminal will say, I have established 50 Productive companies that engaged over 200,000 workers, I have built hospitals in every states in my country catering for the society....till then I rest my judgement...

So oyinbo still dey do this kind mumu like Nigerians

What do you need 30 Lamborghini for?

Nawaoh this life ,the life of a drug lord is always full of I had , I had ,I got ,is a pity

Please which of the Pablo Escobar are they referring to?

I disagree with you sir. It seems Pablo Escobar was a joke to you back then?? A man who wanted to pay United State entire debt just to be freed which the US government denied because he had expose a lot of secret about them. I am very sure Pablo Escobar never knew how much he really had back then. He was worth billions of dollars as at then compared to today's value

CoronaVirusPro:



The drug trade is as today is more than 10X of what it was during the days of Escobar.

The major things is that, cartels and Mafias are now financially smart in money laundering. Imagine if crypto was around during Escobar’s days, the government might not recover up to $1m from him.

Now, they invest in big cover up businesses they use to launder money and operate. All those New York and Illinois mafias have either a bakery or restaurant but it’s not really what you see.

Also, they are more aligned with the government now than before. Don’t be surprised El chapo might get a presidential pardon.