Inside the Mind of Britain’s Pablo Escobar: How a Bus Driver Built a £1 Billion Underground Empire

Ever wondered if London’s bus drivers have secrets more colorful than the city’s iconic red buses? Meet Jesus Ruiz-Henao — a man who quite literally drove the streets by day and built a billion-pound cocaine empire by night. Dubbed ‘Britain’s Pablo Escobar’, his story sounds like the plot of a wild Hollywood flick, yet it’s shockingly real. From a humble bus driver navigating London’s routes to a major drug kingpin hiding in plain sight, Henao’s life is as insane as it is fascinating. Now locked up in a high-security Bogotá prison, he calls himself a ‘pioneer’ of the UK cocaine scene. Curious how he managed to mask a vast criminal empire while clutching a bus steering wheel? Tune into the new Discovery+ docuseries, The Bus Driver: Britain’s Cocaine King, to dive headfirst into this unbelievable tale. LEARN MORE

A man who is known as ‘Britain’s Pablo Escobar’ has revealed how he built a cocaine empire while driving buses in London.

The bizarre story is the subject of a new documentary, as Jesus Ruiz-Henao has reflected on his insane life in an upcoming Discovery+ docuseries titled The Bus Driver: Britain’s Cocaine King.

Speaking for the first time on TV from a high-security prison in Bogotá, Colombia, he labelled himself as a ‘pioneer’, detailing how he built a drug empire from the ground up.

The UK’s Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) classify the man as a ‘career criminal‘, ranking him alongside fellow underworld bosses.

Henao seems proud that he flew under the radar for years before being apprehended in one of the largest-scale operations carried out by the Metropolitan Police.

The bus driver had a drug empire worth £1 billion (Discovery Plus)

Over 100 officers helped to bring him down, as the kingpin said his life ‘is a lot like a Hollywood movie’.

Speaking at La Picota prison in his native Colombia, the 65-year-old admitted: “I was trafficking drugs for over 10 years and I was arrested and sentenced for [importing] over a billion pounds of cocaine.

“I was like a pioneer of cocaine in the UK.”

The docuseries also features interviews with members of Henao’s family, including his police officer brother Fabio, who claimed that he was the subject of three murder attempts.

Fabio explained: “I hate drug dealers.

“My brother, he never told me what he was doing because he knows what I think about all that.”

The most shocking part of his brother’s drug operation was that he was an everyday bus driver prior to being busted by police in November 2003.

Everyone believed he was a humble bus driver (Discovery Plus)

It was reported that Henao’s empire was worth a staggering £1 billion, having started out as a drug smuggler back in Colombia during the eighties, a period plagued by violence and cartels.

Henao recalls being gifted a bicycle by Pablo Escobar, with the fellow drug lord inspiring him to achieve great wealth.

While he sold drugs from the jungle to cities in Colombia, Henao seized an opportunity in the European market as America was mostly occupied.

Forced to flee the country after becoming indebted to the cartels and surviving an assassination attempt, Henao moved to the British capital, where he fell in love with the culture.

His wife, Maria, even reached out to Jeremy Corbyn, who was still the MP of Islington North, to help secure political asylum as they were ‘endangered’.

Despite being refused twice, he secured indefinite leave-to-remain status after a bid was successful.

You can see unseen footage of Henao’s arrest in the documentary, though he claims that he was ‘just living a normal, standard life’ at the beginning.

Henao saw a gap in the European market and seized it (Getty Stock Image)

“I wanted to just make a few pounds and live a normal life, but I already had my contacts for the cocaine, and that was easy to start doing, to start dealing drugs,” he admitted.

Another reason for his lifestyle not raising any flags was the fact that he won £100,000 in a spot-the-ball competition in the 1990s.

He also said that he decided to leave the business around the time he was captured, before one of his associates told the police of his dealings.

Henao was then sentenced to 19 years in prison.

The Bus Driver: Britain’s Cocaine King will be available to stream on Discovery+ from 11 August.