Short answer: Pablo Escobar was let in the same way any Columbian businessman today would be let in.

When the picture was taken, in 1981, Pablo Escobar didn't have as much heat on him as he'd later get. For context, Escobar didn't have bodyguards until that same year.

At the time, Escobar was seeking to invest a small part of drug money, and included Miami on a list of destinations to buy real estate. He would buy these properties in cash, brought from Columbia and declared at US customs.

Escobar's holdings in Miami would then include a mansion with a private dock, and then a apartment complex of 200 condos in northern Miami. Again, Escobar paid in cash that was declared in customs and brought through Miami in two briefcases.

This venture into landlording proved to be more trouble than it was perhaps worth.

Sebastian Marroquin, Escobar's son, later wrote the apartment complex was a "huge headache... people frequently called to complain that crocodiles from the nearby lakes were wandering down the corridors of the complex."

So how about the photo?

Marroquin recalls: "My father's increasingly frequent business trips to the United States took us to Washington DC, where he planned to test the security measures in place at the entrance of the FBI building. Heedless of the risk, he presented false papers at the reception desk while my mother handed over her passport and mine. Fortunately we had no problems. My father had scammed the US government, and the three of us were given a tour of the building. From there, we headed to the White House, where my mother took the famous photo of my father and me at the gate."

Global notoriety would come next year, in 1982, when Escobar was elected to congress and would go on to become an enemy of the state (and the States).