Almost everything about the man known as the “King of Cocaine” is shocking and extravagant. Check out these fascinating facts about Pablo Escobar and be glad you never crossed paths with him.

Perhaps the most famous of his collection were four hippos. Even today, hippos can be found roaming the grounds because they were deemed too difficult to move after Escobar’s death.

Offspring of Pablo’s hippos still run wild on the abandoned grounds of his estate. There are now more than 130 of these great animals as they have thrived after Pablo’s death. A lawsuit will decide whether something needs to be done to remove them because they are disturbing the natural biodiversity of the environment.

But animal rights activists worry that the hippos will be harmed in this plan to remove them from where they currently reside around Pablo’s former ranch. The hippos have thrived in this environment because they have no natural predators and plenty of food to keep them satisfied.

The property is completely overgrown and essentially destroyed. It’s hard to imagine that it was once a multi-million dollar property. Now, the abandoned mansion serves a completely different purpose that the drug lord never could have imagined.

Visiting the site is a whole adventure that starts with a Jeep taking you to the ranch where the mansion is located. You can tour the place and imagine the massive home in its day. Play a game of paintball with your friends in the decaying ruins of one of the wealthiest men in the world’s home.

He often stole tombstones and sold them to smugglers. Also, he was in the business of stealing cars. His father was a farmer and mother was a schoolteacher, so it seems the apple fell very far from the tree.

In addition, he killed many people from rival crime organizations, so the real number of people he killed might actually be much higher. He surrounded himself with protection which kept him safe for years and difficult to stop.

To keep her and the rest of the family warm, Pablo burned over $2 million as kindling. Not the most economical solution, but it worked. His daughter was no longer hypothermic and it only cost $2 million.

He would pay pilots based on how much they smuggled and how often they flew. He would reward pilots with as much as $500,00 per day to smuggle the drugs in their plane tires.

For 7 years in a row, Pablo Escobar was on the Forbes Billionaires list. He had so much money, in fact, that he spent $2,500 a month on rubber bands to hold his money! That’s more than most people’s rent.

Not to mention his 142 planes which were used to transport drugs as well as people. He had 20 helicopters and 32 yachts which contributed to his enormous collection. This was not even the entirety of his belongings! He had 2 submarines to traffic drugs into the U.S. as well.

Some money was lost, some was destroyed by the elements, and some was even eaten by rats! Insanely, the $2 billion that became rodent lunch was not even a dent in the grand scheme of his lifetime earnings.

These opposing views made it difficult to convict him, so they negotiated a surrender. Pablo and his crew would put an end to their drug reign and in exchange, they would not be tried in the U.S.

It definitely doesn’t sound like the kind of prison we are all familiar with. Many believe that this “prison” was actually built to keep his enemies out rather than keep Pablo in. 

It is home to many life-sized dinosaur models, his collection of classic cars, and a wildlife sanctuary. Ironically, this murderous drug loard’s home is now called a “family-friendly” attraction.

He promised to pay off his home country’s debts if he would be exempt from an extradition treaty. In other words, he would pay $10 billion if the government agreed not to ship him off to the U.S. to answer for his crimes.

In December of 1993, at the age of 44, Pablo was shot and killed by the police. The shot that killed him went through his ear, leg, and torso. Thus, a gruesome end to an incredibly violent life.

He built homes for the poor communities and donated to the less fortunate of his country. Some of the people who attended his funeral even refer to him as a “saint” for all the blessings he brought to them. This is a huge reason why he became such a controversial figure.

The name change was not a way to distance himself from his father as he proclaimed that he wanted to grow the “family business” to avenge his father’s death. But he later had a change of heart and created positive relationships with many Colombian officials.

This was a group that functioned as a drug cartel and a criminal group that terrorized Columbia. The group was just the beginning of a career of drug and crime that went on until he died.

He aimed to gain the support of the poor communities by building new homes, a soccer field, and a sanitation system. He attended multiple Congressional hearings but his Congressional career quickly ended when his criminal career became public.

Many of his riches still remain hidden in warehouses. It is estimated that a little over $2 billion of his stash decays away yearly as it sits unused and hidden! People still try to find these lost riches, but to no success so far.

The two main groups that opposed Pablo and his cartel were the Cali Cartel and the Los Pepes. Los Pepes was actually a group that was formed from Escobar’s enemies to try to take him down.

Some people believe that Pablo also assumed that some of his infamous drug rivals were on board the flight as well. Whatever the case, he was responsible for the more than 100 fatalities from the bomb.

On the same trip, he actually took the family to Disneyworld as well. You would never know by looking at these photos that the man acquired billions of dollars and killed thousands of people in his line of business. An unlikely trip for the richest drug lord of all time.

He spent so much on them because he needed the bands to hold his paper bills money together and organize them. Imagine making so much money that you have to spend about $30,000 on rubber bands every year! That is some people’s annual salary!

Her brother, on the other hand, has become more close to the public. Some people think that her avoidance of crowds and social media might be because she suffers from clinical depression.

When Pablo Escobar was finally taken down, his rival cartel, the Cali Cartel essentially picked up where he left off. They basically reigned until the 1990s when other groups took over.

He provided a lot of funding to the team so that they could recruit the best players to his home team, Atletico Nacional. Many other cartels also supported rival soccer teams, so this was not completely out of the norm.

This included an airstrip for planes, hotels, boats, and warehouses to store cocaine. The island was used to transport drugs for 4 years before it was purchased by someone else. The island was located in the Bahamas and is surrounded by stunning blue waters.

The cocaine was often snuck into the plane tires, which no one ever thought to check. When the world of cocaine started to heat up and the war on drugs was ever prevalent in Columbia Pablo switched his mode of transportation and smuggled some of the white powder in submarines.

Maria’s family was not supportive of the relationship as they feared for her daughter. They did not want her being married to someone who was growing to become the most feared drug lord on the planet. But, nevertheless, the couple eloped against Maria’s family’s wishes.

Outside of that, there are still billions of dollars that have all but vanished. When the heat on Pablo started to grow, and he was forced to go on the run, the criminal hid much of his money and it has still yet to be found.

He was obviously extravagant, but they noticed some odd trends throughout homes. For instance, he liked very pristine and well-proportioned bathrooms. Each bathroom was sparkly clean and extremely neat. One was built to be a bunker with 3 feet thick cement walls.

When they developed the film they found pictures of Pablo on “wanted posters” that he had created himself. The fugitive enjoyed the fact that authorities would scramble to find him and take him down.

He kept many of these kinds of cartoons around his home to essentially mock the U.S. government. It was as if he was daring them to bust him. And eventually, he was busted.

He had many books on how to care for and train pigeons to be your own personal mail carriers. These birds carried messages back and forth between Pablo and his associates outside of La Catedral.

This was proven true when his home was raided and officials found self-written books, clippings from news headlines that were about him, and tons of letters from his enemies. He was very meticulous about organizing the letters from his enemies, as if he was prepared to strike them at any time.

The two men lived even though they had a $300,000 bounty on their heads in Columbia. They look back on the adventure and the encounter with Escobar as if it were a dream.