Escobar ‘burned £1.2 million in cash…

By GERARD COUZENS

Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar burnt more than £1million to keep his daughter warm during a single night on the run, it has emerged.

The infamous cocaine baron lit a bonfire using wads of U.S. dollars at a mountain hideout while he was being hunted by authorities, his son has claimed.

Sebastian Marroqumn, who has changed his name from Juan Pablo Escobar, said his father burnt the notes when he realised daughter Manuela was suffering from hypothermia.

Cocaine baron: Pablo Escobar, dressed as his hero, the outlaw Pancho Villa, in an undated file photo

They also used the fire, fuelled using $2million dollars (£1.2 million) to prepare food.

Sebastian, who moved with his family to Argentina after his father’s death 15 years ago, made the shocking revelation in an interview with Colombian magazine ‘Don Juan.’

He also revealed the security-mad billionaire bought his own taxi firm to find out when outsiders arrived in their native Medellin, and moved his family every 48 hours between 15 hideaways he had all over the city.

He even blindfolded them before each move so that they could never work out the whereabouts of each house and give the locations to torturers if they were captured, Marroqumn said.

Family man: A 1983 photo of Escobar with his wife Victoria Henao, the mother of Escobar’s son Sebastian Marroqumn, who changed his name from Juan Pablo Escobar

Escobar, head of the infamous Medellin Cartel, was shot dead in December 1993 as he tried to escape police.

At the height of his power in 1989, he was ranked the 7th richest man in the world by Forbes magazine with an estimated £18billion fortune.

While an enemy of the U.S. and Colombian governments, he was a hero to many in Medellin where he distributed money to the poor.

Some claim U.S. military snipers took part in the final hunt for Escobar, mounted after he escaped in 1992 from a private prison in Colombia.

He had the prison built under an agreement he would remain there for five years and avoid extradition to the States.

Originalmente publicado en28 June, 2012 @ 6:27 pm