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The 'king of cocaine' once torched $2 million to keep his family warm

Amanda Macias   

The 'king of cocaine' once torched $2 million to keep his family warm

escobar y su nino

Sins of my Father

Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar and his son Juan Pablo.

The son of the notorious Medellín cartel boss Pablo Escobar claimed his father once torched $2 million in crisp banknotes just to keep the family warm.

As the child of one of the wealthiest drug lords in history, Juan Pablo Escobar, 38, who has since changed his name to Sebastian Marroqui­n, grew up amid immense luxury and narcotrafficking violence.

In a 2009 interview with Don Juan magazine, Marroquin described what life was like on the run with the "king of cocaine" whose cartel supplied 80% of the world's cocaine and brought in an estimated $420 million a week in revenue.

According to Marroquin, the family was living in a hideout in the Medellín mountainside when Escobar's daughter Manuela became hypothermic.

Escobar decided to burn $2 milllion in cash to keep his family warm.

According to the interview, the paranoid cocaine baron had his family blindfolded and relocated every 48 hours between 15 different hideways throughout Medellín because he didn't wnat them to know where they were.

Once the family arrived at a designated home, they were instructed to inspect the site in fine detail to see if they recognized the area. If they did, they were immediately relocated and the site was eliminated as a future hideout, Don Juan reported.

In the case that Escobar's relatives were captured and tortured, they would not be able to divulge information about the locations of their hideouts simply because they were never allowed to know where they were being kept.

pablo escobar family

Sins of my Father

Pablo Escobar with his wife Maria Victoria, son Juan Pablo, and daughter Manuela Escobar.

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