The Drug Lord's Secretly Smuggled 'Pet Hippos'... Rapid Breeding Disrupts Ecosystem

Hippopotamuses secretly brought in as pets by a Colombian drug cartel boss have become a nuisance, disrupting the local ecosystem and threatening the safety of residents.

On the 12th (local time), according to Colombian daily El Tiempo and AFP, Colombian environmental authorities reported that one of the hippos bred from those illegally imported by the 'drug lord' Pablo Escobar died after colliding with a vehicle on a highway.

A hippopotamus swimming in the Magdalena River, Colombia last year
[Photo by AP Yonhap News]

Weighing about 1 ton, the hippo reportedly jumped onto the road connecting the capital Bogot? and Medell?n the previous evening and collided with a passing sport utility vehicle (SUV).

Authorities added that the vehicle occupants were not seriously injured.

Escobar was one of the main figures who stained Colombia in South America with drugs.

In the 1980s, he secretly brought hippos into his luxurious residence in Puerto Triunfo, Antioquia, and began raising them.

After Escobar's death in 1993, the properties he owned were transformed into tourist attractions, but the hippos were left abandoned in the nearby Magdalena River basin.

The hippos rapidly increased their population there, eventually becoming an invasive species disrupting the ecosystem with no natural predators. It is currently known that more than 150 hippos inhabit the area.

Antioquia is now planning and taking steps to transport nearly half, about 70 hippos, to Mexico and India.

The related budget is estimated to cost around 3.5 million dollars (4.6 billion won).

Meanwhile, a similar accident occurred in the area last December, but local media reported that the hippo did not die at that time.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.