The last domicile of the Colombian drug baron Pablo Escobar in Medellín has been blown up. The eight floors of the building collapsed at noon. More than 1,500 people persecuted the destruction of this symbol of Latin American drug-related crime - including victims of Escobar.

The white, bunker-like building called Mónaco was the last home of Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar. Just over a year ago, the authorities had decided to raze the very run-down property in Escobar's hometown in recent years. A good 25 years after Escobar's death, it has now disappeared.

photo gallery


6 pictures

Blow Up by Pablo Escobar's Luxury Residence: Controversial Symbol

With the demolition, the authorities also want to curb the memory culture around the drug lord, who is despised by some and still revered the other. Although Escobar was one of the most wanted criminals in South America for years, many saw in the head of the Medellín cartel known for cocaine business a benefactor for the people of Colombian slums. Many people also earned money in the criminal affairs of the drug cartel. Escobar supporters and tourists made regular pilgrimages to the striking building until recently.

Renovation would have cost almost ten million euros

A renovation of the former luxury domicile would have cost the equivalent of almost ten million euros and the controversial symbol would have remained. The city administration now wants to set up a 5000-square-meter public park in honor of the tens of thousands of drug-related deaths and victims of Escobar's cartel at the place where the villa used to stand.

Manuel Villa, who is taking care of the demolition of the city council, called the Mónaco property in December an "anti-symbol". The children in Medellín should no longer wish "that they want to become Pablo Escobar when they grow up," he said. Mayor Federico Gutiérrez spoke of a "symbol of illegality" spoken. The Mónaco in the chic quarter El Poblado wore to the last traces of a car bomb attack of the enemy with Escobar Cali cartel in 1988.

Escobar and the Medellín cartel had controlled international cocaine smuggling in the 1980s and were responsible for the deaths of thousands of people. From September to December 1989 alone, Escobar had hundreds of car bombs detonated. For years, the violence of his drug cartel has determined public life in Colombia.

Most recently, the criminal, who for years was on the Forbes list of the world's richest people, lived in Mónaco. Escobar was shot in December 1993 at the age of 44 by a Colombian special unit on the roof of a residential building.