The demolition of a Miami mansion once owned by Pablo Escobar has thrown up a surprise with the discovery of a giant safe found hidden in the building’s foundations.
Escobar, the Colombian druglord that is the subject of Netflix hit Narcos, died in a shootout in Medellin in 1993.
The decision to demolish his former property was taken by its current owner, Christian de Berdouare, in order to make way for a more modern building.
Safe found at demolished home of drug lord Pablo Escobar @MiamiHerald @sncandido pic.twitter.com/fjoPwSi9Wk
— CM Guerrero (@cmgmia) January 25, 2016
The pink mansion was confiscated by the US government six years before Escobar’s death and later sold at auction.
The white safe, discovered last week, has already been scanned with a metal detector, but officials have failed to get inside it.
A happy Christian de Berdouare sits on top of a safe found at Pablo Escobar's old mansion @MiamiHerald pic.twitter.com/tSpzh4gruo
— CM Guerrero (@cmgmia) January 25, 2016
This isn’t the first safe to have been found at the site, although the first one that was discovered was stolen soon after it was found.
“It was in the ground under some marble and was discovered by some of our workers, but before we even had a chance to remove it, it was stolen, so we’ve been working with police on that,” Jennifer Valoppi, the building’s co-owner told the BBC.