Former CIA agents has reportedly found one of drug kingpin Pablo Escobar’s cocaine smuggling submarines.
Escobar used submarines to transport cocaine from Colombia to Puerto Rico, after which it would be transported to the US mainland, and treasure hunters are
If the submarine is found, it could contain clues which may finally reveal the location of Escobar’s rumoured £50bn hidden fortune.
Treasure hunt: Former CIA agents are diving for one of Pablo Escobar’s cocaine smuggling submarines, hoping it may contain clues to his rumoured £50bn hidden fortune
Divers who used to work for the U.S. agency are exploring an unknown location off the coast of Colombia, the Sun reports.
A Discovery channel program has been following former CIA’s agents hunt for Escobar’s unconfirmed fortune.
In a clip from the show uploaded to Discovery UK’s channel on YouTube, ex-CIA agents Doug Laux and Ben Smith are seen diving off the coast, but not digging up anything of value.
Underwater cameras show them scouring the seabed and finding metal and a box, but no further clues to the cash.
However, the group conclude that the shifting seabed would have moved the wreckage and are still hoping to find it in the vicinity.
No luck yet: A video filmed for a Discovery Channel show sees ex-CIA agents Doug Laux and Ben Smith dive for clues off the Colombian coast
Still looking: The clip sees the pair conclude that the shifting seabed would have moved the wreckage and they are still hoping to find it in the vicinity
Pablo Escobar, whose life is depicted in the popular Netflix show Narcos, led the Medellin Cartel which supplied 80 per cent of the cocaine consumed in the U.S. in the 1980s.
Escobar began his criminal career as a teenager selling contraband cigarettes and stealing cars on the streets of Medellin in Colombia.
Kingpin: Escobar, who made £300m-a-week in the mid-80s, used submarines to transport cocaine from Colombia to Puerto Rico
He moved on to cocaine trafficking in the 1970s and became so successful that he had 15 planes and six helicopters to help smuggle the drugs into the U.S.
By the mid-1980s, Pablo Escobar’s cartel was bringing in $420m (£300m) a week, nearly $22 billion a year.
Most of his fortune Escobar stashed in cash in various locations, and reportedly had to spend $2,500 a month, about £1,900, on rubber bands, to keep his notes in order.
In 1989, he was listed as the seventh richest man in the world by Forbes Magazine, and had become known locally as a ‘Robin Hood’ figure, as he gave some of his money to the poor in Colombia and built housing for the homeless.
He was shot in December 1993, while trying to escape across nearby roofs with his bodyguard, Alvaro de Jesus Agudelo, who was also shot and killed.
However, some people have claimed that Escobar actually committed suicide after hiding the majority of his fortune at unknown locations as most of his money has never been found.
In 2009, $8 million (£5 million) had been discovered at a hidden complex built in the jungle, where there had been cocaine factories.
Christian de Berdouare, a chicken restaurant owner, who bought Escobar’s former Miami mansion in 2014 for $10million, believes there could be hidden treasure stashed inside the property.