Pablo Escobar was killed in 1993 after dominating the cocaine trade in the Americas for the previous decade.
But the descendants of the notorious drug lord’s prized hippos live on in Colombia — and the nation’s government is struggling to control them.
Colombian officials agreed on April 13 to a plan that would cull about 80 of the “cocaine hippos,” which have become an invasive species.
Environment Minister Irene Vélez said the government previously tried to neuter the animals or move them to zoos — but the efforts have proven pricey and difficult, according to areportfrom CBS News.
“If we don’t do this we will not be able to control the population,” she remarked.
“We have to take this action to preserve our ecosystems.”
The New York Postreportedthat the Colombian government will spend nearly $2 million on the effort.
The expensive ecological encroachment continues because Escobar imported only four hippos to Columbia in the 1980s.
The now-deceased head of the Medellín Cartel owned a private zoo called Hacienda Nápoles in the Magdalena River valley.
The hippos, which are the only members of their species to exist in the wild outside of Africa, took quickly to the environment.
Source: VidNews » Feed
