These abandoned private islands of Colombian drug lords are rotting reminders of the once powerful multi-billion operations run by the likes of Pablo Escobar that supplied 30 percent of the world’s cocaine.
Dotted around the waters of Islas Del Rosario, the islands were once the weekend escapes for the bosses of the infamous Medellin and Cali cartels where they brushed shoulders with each in their 1980s heydays of political power and international money laundering.
Now the swimming pools and mansions and gardens have been left to nature and are part of the booming ‘Pablo Escobar tour’ industry which has sprung up in Colombia in the years following the shrinking of the deadly cartels.
Currently owned by the Government of Colombia, the centre piece of any tour to the coast off Cartagena is the mansion of Escobar, who was shot and killed by police during a chase to apprehend him in 1993.
