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The Independent UK
The Independent UK
National
Colin Drury

Video shows British tourist 'snorting cocaine' off drug lord Pablo Escobar's grave

A British tourist appears to have been filmed snorting cocaine off the gravestone of notorious South American drug lord Pablo Escobar, .

The man is seen kneeling at the tomb in Itagui, Colombia.

He empties a bag of white powder onto the memorial stone, before using a rolled up £5 note to inhale the substance.

The video was posted on the HMP Jail Banter Facebook page by ex-inmate Steven Semmens, as reported by The Sun. A caption below read: “Line of coke off Pablo Escobar’s grave, straight out of Swansea prison.”

The footage has since been removed.

After apparently snorting the substance, he looks back up to the camera and declares, “'I'm Gordon Ramsay, mate” – an apparent reference to the celebrity chef's 2017 documentary about cocaine.

Drug baron Escobar was shot dead by police in 1993, bringing a bloody end to his 17 years as head of the ruthless Medellin Cartel which he himself founded.

At one point his operation – which is estimated to have killed some 3,500 people – is said to have controlled more than 80 per cent of the cocaine shipped to the US from South America.

It earned Escobar the rank of one of Forbes Magazine's ten wealthiest people in the world. His fortune was though to stand at £18 billion. 

In recent years, guided cocaine tours have been run in the region taking in the notorious kingpin's grave. 

And Colombian officials have previously spoken out against international visitors using the grave for narcotic-themed photo opportunities. In March, the US rapper Wiz Khalifa was accused of "advocating crime" after posted a photograph to Instagram showing flowers and a marijuana joint next to Escobar's grave.

The mayor of Medellin, Federico Gutierrez, said Khalifa should have brought flowers to Escobar's victims instead.

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