Ferraris, private planes, Chanel shoes—these are just some of the luxury objects that have been confiscated from drug cartels, paramilitaries, and guerrillas by the Colombian government in recent years. The enormous mansion of the famous cartel leader Gonzalo Rodriguez Gacha, killed in the 1980s, still lies empty in an upscale neighborhood of Bogotá. Three commercial airplanes belonging to an extradited trafficker are abandoned in a hangar. The Colombian government doesn't know what to do with thousands of objects and properties that, if sold, would bring needed money to its coffers. Legalizing them takes years and selling them is proving very hard. After all, who wants to buy 100 pair of luxury brand shoes that belonged to a woman connected to the drug cartels? Who wants a portrait of Pablo Escobar with other famous drug lords, or be singled out for riding in the $250,000 black Ferrari of the dangerous drug trafficker "Rasguño"?
Read it at La Semana (in Spanish)
