Pablo Escobar zoo to be Colombian tourist attraction

PUERTO TRIUNFO, Colombia (AFP) - A zoo built by drug kingpin Pablo Escobar and a symbol of the excesses of trafficking will become an attraction for environmental tourists, the Colombian government said.

Escobar, who once supplied most of the cocaine to the United States, furnished the Hacienda Napoles with exotic animals from Africa.

"A large part of the Hacienda Napoles will provide environmental tourism in the region, which will benefit the locals and attract a large number of tourists, domestic and international," Colombia's drug czar Alfonso Plazas told AFP.

Ownership of the farm, 400 kilometers (250 miles) northwest of Bogota, was disputed since Escobar's death in a hail of police bullets in December 1993.

Escobar was proud of Hacienda Napoles and entertained visitors there, smoking marijuana and stroking the animals.

He placed the first airplane he had used to ship cocaine to the United States atop the arched entranceway to the Hacienda Napoles.

A court found in February that the Colombian government could confiscate the hacienda because it had likely been paid for with drug money.

"What we would like to do here is build a tourist attraction and a museum of Colombian crime," Plazas said.

Escobar not only sold drugs but launched a war on the Colombian government to fight his extradition to the United States. His random bombings in Bogota shopping areas murdered hundreds, and his bounty for hundreds of police officers killed was 2,000 dollars.