![]() ![]() "I don't like where these things come from," he says, referring to the jewels' narco past. ![]() The Escobar Rolex buyer says he's likely to erase the past of the things he bought at the auction and claims that he will melt down most of it to make new jewels. A bill making its way through Congress would streamline procedures and shorten the time to a maximum of 18 months. ![]() The fact that the Colombian government has been holding on to drug traffickers' things for so long points to the long and tortuous legal process of asset forfeiture, which can sometimes take as long as 10 years. ![]() In the case of the Escobar Rolex, that's unlikely: the capo of capos was shot dead on a rooftop in 1993 in Medellín, where the buyer is from. "You never know who might track you down and ask for their things back," he says, explaining his caution. "I don't trust banks," says the buyer, who asked to remain anonymous for security reasons. The bidder who went home with the Escobar watch, and about $50,000 worth of other gold jewellery, says he used his savings to make his purchases. On the block were paintings by renowned Colombian artists Alejandro Obregón, David Manzur and Luis Caballero. The silent auction held over two days in Bogotá aimed to clear out more than 20 years of artwork, jewellery and other goods seized from Colombia's colourful pantheon of flashy drug traffickers who couldn't spend their millions fast enough. With a sale value estimated at $70,000 (£43,000), it went to the highest bidder at Colombia's first warehouse auction of narco-goods for the equivalent of just $8,500 (£5,300).Ī knock-off Rolex that was owned by a Farc rebel commander known as Raúl Reyes, meanwhile, went for three times its street price. It's a wristwatch that could only have belonged to someone like Pablo Escobar: a solid gold Rolex encrusted with hundreds of fine diamonds. ![]()
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