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from something I found:
"It enriches beyond one's imagination two dozen or so insatiable cocaine kingpins in Colombia. Two cartels in that scenic South American nation of 70 million, the largest in the city of Medellin (pronounced May-day-een) and the second in Cali, a prominent industrial center, satisfy 80% of the $70-billion-a-year cocaine habit. That works out to about $6.4 million a day in income for each drug lord. "
and this was in 1989
"There are business expenses, of course, including the widespread bribery of Colombia's 200,000 law enforcement officers and the assassination of honest judges, but the profits remain enormous. And tax-free."
"The drug lords make so much money that they don't count it," says Michael Mullen, deputy chief of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. ''They weigh it using a simple formula: 20 pounds of $100 bills equals almost $1 million"
Talking about some drug lords houses:
"But the compound has some interesting extras: two helipads, a children's playground with seemingly enough slides, swings, ramps and ropes to entertain half the kids in Watts, and an open-air amusement room that could ^ hold 100 guests. The amusements: a bar, billiard and pool tables trimmed with red lacquer and brass, and a Wurlitzer jukebox."
"Seven living rooms, each in a different style, are packed with expensive furniture, a real stuffed lion and a lion-skin rug, plus hundreds of Lladro porcelain figurines that cost $2,000 to $3,000 each."
"The medicine cabinets are bigger than some hospital dispensaries. Army officials say they didn't find any cocaine or other illicit substances when they confiscated the houses. Instead, they turned up nearly every over- the-counter drug imaginable. For example, two cupboards in the Cali mansion of Hernando Restrepo, sought by the Colombian police for alleged drug trafficking, contained about 500
boxes of Preparation H. ''Drug traffickers must be under a lot of stress,''
"Restrepo is undoubtedly the Imelda Marcos of underpants. In six drawers, organized by color (white, blue, black, skin-tone and red-and-white polka dot, for example) were more than 200 pairs of bikinis. He also has more than 100 shirts, 50 suits and too many pairs of slacks to count."
"After paying $63 million in 1979 for the 7,000-acre ranch that lies 80 miles east of Medellin, he almost immediately ordered up some 20 man-made lakes on which he deployed his 12 boats and two jet skis. Until the army confiscated the ranch two months ago, a small airplane, which supposedly carried his first cocaine shipment, sat atop his entrance gate; the Colombian army has since destroyed the plane. Still on display on the grounds, however, is a bullet-riddled 1920s Packard, said to have once belonged to this country's most notorious purveyor of illegal substances, Al Capone."
"So in 1983 he stocked a quarter of the ranch with giraffes, camels, rhinos, hippos, lions and dozens of other beasts -- and added replicas of dinosaurs to keep them company."
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