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Site of Pablo Escobar’s Miami Mansion Up for Sale—Treasure Hunter Alert!

Drug kingpin Pablo Escobar was gunned down by Colombian authorities in 1993, but the location of a portion of his vast wealth remains a mystery.

A pile of Escobar’s cash is rumored to be located on the grounds of the Miami Beach, FL, property he once owned—in fact, two safes were found when the residence was razed in 2016.

“But we’ve only excavated a portion of the 30,000-square-foot lot,” says Christian de Berdouare, who recently put the now-vacant lot up for sale for $15.9 million.

Escobar was notorious for hiding his loot in the walls of his houses, and also burying it under the floors and on the grounds of his various estates. De Berdouare says he’s had professional treasure hunters take a look at the lot, and they detected plenty of subterranean “activity,” especially under the giant 100-year-old banyan tree.

But potential treasure isn’t the sole reason for the lot’s premium price. There are plans to build a 14,000-square-foot mansion in place of the pink 7,336-square-foot home Escobar bought in March 1980 for $762,500. De Berdouare says the current vacant lot listing is a sort of teaser to get people interested in the property.

As if the two safes found on the lot weren’t enough to grab attention. In fact, the property’s generated enough curiosity that de Berdouare signed a contract with Lincoln Square Productions, which plans to make a documentary on the former Escobar property. The deal he signed with the production company prevents him from saying anything about the contents of the safes.

What we do know is two safes were found on the property, and one was stolen. The one still in de Berdouare’s possession weighs between 600 and 700 pounds and has yet to be opened. There’s speculation that the contents might be revealed on television.

It isn’t known how much time Escobar spent on the property, but it’s likely the waterfront property was used as a hideout by Escobar’s henchmen and as a landing point for extraordinary amounts of cocaine. Some of the wealth generated by these illicit dealings is still unaccounted for—hence the interest in this lot.

Escobar owned the property until 1987, when U.S. authorities confiscated it along with $20 million in properties the Colombian drug dealer owned across Florida. An attorney bought the home from the U.S. government in 1990 for $915,000, and left the mansion pretty much as he found it. In 2014 he sold it to de Berdouare for $9.65 million. Left uninhabited, the property was burned and vandalized—with large holes gouged in the walls.

But de Berdouare knows the value of the property isn’t tied to potential buried treasure, or even in its connection to Escobar.

According to de Berdouare, the true value lies in its location, which offers sunset and city views; its 160 feet of waterfront; and its proximity to downtown Miami, South Beach, the design district, and the airport. “It’s one of the premier streets in Miami Beach,” he says. “They call it ‘Millionaires Row.’”

De Berdouare, who founded the Chicken Kitchen fast-food chain, told us his interest in real estate and design came out of his experience as a restaurateur, because he designed each one of his 25 locations.

If the Escobar lot doesn’t sell, de Berdouare intends to build perhaps his most ambitious project yet: a seven-bedroom modern home with a gym, library, and movie theater, among other luxury features. If he builds it, he plans to list the place for around $36 million—and he’ll consider throwing the Escobar safe in as part of the deal.

We asked him if he’d be sorry if the safe wound up holding cash, gold, and jewels.

“Oh I’ll keep the safe’s contents,” he says with a laugh. “The buyer would just get the safe.”

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