Indian billionaire’s son wants to save Pablo Escobar’s Cocaine Hippos from being euthanized by the Columbian government

Anant Ambani, the youngest son of India’s richest man Mukesh Ambani, has offered to relocate 80 of Pablo Escobar’s infamous cocaine hippos from Colombia to his Vantara animal sanctuary in India instead of letting the Colombian government euthanize them.

A billionaire’s kid swooping in to save drug lord hippos from execution is not the headline I expected to be writing today but here we are.

Not familiar with Cocaine Hippos? Let me fill you in.

Back in the early 1980s, Pablo Escobar imported four hippos from the United States to his private zoo at Hacienda Napoles in Colombia. Three females and one male. When Escobar was killed in 1993, the hippos were abandoned on the property. Nobody bothered to deal with them.

They escaped into the Magdalena River and with zero natural predators in Colombia, they did what any unsupervised animal population does by fucking their way to the top of the food chain.

There are now somewhere between 170 and 200 hippos roaming the Colombian countryside. They’re invasive, they’re destroying local ecosystems, and they’re genuinely dangerous to the people who live near the waterways.

Colombia approved killing up to 80 of them because at a certain point, the population becomes unmanageable. Hippos are massive, territorial, and kill more people in Africa every year than almost any other large animal. Having 200 of them loose in a country that was never supposed to have hippos at all is a real problem.

Unfortunately, Cocaine Hippos don’t even do Cocaine.

Before anyone asks, no, unfortunately the hippos are not actually on cocaine, which makes them way less cool than they actually are.

The nickname comes from the fact that they belonged to Pablo Escobar and his entire fortune was built on the cocaine trade. The animals themselves were never drugged. They just escaped and went feral after their owner got shot on a rooftop in Medellin.

They’re called cocaine hippos because it sounds better than “abandoned zoo hippos that nobody dealt with for 30 years.”

Someone should confirm that with Mr. Anant Ambani and see if his plans to relocate change. My guess is that he thought he would round up a couple sweet, delicious cocaine-filled hippos and play “rescue” by transporting them to his private sanctuary where he would eat cocaine hippo mean and snort lines off these drug-fueled beasts.

I only say that because it’s exactly what I would do.

The Relocation Plan

Ambani’s offer is backed by Reliance Industries, which is his family’s massive conglomerate, and the plan is described as a “scientifically-led translocation” with full veterinary oversight. Vantara is Ambani’s animal rescue and rehabilitation center in India and apparently he believes he can house 80 hippos there safely.

I have no idea if moving 80 hippos across the globe is logistically feasible or if this is just a billionaire’s kid making a grand gesture for publicity. Hippos are one of the most dangerous animals on earth and each one weighs between 3,000 and 4,000 pounds.

Cocaine Hippos to be rescued

JUST IN: Son of Indian billionaire offers to relocate Pablo Escobar's “cocaine hippos” instead of letting the Colombian government euthanize them.

— Polymarket (@Polymarket) April 28, 2026

Transporting 80 fake cocaine hippos them from the Colombian jungle to India sounds like the plot of Free Willy knock off movie. They really need to pump these beats up with cocaine and make it interesting.

Jokes aside, if the alternative is killing the cocaine hippos, I’m rooting for the billionaire and his hippo rescue mission. Those hippos didn’t ask to be born in Colombia. They’re just living their best lives in a river system that can’t support them because a drug lord thought it would be cool to have exotic animals in his backyard 40 years ago.

If some rich kid from India wants to fly them halfway around the world and give them a new home, let him try. Worst case scenario, at least the hippos got to see India before the Colombian government put them down.

This is the kind of story that reminds you the world is an absolutely insane place and nothing that happens on any given day should surprise you anymore. Cocaine hippos getting rescued by a billionaire’s son. What a time to be alive.

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