Colombia is planning to relocate 70 of Pablo Escobar's "cocaine hippos" to Mexico and India in the coming months.

According to CNN, moving the so-called "cocaine hippos" to overseas sanctuaries will cost $3.5 million.

In a statement released on Wednesday, Colombian officials said it is part of a deal that the local government of Antioquia signed with various institutions, including Colombia's Agricultural Institute and Air Force and the Ostok Sanctuary in Mexico, where 10 hippos will be transported.

The remaining 60 hippos will reportedly be transferred to a sanctuary in India. The move was decided after it was learned that sending the hippos back to their native Africa risks upsetting the local ecosystem.

The deal will include building boxes and cover air transport costs for the hippos. The hippos would need to be professionally anesthetized before they can be relocated, and it is reportedly costly as the drugs required to anesthetize large animals are expensive. 

The government of Colombia estimated that there are now between 130 and 160 of the hippos, and they continued to spread out beyond the notorious drug lord's former ranch of Hacienda Napoles.

READ NEXT: Pablo Escobar's Hippos Now Being Sterilized With Money Taken From Drug Traffickers 

'Cocaine Hippos' Poisoning Waterways in Colombia

Scientists said the "cocaine hippos" of the descendants of Pablo Escobar's former pets are reportedly invading Colombia's waterways and poisoning wildlife with their toxic urine and feces.

Escobar reportedly bought four hippos from a California zoo in the early 1980s and illegally imported them to Colombia.

The drug kingpin owned a 7,000-acre state that included a personal zoo. Authorities took control of it after he was killed in a police shootout in 1993. 

Most animals have already found homes in other zoos, but the four so-called "cocaine hippos" escaped. Decades later, their numbers grew as they roamed the wetlands north of Bogota. 

Scientists said these hippos, which are not native to Colombia, must be culled to stop their rapidly growing population and preserve the ecosystem. 

They warned that hippos are likely to colonize habitats around the country, with serious environmental impact. They said hippos are known to be the largest invasive animal in the world.

These hippos at Escobar's Hacienda Napoles ranch had been a cause for concern in 2020 due to how their feces affected the water they resided in.

According to a 2021 study published in the journal Biological Conservation, researchers said the hippos' excrement fertilized the growth of cyanobacteria or blue-green algae and threatened the water quality.

The study noted that "our models predicted that the worst-case scenario would occur if no management strategies are implemented: the population will continue positively growing, with potential ecologic and socio-economic long-lasting negative effects."

Colombian biologist Nataly Castelblanco-Martínez told BBC that if some of the hippos were not killed now, "the situation could be out of control in just 10 or 20 years." Scientists believe that this is the biggest hippo herd outside Africa.

'Cocaine Hippos' of Colombian Drug Kingpin Pablo Escobar

Pablo Escobar was once the seventh richest man in the world, with an estimated $59 billion in today's money. He was known to control 80 percent of the cocaine that was shipped to the United States.

The Medellin Cartel leader liked to buy exotic animals for his private zoo, which included the four hippos he kept outside his mansion in Doradal.

The "cocaine hippos" were originally three females and one male, which then bore more hippos, causing the population to rise.

According to the study, their population could swell to nearly 1,500 individuals by 2040, making their numbers impossible to control and their environmental impact irreversible. 

Hippos are considered to be the world's deadliest large land mammal, with the specie estimated to have killed 500 people per year in Africa. They are aggressive creatures and weigh up to 2,750 kilograms.

READ MORE: Drugs Labeled With Pablo Escobar's Image Seized in Chile

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Mary Webber

WATCH: India to Get Pablo Escobar's "Cocaine Hippos" From Colombia | Vantage with Palki Sharma - From Firstpost