Ladies, flamethrowers and Pablo Escobar.
That’s the dream Swedish conman Olof Kyros Gustafsson bought to followers in search of a bit of the notorious Colombian drug lord as head of an organization that owned his persona and legacy.
However the fraudster often called “El Silencio” did not ship the wild Escobar-branded merchandise he marketed, incomes incomes him a four-year federal jail sentence introduced Friday.
A Los Angeles court docket additionally ordered the 32-year-old Friday to offer again the proceeds of his fraud schemes, totaling at the least $1.3 million. He additionally has been fined $25,000.
Gustafsson beforehand pleaded responsible in July 2025 to a myriad of fraud and money-laundering fees.
He served as the top of Escobar Inc., which presupposed to promote merchandise branded with the cartel king’s identify and initials.
Its advertising and marketing supplies confirmed scantily clad girls holding flamethrowers and gold smartphones linked to the drug lord.
The flamethrowers have been copies of Elon Musk’s “Not a Flamethrower” product from his Boring Firm, in accordance with Gustafsson’s plea settlement. And the telephones have been Samsung Galaxy Fold Telephones wrapped in gold foil.
However shoppers — apart from some YouTube tech reviewers who noticed purple flags related to the gold telephones — by no means obtained any merchandise.
“These folks have been getting scammed out of their cash,” YouTuber Marques Brownlee stated in a July 2024 video about Escobar Inc. “Actually, in hindsight, I don’t know the way they thought they have been gonna get away with this. Prefer it felt fairly apparent to me.”
Brownlee stated the FBI turned up and requested him for the gold telephone and any communication he had with the corporate.
Officers stated the merchandise, outdoors of the promotional spots, by no means existed.
As a substitute of sending the merchandise to shoppers, Gustafsson despatched a “Certificates of Possession,” a ebook, or different Escobar Inc. promotional supplies so there was a “report of mailing from the corporate to the client,” the sentencing doc says.
He had accomplished that so the Escobar followers couldn’t obtain a refund.
“When a paying buyer tried to acquire a refund when the product was by no means delivered, Gustafsson fraudulently referred the cost processor to the proof of mailing for the Certificates of Possession or different materials as proof that the product itself was shipped and that the client had obtained it so the refund requests can be denied,” the doc says.
The Swede saved the funds in abroad accounts within the US, Sweden and the United Arab Emirates.
Spain extradited him in 2023 again to the US, and he has been in federal custody since March 2025. He got here to his plea settlement possible as a result of he was going through a most sentence of 20 years in federal jail for every fraud-related depend and as much as 10 years for every cash laundering-related depend.
In a March 2025 interview with Swedish outlet Aftonbladet, Gustafsson bemoaned Sweden’s lack of safety from Spain extraditing him. He had sought asylum in Spain to keep away from extradition, in accordance with the outlet.
“I feel it’s horrible, Sweden doesn’t extradite to the US, and Swedish authorities haven’t protected me in any respect,” he advised the outlet.
He claimed the US was going to make use of “interrogation strategies” to “get details about Pablo Escobar’s household.”
Nonetheless, he stated he “anticipated” to be extradited.
“However it’s no enjoyable to go to a jail within the US by drive,” he stated.
