Elon Musk Has Officially Pissed Off Pablo Escobar’s Brother

In what is just another normal day of business for the circus over at Tesla, Roberto Escobar, former accountant to his druglord brother Pablo, has now vowed to “take down” Elon Musk, according to the Sun. 

The animosity stems from the allegation that Musk stole the idea for his “Not-A-Flamethrower” from Escobar during a visit to the Escobar compound in the summer of 2017. 

In January of 2018, Musk’s Boring Company released the large blowtorches that are shaped like guns. He named them “Not-A-Flamethrower” as a result of U.S. customs officials telling Musk they wouldn’t allow the sale of “flamethrowers” nationwide. All 20,000 of the products that were manufactured were sold out within days.

But Escobar says that he was the one who suggested the concept to Musk’s engineer months before they were released, inspired by his brother’s purported habit of burning money to keep warm.

Escobar launched his own flamethrower earlier this year and also threatened to sue Elon Musk for IP theft. Musk glibly jabbed back at Escobar on Twitter, reminding him that “It’s Not A Flamethrower, Mr. Escobar.”

Escobar now seems dead set on legal action. He told the Telegraph:

“We will soon file a $100 million case against him in America, and I will try my best to make sure he loses his stronghold in Tesla Inc. He knows exactly what he has done to us.”

His brother, Pablo Escobar, was one of the most well known Colombian drug lords who monopolized the trade of cocaine into the U.S. in the 1980’s and 1990’s. He was reportedly worth about 45 billion pounds at the time of his death, which made him the “wealthiest criminal in history”. 

Robert acted as co-founder of his brother’s cartel and was the organization’s accountant. 

But the real question here may lie behind the lede. Tesla skeptic Mark Spiegel astutely asked on Twitter:

The most bizarre thing about this story is that Musk never denied Escobar’s claim that one of his engineers visited Escobar’s compound in the summer of 2017.

WHY WOULD MUSK SEND AN ENGINEER TO VISIT PABLO ESCOBAR’S BROTHER??? https://t.co/6e71DjP21D

— Mark B. Spiegel (@markbspiegel) October 20, 2019