Swedish fraudster behind fake Escobar merch receives four-year prison term
Olof Kyros Gustafsson, the Swedish conman who marketed counterfeit Pablo Escobar-branded products, was sentenced to four years in federal prison and ordered to forfeit at least $1.3 million.
The 32-year-old Swedish national Olof Kyros Gustavsson, known as “El Silencio,” headed Escobar Inc., a company that claimed to offer Pablo Escobar-themed merchandise such as flamethrowers modeled after Elon Musk’s Boring Company product and Samsung Galaxy Fold phones encased in gold foil. Customers never received the items; instead they were sent certificates or promotional material to block refunds. After a guilty plea in July 2025, a Los Angeles federal judge sentenced him to four years behind bars, levied a $25,000 fine and ordered the return of at least $1.3 million kept in accounts across the United States, Sweden and the United Arab Emirates.
The fraud was uncovered following a YouTube investigation that prompted the FBI to request evidence. Gustafsson had been extradited from Spain in 2023 and has been in U.S. custody since March 2025.
Why it matters
The case highlights how online scams exploit celebrity and criminal notoriety to defraud consumers worldwide.
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