Wiz Khalifa slammed by Colombian mayor for Pablo Escobar tribute

Wiz Khalifa has infuriated the Mayor of Medellin, Colombia by visiting the grave of drug trafficker Pablo Escobar.

The 29-year-old rapper performed in Colombia's capital Bogota on Friday (24Mar17) but after the gig traveled to Medellin to pay his respects to the notorious drug lord, posting a picture of flowers placed on Escobar's grave on Instagram.

Escobar is a controversial figure in the country, which he terrorized in the 1980s and 1990s through bribery, kidnap and murder. He was killed in 1993 in a firefight while on the run from authorities.

And Medellin's Mayor Federico Gutierrez was not amused by Wiz's gesture, branding him a "scoundrel" and telling newspaper El Colombiano that the musician should "offer apologies to the city" and honor Escobar's victims, not the drug lord.

As the head of the Medellin Cartel, Escobar earned billions of dollars from the drug trade, smuggling vast quantities of cocaine into the U.S.

Initially thought of as a local hero due to the funding he provided for social projects in Medellin, his organization's willingness to engage in murder plunged the country into violent turmoil, with politicians, judges and police officers targeted by the Medellin Cartel.

Photographs posted on Wiz's Instagram page included pictures of flowers and a marijuana joint placed next to Escobar's grave stone, as well as the rapper posing in front of Escobar's old Medellin apartment.

Wiz has never kept his marijuana use a secret, and even has is own strain of the drug, marketed from the U.S. state of Colorado, where marijuana is legal, under the name Khalifa Kush.

Escobar's extraordinary story, which saw him become one of the world's wealthiest men, has returned to prominence in recent years, with the U.S. TV series Narcos documenting U.S. and Colombian authorities' attempts to bring him to justice.