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Medellin Cartel Founder Returns to Colombia After Long U.S. Sentence
Fabio Ochoa Vasquez, a significant figure in the infamous Medellin drug cartel, has returned to Colombia following the completion of a more than 20-year prison sentence in the United States for drug trafficking. Now 67 years old, he was deported by U.S. authorities and arrived in Bogotá on Monday, now a free man.
Ochoa was one of the cartel’s founding members and served as a senior lieutenant under the notorious drug lord Pablo Escobar. The Medellin cartel, which dominated the cocaine trade in the late 20th century, was notorious for its violent confrontations with the Colombian government prior to Escobar’s death in 1993.
Upon his arrival in Bogotá, the Colombian immigration agency confirmed that Ochoa’s fingerprints were checked against their database, finding no outstanding warrants against him. They noted that he was released to reunite with his family.
Surrounded by reporters at the airport, Ochoa embraced his family members, including a heartfelt reunion with his daughter.
His journey back to Colombia began in 2001 when he was arrested in the country in 1999 alongside approximately 30 other suspected traffickers. Prior to his detention, Ochoa served a sentence in Colombia during the early 1990s for his leadership role within the Medellin cartel. He and his brothers were among the first major traffickers to take advantage of a policy that offered reduced legal consequences for cartel members who confessed to lesser crimes in exchange for protection against U.S. extradition.
After being released from prison in 1996, Ochoa was apprehended once more during a crackdown on drug trafficking known as the Millennium operation. This led to his conviction in 2003, where he received a lengthy sentence of over 30 years in a U.S. court due to his involvement in smuggling large quantities of cocaine—averaging 30 tonnes per month—into the United States between 1997 and 1999.
During the peak of the Medellin cartel’s power in the 1980s, Ochoa was a leading figure in Escobar’s operations, with the cartel reportedly responsible for supplying around 80% of the cocaine consumed in the United States at the time.
The Medellin cartel, along with its rival Cali cartel, was among the most formidable and feared drug trafficking organizations of the 1980s. Their reign was marked by extreme violence, including bombings and targeted killings, which eventually led to a temporary halt in extradition agreements between Colombia and the United States, a situation that was only resumed in 1997.
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