Drug trafficking once led him to Forbes' list of billionaires – and later to prison. Now Fabio Ochoa Vásquez, the drug lord of the well-known Colombian Medellin cartel, has been released after 25 years.
He and his brothers are said to have amassed a fortune by smuggling cocaine into the USA in the 1980s and was even included in Forbes magazine's list of billionaires in 1987: After 25 years in prison, Fabio Ochoa Vásquez is one of the main actors famous Colombian Medellin drug cartel has been released from a US prison. This emerges from documents from the US prison authorities. Ochoa is expected to be deported to his homeland.
According to investigators, Ochoa was responsible for the distribution of the cocaine cartel, which was once led by Pablo Escobar, for many years. His life also played a role in the hit Netflix series “Narcos.”
Extradited to the USA in 2001
The now 67-year-old was first charged in the US for his alleged role in the 1986 murder of DEA informant Barry Seal, whose life was filmed in the 2017 film “American Made” starring Tom Cruise.
Ochoa was originally arrested in Colombia in 1990 as part of a government program not to extradite drug lords to the United States. At the time, he was on the US list of most wanted Colombian drug lords. In 2001, Ochoa was arrested again and extradited to the United States after drug smuggling charges were brought against him and another 40 people in Miami.
Of these individuals, he was the only one who chose to go to trial, which resulted in his conviction and an original 30-year prison sentence. The other defendants received significantly less prison sentences because most of them cooperated with the government.
“Will not retire a poor man”
Richard Gregorie, a retired assistant U.S. attorney who was part of the prosecution team at the time, told the AP that authorities were never able to seize all of the Ochoa family's illegal drug proceeds: “He's not going to be portrayed as a poor man Retire, that's for sure.”
