The infamous Colombian drug lord Fabio Ochoa Vázques was released from a US prison last Tuesday, December 3.
The former senior figure in the notorious Medellín Cartel was freed after serving 25 years of his 30-year sentence.
Ochoa and his older brothers made a fortune trafficking cocaine from Colombia to the United States in the late 1970s and 1980s. The youngest of the three siblings will now be sent home to Colombia.
Fabio Ochoa Vázques, now 67, was first arrested in Colombia in 1990. At the time, he was one of Colombia’s richest men and he and his siblings were included on Forbes magazine’s rich list for six years in a row, from 1987 to 1992.
According to a New York Times report in 1995, Fabio was considered the “chief executive” of the family’s business despite being the youngest brother.
Fabio, alongside his siblings Jorge Luis and Juan David, controlled a large international network of cocaine production and trafficking.
Fabio was based in Miami and oversaw the distribution of cocaine from Colombia to the rest of the US.
The Ochoa brothers’ role in Colombia’s cocaine trade was re-popularized in the Netflix television series Narcos.
The siblings were portrayed as high-class children of an elite Antioquian horse breeding and ranching family. They were depicted in contrast to Pablo Escobar, who co-founded the Medellín Cartel and was known for his humble roots.
Fabio first went to prison in 1991 at the age of 37 after he turned himself in to Colombian authorities who were offering a plea deal to drug kingpins. He and his brothers all served a five-year sentence in Colombian jail cells in exchange for giving up their cocaine business.
But in 1999 Ochoa ran into trouble with the law again and was arrested for his role in cocaine trafficking.
Despite a high-profile publicity campaign to prevent his extradition, Ochoa was sent to the US to face trial.
He was sentenced to 30 years in prison but only served 25, including his prison stint in Colombia prior to extradition.
Despite being convicted, much of the profits of the Ochoa cocaine empire were never recovered by law enforcement authorities.
Richard Gregorie, who was part of the US legal team that prosecuted Ochoa, told the Associated Press that the drug lord will likely live comfortably upon his return home.
“He won’t be retiring a poor man, that’s for sure,” said the retired assistant U.S. attorney.
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