Former Pablo Escobar – Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia”>Medellín Cartel Leader Fabio Ochoa Returns to Colombia After 26 Years
At 3:53 PM on December 23, a plane from the United States touched down at Bogotá’s El Dorado Airport, carrying Fabio Ochoa, the former chief of the Medellín Cartel, deported after serving several years in a U.S. prison. Ochoa, now 67, was greeted by Migración Colombia agents, his first images showing him wearing a bulletproof vest, a grey sweatshirt, glasses, and silver hair, a stark contrast to his previous deportation appearance, when he looked younger and slimmer.
Arriving with other deportees on a Global X Airbus 320 flight from Alexandria, Louisiana, Ochoa carried a bag of documents. Ironically, Global X was also the airline that brought former paramilitary chief Salvatore Mancuso to Colombia in February. After completing migratory controls, Ochoa underwent verification of his judicial antecedents to check for existing arrest warrants. Minutes later, he was released around 5 PM to rejoin his family.
Originally part of the Medellín Cartel alongside Pablo Escobar and Carlos Lehder, Ochoa was convicted in the U.S. for sending nearly 30 tons of cocaine between 1997 and 1999, serving 26 years before his release in early December. He was also implicated in the 1986 assassination of Barry Seal, a pilot and DEA informant.
Ochoa’s older brothers are Juan David, Jorge Luis, and Martha Nieves. Together with his brothers, then aged 24, he joined the Medellín Cartel, having previously smuggled half a kilo of cocaine into the U.S. in 1974.
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