A key figure in the Medellin drug cartel has made his way back to Colombia following a lengthy incarceration of over two decades in the United States for drug trafficking offences.
Fabio Ochoa Vasquez, aged 67, was deported by the US government and arrived in Bogota on Monday as a free man.
Ochoa emerged as a key figure among the founding members of the infamous cartel, serving as a senior lieutenant to the notorious drug lord Pablo Escobar.
The Medellin cartel held a significant grip on the cocaine trade, engaging in a brutal campaign against the Colombian government until the death of Pablo Escobar in 1993.
As confirmed by the country’s immigration agency, Upon his arrival in Bogota, immigration officials conducted a fingerprint analysis on Ochoa.
A statement confirmed that Colombian authorities do not seek Ochoa, who has been released “to be reunited with his family.”
In the bustling airport terminal, Ochoa was met by a throng of reporters as he embraced his daughter and reunited with family members.
In 2001, Ochoa was transported to the United States following his arrest in Colombia in 1999, where he was apprehended alongside approximately 30 other suspected traffickers.
In the early 1990s, he served a jail sentence in Colombia for his involvement as one of the leaders of the Medellin cartel. He, along with his brothers, became the first significant trafficker to surrender under a program that offered protection from extradition to the United States for cartel members who pleaded guilty to lesser offences in Colombia.
In 1996, Ochoa and his siblings were freed from incarceration; however, he faced arrest once more during the Millennium operation due to his participation in the cocaine smuggling trade in the United States during the late 1990s.
In 2003, Ochoa received a sentence exceeding 30 years in a US court due to his role in a cartel responsible for smuggling an average of 30 tonnes of cocaine into the United States each month from 1997 to 1999.
In the 1980s, he emerged as a leading figure within Escobar’s Medellin cartel, playing a crucial role as a supplier during a period when the organization controlled 80% of the cocaine market in the United States.
The Medellin cartel, now defunct, alongside the Cali cartel, emerged as one of the most formidable and notorious drug networks during the 1980s.
The violent campaigns characterized by bombings and assassinations resulted in a suspension of drug suspect extraditions between Colombia and the United States. This halt lasted until the process was resumed in 1997.