Jorge Luis Ochoa Vázquez

Jorge Luis Ochoa Vázquez was a drug trafficker from Medellín, Colombia who helped found the notorious Medellín Cartel in the late 1970s. The cartel's key members were Pablo Escobar, Carlos Lehder, José Gonzalo Rodríguez Gacha, Jorge Ochoa and his brothers Juan David and Fabio.

Criminal career

Early years and the founding of the Medellín Cartel

Jorge Luis Ochoa Vázquez was the son of Fabio Ochoa Restrepo whose family was in the cattle-breeding and family restaurant businesses until they began trafficking narcotics during the mid 1970s. In 1976, Ochoa assumed leadership of what was basically an Ochoa family operation. Starting at least in 1978, his Miami contact was Rafael Cardona Salazar. Between 1981 and 1982 an alliance between the Ochoa family, Pablo Escobar, Carlos Lehder, and Rodríguez Gacha strengthened into what eventually became known as the Medellín Cartel. The traffickers cooperated in the manufacturing, distribution and marketing of their cocaine. In 1981, the kidnapping of Ochoa’s sister, Martha Nieves Ochoa Vasquez, by the Colombian guerilla organization M-19, which had previously kidnapped a son of Severo Abelardo Ortega consolidated their alliance. The traffickers formed a group known as Muerte a Secuestradores (MAS), (which means "Death to Kidnappers" in English) announcing the imminent execution of any guerrilla kidnappers. After being threatened with reprisals, Martha Nieves was released by M-19 unharmed several months later.

1984 - 1986

On April 30, 1984, Colombian Minister of Justice Rodrigo Lara Bonilla, who had crusaded against the Medellín cartel, was assassinated by a gang of motorcycle thugs. President Belisario Betancur who had previously opposed extradition of drug traffickers to the United States, announces "We will extradite Colombians." Carlos Lehder was the first to be put on the list. The crackdown forced Jorge Ochoa, Escobar and Rodriguez Gacha to flee to Panama for several months. While in Panama, Ochoa and Pablo Escobar met with former Colombian president Alfonso Lopez Michelson and offered their fortunes to avoid extradition. President Belisario Betancur refused, and a few months later, Escobar was indicted for Lara Bonilla's murder while the Ochoa brothers and Rodriguez Gacha are named as material witnesses.

On July 17, 1984, "The Washington Times" ran a story which details DEA informant Barry Seal's successful infiltration into the Medellín cartel's operations in Panama. The story was leaked by Oliver North to show the Nicaraguan Sandinista involvement in the illegal drug trade. Ten days later, Carlos Lehder, Pablo Escobar, Jorge Ochoa and Rodriguez Gacha were indicted by a Miami federal grand jury based on evidence obtained by Seal (On February 19, 1986, Seal was assassinated in Baton Rouge, Louisiana by gunmen hired by the cartel). On November 15, 1984, Jorge Ochoa was arrested by Spanish police in Madrid, on a U.S. warrant and both the U.S. and Colombia apply for his extradition. Soon after the Medellín cartel publicly threatened to murder five Americans for every Colombian extradition.

Ochoa was responsible for coordinating operations in the United States and Western Europe on behalf of the Medellín cartel. He claimed he shipped an average of 6 MT HCL per month during the early 1980s (until his 1984 arrest). Ochoa had also invested in major properties at Repelon, Atlántico Department, and Acandi in Uruba, Chocó Department, from where drugs were shipped to the United States. He was also part owner of the ill-fated Banco Ganadero (Gandero Bank) where he was represented on the board of directors by Federico Molina. Molina was also his surrogate on the board of Fadegan, the Antioquia livestock federation, and the state-owned company Vecol.

After 1986

On November 18, 1986, a Miami grand jury accused Ochoa of conspiracy to import HCL (1,452 pounds of cocaine) through Nicaragua in cooperation with Federico Vaughan, an aid to Nicaragua’s interior minister Tomás Borge. He was also an unindicted coconspirator in the murder of Barry Seal.

On July 14, 1986, a Spanish court decided to extradite Ochoa to stand trial in Colombia. On August 17, 1986, despite extradition requests from the U.S., Ochoa vanished after receiving a suspended sentence on charges of falsifying documents for importing fighting bulls from Spain. [Colombia Frees Suspect, "The New York Times", August 17, 1986]

On November 21, 1987, Jorge Ochoa was held in prison on the bull-smuggling charge for which he was extradited from Spain. Twenty-four hours later a gang of thugs arrived at the house of Juan Gomez Martínez, the editor of Medellín's daily newspaper "El Colombiano". They presented Martínez with a communique signed by "The Extraditables," which threatened execution of Colombian political leaders if Jorge Ochoa was extradited. On December 30, 1987 Ochoa was released from prison under dubious legal circumstances.

In 1987, Forbes Magazine listed Ochoa among the world's twenty richest people with an estimated worth near $3 billion dollars. In early 1988 an unknown entity calling itself the "Anti-Mafia Command of Carlos Mauro Hoyos", claimed it was going after the ranking Medellín cartel members headed by the Ochoa’s. Included in the list were José Gonzalo Rodríguez Gacha, Jario Mejia, Elkin Cano, Mara Ospina, Gustavo Gaviria, and the Cardenas brothers. In January 1988, the murder of Colombian Attorney General Carlos Mauro Hoyos was claimed by the Extraditables.

During September 1990, Colombian President Cesar Gaviria Trujillo offered drug traffickers reduced prison sentences to be served in Colombia, in order to entice them to surrender. Jorge Ochoa and his two brothers surrender to the Colombian police during January 1991. By July 1996, Jorge Ochoa and Juan David Ochoa are released after serving five-year prison sentences for drug trafficking.

ee also

*Cocaine Cowboys
*Pablo Escobar
*Medellín Cartel
*War on Drugs

Notes