Carlos Lehder
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Carlos Enrique Lehder Rivas, AKA Carlos Ledher (1950- ) co-founder of the Medellín Cartel and one of the most important operators therein, is considered to be the most important Colombian drug kingpin to be successfully prosecuted in the United States. Born in the USA of mixed Colombian-German descent, Lehder eventually ran a cocaine transport empire on an island called Norman's Cay 210 miles off the Florida coast at the southern end of the Bahamas. It has been alleged that Lehder was also active in the Quintín Lamé Movement, an indigenous guerrilla organization tied to the Colombian 19th of April Movement and FARC insurgencies. In the 2001 movie Blow, the character Diego Delgado was based on him.
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[edit] Early activities and prison
Lehder started out as a small-timer: a stolen car dealer, a marijuana dealer, and a smuggler of stolen cars between the US and Canada. While serving a sentence for car theft in a mostly white-collar federal prison in Danbury, Connecticut, Lehder decided that upon his release he would take advantage of the burgeoning market for cocaine in the United States, and enlisted his bunkmate, former marijuana dealer George Jung, as a future partner. Roman Varone and Jung had experience with flying marijuana to the US from Mexico in small aircraft, staying below radar level and landing in dry river-beds. Roman Verone tried to buy Realitivity Records as a front for his drug business in Albany, GA. Verone was wanted on various charges and the feds are still looking for him in the US. Inspired by the idea, Lehder decided to apply the principle to cocaine transport and formed a partnership with Jung. While in prison he set out to learn as much information, that would be useful to him in the cocaine business, as he possibly could. Lehder would sometimes even spend hours questioning fellow inmates on money laundering and smuggling. Keeping countless files and constantly taking notes, George Jung said,"He was obsessed with it."
Lehder's ultimate scheme was to revolutionize the cocaine trade by transporting the drug to the U.S. using small aircraft. Previously, drug dealers had to rely on human "mules" to smuggle the drug in suitcases on regular commercial flights. In Lehder's vision, much greater quantities could be transported directly by small private aircraft, with far less risk of interception.
[edit] Starting his empire
After their releases (both were paroled), Lehder and Jung built up a small stream of money through simple, traditional drug smuggling - they enlisted two American girls to take a paid vacation to Antigua, receive cocaine, and carry it back with them to the US in their suitcases. Repeating this process several times, they soon had enough money for an airplane.
Using a small plane and a professional pilot, they began to fly cocaine into the United States via the Bahamas, increasing their financial resources and building connections and trust with Colombian suppliers while spreading money around among Bahamian government officials for political and judicial protection. Their untraditional method of drug-smuggling began to gain credibility.
It was this rapidly growing network that became known as the Medellin Cartel. The partnership of Lehder and Jung handled transport and distribution, while Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar handled production and supply. Other elements of the cartel, such as the Ochoa family, helped deal with political matters in Colombia. Ruthless violence was as integral to the process as cocaine itself.
[edit] Norman's Cay
In the late 70s, the Lehder-Jung partnership began to diverge, due to some combination of Lehder's megalomania, Jung's comparative lack of ambition, and Lehder's secret scheming to secure a personal Bahamanian island as a complete all-purpose headquarters for his operations.
That island was Norman's Cay, which at that point consisted of a marina, a yacht club, approximately 100 private homes, and an air strip. In 1978, Lehder began buying up property and harassing and threatening the island's residents. At one point, a yacht was found drifting off the coast with the corpse of one of its owners aboard.
As Lehder chased away the local population and began to assume total control of the island, Bahamian Prime Minister Lynden Pindling, believed to have taken massive amounts of money in bribes from Lehder and associates, did nothing. Norman's Cay became Lehder's lawless private fiefdom. By this time, George Jung had been forced out of the operation, and international criminal financier Robert Vesco had allegedly become a partner. Jung used his prior connections to take up a more modest line of independent smuggling for Escobar, and stayed out of Lehder's way.
From 1978 through 1982, the Cay was the Caribbean's main drug smuggling hub and a tropical hideaway and playground for Lehder and associates. Cocaine was flown in from Colombia by jet and then reloaded into the small aircraft that then distributed it to locations in Georgia, Florida, and the Carolinas.
Lehder built a 3,300-foot runway protected by radar, bodyguards and Doberman attack dogs for the fleet of aircraft under his command. In the glory days of his operation, 300 kilograms of cocaine would arrive on the island every hour of every day, and Lehder's personal wealth mounted into the billions.
[edit] Downfall and fugitive days
The cartel was able to survive and dominate only with the help of political and judicial violence, mostly overseen by its Colombia-based kingpins, chiefly Pablo Escobar. Lehder is believed to have been at least partially involved in the Palace of Justice siege, which resulted in the death of 11 Colombian Supreme Court justices and 84 other people, as well as the murders of as many as 28 journalists, and an uncounted number of police officers, government officials, and members of his own organization - and Colombian Justice Minister, Rodrigo Lara Bonilla.
It was this last killing (on April 29, 1984) that began the end of the Medellin cartel. Lara Bonilla had campaigned against the activities of the cartel, and his murder marked a sea change in Colombian politics. President Belisario Betancur, who had previously opposed extraditing any Colombian drug lords to the United States, announced that he was now willing to extradite. Carlos Lehder was the top name on the crackdown list.
While other major Medellin players fled to the protection of Manuel Noriega in Panama and began plans to establish an even larger operation there, Lehder, distrusting Noriega, sought protection in Nicaragua, paying the Sandinista regime for the privilege.
Later, still a fugitive, Lehder re-entered Colombia and hid among leftist guerillas in the jungles of that country, even appearing briefly on television in 1985 to deliver a message that denounced American imperialism and extradition treaties, and played upon Colombian nationalist sentiment.
[edit] Capture, trial, whereabouts
Eventually, Lehder was captured in the jungle, and lost his fight against extradition. In 1987 (by which point his net worth was in the neighborhood of $2.5 billion), he was sent to the United States, where he was tried and sentenced to life without parole, plus an additional 135 years.
In 1992, in exchange for Lehder's agreement to testify against Manuel Noriega, this was reduced to a total sentence of 55 years. Three years after that, Lehder wrote a letter of complaint to a Jacksonville federal district judge, complaining that the government had reneged on a deal to transfer him to a German prison. The letter was construed as a threat against the judge.
Within weeks of sending that letter in the fall of 1995, Lehder was whisked away into the night, according to several protected witnesses at the Mesa Unit in Arizona. While many believe he could have been released, others consider that this is not true.
According to journalist and author Tamara S. Inscoe-Johnson, who worked on the Lehder defense during the time in question, Lehder was simply transferred to another prison and has continued to be held in WITSEC, which is the Bureau of Prisons' version of the federal Witness Protection Program.
Inscoe-Johnson argued that Lehder had not been released, despite Internet rumors to the contrary. Inscoe-Johnson's work on Lehder entitled "Norman's Cay: The True Story of Carlos Lehder and the Medellin Cartel", details why the author believes that Lehder will never be released. Allegedly, Lehder would be privy to secret information regarding the CIA's and his own involvement in the Iran-Contra affair.
Carlos Lehder's ongoing legal battles confirm Lehder remains imprisoned in the US, and that he is not likely to be released anytime soon. On July 22, 2005 he appeared in the US Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit to contest his sentence. Lehder appeared pro se, arguing that the United States failed to perform its obligations under a cooperation agreement he had entered into with the United States Attorney's Office, after he held up his end of the deal. (United States v. Lehder-Rivas, 136 Fed. Appx. 324; 2005).
