Jorge Luis Ochoa Vázquez
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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, José Gonzalo Rodríguez Gacha, Jorge Ochoa and his brothers Juan David and Fabio.
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[edit] Criminal career
[edit] Early Years and the Founding of the Medellín Cartel
Jorge Luis Ochoa Vázquez was the son of Fabio Ochoa Restrepo whose family was cattle breeders until they began trafficking narcotics during the mid 1970s. In 1976, Jorge Luis 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 Jorge’s sister, Martha Nieves Ochoa Vasquez, by the Colombian guerilla organization M-19, which had previously kidnapped a son of Severo Escobar Ortega consolidates 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.
[edit] 1984 - 1986
On April 30, 1984, Colombian Minister of Justice Rodrigo Lara Bonilla, who had crusaded against the Medellin 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 is the first to be put on the list. The crackdown forces Jorge Ochoa, Escobar and Rodriguez Gacha to flee to Panama for several months. While in Panama, Jorge Luis 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 Medellin cartel's operations in Panama. The story was leaked by Oliver North to show the Nicaraguan Sandanista 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, Spain, on a U.S. warrant and both the U.S. and Colombia apply for his extradition. Soon after the Medellin cartel publicly threatened to murder five Americans for every Colombian extradition.
Jorge Luis was responsible for coordinating operations in the United States and Western Europe on behalf of the Medellin cartel. He claimed he shipped an average of 6 MT HCL per month during the early 1980s (until his 1984 arrest). Jorge Luis 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.
[edit] After 1986
On November 18, 1986, a Miami grand jury accused Jorge Luis of conspiracy to import HCL (1,452 pounds of cocaine) through Nicaragua in cooperation with Federico Vaughan, an aid to Nicaragua’s interior minister Tomas Borge. He was also an unindicted coconspirator in the murder of Barry Seal.
On July 14, 1986, a Spanish court decided to extradite Jorge to stand trial in Colombia. On August 17, 1986, despite extradition requests from the US, Jorge vanished after receiving a suspended sentence on charges of falsifying documents for importing fighting bulls from Spain.[1]
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 arrive at the house of Juan Gomez Martinez, the editor of Medellin's daily newspaper El Colombiano. They present Martinez with a communique signed by "The Extraditables," which threatens execution of Colombian political leaders if Jorge Ochoa is extradited. On December 30, 1987 Jorge was released from prison under dubious legal circumstances.
In 1987, Forbes Magazine listed Jorge Luis among the world's 20 richest people with 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 Medellin 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. Later, their younger brother Fabio Ochoa Vázquez was also released.
[edit] See also
[edit] Notes
- ^ Colombia Frees Suspect, The New York Times, August 17, 1986
