Fabio Ochoa, a notorious Colombian drug lord and key operator of the Medellin cartel, has been deported back to his home country after serving 25 years of a 30-year prison sentence in the United States.
Ochoa, 67, arrived at Bogota’s El Dorado airport on a deportation flight on Monday, wearing a grey sweatshirt and carrying his personal belongings in a plastic bag. He was met by immigration officials in bulletproof vests, but there were no police on site to detain him.
Colombia’s national immigration agency promptly released a statement on social media, saying Ochoa was “freed so that he could join his family” after immigration officials took his fingerprints and confirmed through a database that he is not wanted by Colombian authorities.
Ochoa’s deportation marks the end of a long and tumultuous chapter in his life. Along with his older brothers, Juan David and Jorge Luis, Ochoa amassed a fortune in the late 1970s and early 1980s as cocaine flooded the US market. The brothers were included in Forbes Magazine’s list of billionaires in 1987.
Ochoa was first indicted in the US for his alleged role in the 1986 killing of Barry Seal, an American pilot who flew cocaine flights for the Medellin cartel. He turned himself in to Colombian authorities in the early 1990s under a deal that allowed him to avoid extradition to the US.
However, Ochoa was arrested again in 1999 for drug trafficking and was extradited to the US in 2001. He was convicted and sentenced to 30 years in prison, with the option to reduce his sentence for good behavior.
Ochoa’s name has faded from popular memory in recent years, but he was recently depicted in the Netflix series Griselda and Narcos. Richard Gregorie, a retired assistant US attorney who was on the prosecution team that convicted Ochoa, expects that the former mafia boss will have a welcome return home.
“He won’t be retiring a poor man, that’s for sure,” Gregorie told The Associated Press earlier this month.
Ochoa’s deportation has sparked mixed reactions in Colombia, with some welcoming his return and others expressing concern about his potential influence on the country’s narcotics trade. As Ochoa begins his new life in Colombia, it remains to be seen how he will be received by the public and whether he will attempt to revive his former life as a major player in the Medellin cartel.
