BOGOTÁ, Colombia: One of Colombia’s legendary drug lords and a key operator of the Medellin cartel has been deported back to the South American country, after serving 25 years of a 30-year prison sentence in the United States.
Fabio Ochoa arrived in Bogota’s El Dorado airport on a deportation flight on Monday, wearing a grey sweatshirt and carrying his personal belongings in a plastic bag.
After stepping out of the plane, the former cartel boss was met by immigration officials in bullet proof vests. There were no police on site to detain him — an indication he may not have any pending cases in Colombian courts.
In a brief statement, Colombia’s national immigration agency said Ochoa should be able to enter Colombia “without any problems,” once he is cleared by immigration officers who will check for any outstanding cases against the former drug trafficker.
Ochoa, 67, and his older brothers amassed a fortune when cocaine started flooding the US in the late 1970s and early 1980s, according to US authorities, to the point that in 1987 they were included in the Forbes Magazine’s list of billionaires.
Living in Miami, Ochoa ran a distribution center for the cocaine cartel once headed by Pablo Escobar. Escobar died in a shootout with authorities in Medellin in 1993.
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, but became an informant for the Drug Enforcement Administration.
Along with his two older brothers, Juan David and Jorge Luis, Ochoa turned himself in to Colombian authorities in the early 1990s under a deal in which they avoided being extradited to the US
The three brothers were released from prison in 1996, but Ochoa was arrested again three years later for drug trafficking and was extradited to the US in 2001 in response to an indictment in Miami naming him and more than 40 people as part of a drug smuggling conspiracy.
He was the only suspect in that group who opted to go to trial, resulting in his conviction and a 30-year sentence. The other defendants got much lighter prison terms because most of them cooperated with the government.
Ochoa’s name has faded from popular memory as Mexican drug traffickers take center stage in the global drug trade.
But the former member of the Medellin cartel was recently depicted in the Netflix series Griselda, where he first fights the plucky businesswoman Griselda Blanco for control of Miami’s cocaine market, and then makes an alliance with the drug trafficker, played by Sofia Vergara.
Ochoa is also depicted in the Netflix series Narcos, as the youngest son of an elite Medellin family that is into ranching and horse breeding and cuts a sharp contrast with Escobar, who came from more humble roots.
Richard Gregorie, a retired assistant US attorney who was on the prosecution team that convicted Ochoa, said authorities were never able to seize all of the Ochoa family’s illicit drug proceeds and he 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.
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Legendary drug lord Fabio Ochoa is deported to Colombia after spending two decades in US prisons
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Legendary drug lord Fabio Ochoa is deported to Colombia after spending two decades in US prisons
- Ochoa’s name has faded from popular memory as Mexican drug traffickers take center stage in the global drug trade
Philippine volcano eruption sends ash 2.5 kilometers into sky
- Kanlaon Volcano, one of 24 active volcanoes in the archipelago nation, has had several major eruptions in the past century
- A 1996 blast killed three hikers who were near the summit at the time
MANILA: A volcano erupted in the central Philippines on Thursday evening, sending a billowing plume of ash about 2,500 meters (1.5 miles) into the nighttime sky.
The two-minute eruption began at 7:04 p.m. (1104 GMT), state volcanology agency director Teresito Bacolcol said, saying “there might be a bigger explosive eruption in the next few days.”
Kanlaon Volcano, one of 24 active volcanoes in the archipelago nation, has had several major eruptions in the past century — including a 1996 blast that killed three hikers who were near the summit at the time.
“This is the second moderate eruption in a week,” Bacolcol said in a phone interview, adding his agency would monitor the volcano for 24 hours before deciding if it should raise the alert level from two to three on its five-point scale.
“This event generated a plume that rose 2,500 meters above the crater before drifting southwest. Incandescent ballistics were observed to have rained around the crater,” the volcanology center said in a statement released minutes later.
John De Asis, a rescuer in the nearby town of La Castellana, said that ash had begun to descend on local neighborhoods.
“Tonight, we heard a sudden, loud boom, then after a few minutes, people started reporting that there was ashfall in their areas,” he said, noting that rescue personnel were handing out facemasks.
Bacolcol said it was possible that “gas pressure had built up at the vent” of the volcano. He said recent low sulfur dioxide emissions suggested a potential blockage that would have caused pressure to build.
The volcano, which straddles Negros Oriental and Occidental provinces, currently has a four-kilometer exclusion zone in place.
The Philippines is on the seismically active region of the Pacific known as the “Ring of Fire,” where more than half the world’s volcanoes are located.
The most powerful volcanic explosion in the Philippines in recent years was the 1991 eruption of Pinatubo, about 100 kilometers (62 miles) from Manila, which killed more than 800 people.
The two-minute eruption began at 7:04 p.m. (1104 GMT), state volcanology agency director Teresito Bacolcol said, saying “there might be a bigger explosive eruption in the next few days.”
Kanlaon Volcano, one of 24 active volcanoes in the archipelago nation, has had several major eruptions in the past century — including a 1996 blast that killed three hikers who were near the summit at the time.
“This is the second moderate eruption in a week,” Bacolcol said in a phone interview, adding his agency would monitor the volcano for 24 hours before deciding if it should raise the alert level from two to three on its five-point scale.
“This event generated a plume that rose 2,500 meters above the crater before drifting southwest. Incandescent ballistics were observed to have rained around the crater,” the volcanology center said in a statement released minutes later.
John De Asis, a rescuer in the nearby town of La Castellana, said that ash had begun to descend on local neighborhoods.
“Tonight, we heard a sudden, loud boom, then after a few minutes, people started reporting that there was ashfall in their areas,” he said, noting that rescue personnel were handing out facemasks.
Bacolcol said it was possible that “gas pressure had built up at the vent” of the volcano. He said recent low sulfur dioxide emissions suggested a potential blockage that would have caused pressure to build.
The volcano, which straddles Negros Oriental and Occidental provinces, currently has a four-kilometer exclusion zone in place.
The Philippines is on the seismically active region of the Pacific known as the “Ring of Fire,” where more than half the world’s volcanoes are located.
The most powerful volcanic explosion in the Philippines in recent years was the 1991 eruption of Pinatubo, about 100 kilometers (62 miles) from Manila, which killed more than 800 people.
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