29 May 2003
Miami Court Convicts Colombian Drug Lord of Smuggling Cocaine into U.S.
(Colombia had extradited Fabio Ochoa to United States in 2001) (290) Washington -- A former Colombian drug kingpin has been found guilty by a federal jury in Miami, Florida, on charges of smuggling cocaine into the United States. U.S. prosecutors said Fabio Ochoa Vasquez, 46, faces a possible sentence of life in prison, after first being indicted in the United States in 1986 on murder charges related to the killing of a U.S. government informant. Ochoa was found guilty May 28 of conspiracy to import cocaine from Colombia and distribute it in the United States. Ochoa ran the notorious Medellin drug cartel in the 1980s with the late Pablo Escobar and with Ochoa's brothers, Jorge and Juan David Ochoa. That cartel was said to supply as much as 80 percent of the cocaine smuggled into the United States. Ochoa was initially jailed in Colombia in 1991 and served five years in prison before being freed in 1996. After his release, Ochoa formed another cartel before once again being indicted in 1999 of shipping billions of dollars' worth of cocaine into the United States during the previous two years. The government of Colombia extradited Ochoa to the United States in 2001. After the extradition, Asa Hutchinson, administrator of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, said Ochoa was "responsible for the destruction of countless lives," adding: "His greed and ruthless behavior are unsurpassed, even among the most notorious [drug] traffickers." Edward Ryan, an assistant U.S. attorney who prosecuted the case in Miami, told The New York Times that Ochoa's conviction represents a "validation" of U.S. efforts to crack down on the trafficking of cocaine. (Distributed by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
