Jorge Luis Ochoa Vasquez was born on September 30, 1950, the year after his brother Juan David. His brother Fabio was born seven years later.
All three brothers and their sisters worked as waiters/waitresses, cooks and busboys/busgirls in the family's restaurant after school.
Jorge eventually picked up the nickname "El Gordo" (Spanish for the Fat One), a reference to his physique.
Jorge has stated in an interview that his first drug shipment to the U.S. consisted of 20 kilograms of cocaine.
By 1979, the Ochoa brothers had established a lucrative cocaine distribution network in Florida. They raised their public profiles by attending horse shows and financing bullfights.
In 1981, Jorge was accused of illegally importing fighting bulls into Colombia from Spain -- a minor Customs violation. Around the same time, the Ochoas formed an alliance with Pablo Escobar, Jose Gonzalo Rodriguez Gacha and Carlos Lehder. The participating organizations began to collaborate with regards to manufacturing and shipping cocaine as well as laundering the profits derived from the sales of the drug. The association itself would come to be referred to as the "Medellin Cartel".
On November 12, 1981, Jorge's sister Marta Nieves Ochoa Velasquez was abducted from the campus of Medellin's University of Antioquia by Colombia's M-19 guerrilla group, which demanded $1 million for her release. The Ochoas responded by arranging a meeting of the most powerful drug traffickers in Colombia at the family's Medellin restaurant, La Margarita. The meeting resulted in the creation of the group Muerte a Secuestradores (Spanish for "death to kidnappers"), dedicated to "the public and immediate execution of all those persons involved in kidnapping." Following the subsequent murders of several M-19 associates, some of whom were hanged in public parks, Marta was released unharmed on February 19. After his daughter's release, Fabio Sr. debuted a new stallion that he'd named Ransom at horse shows.
In March of 1983, drug-smuggler Barry Seal, who transported cocaine to the U.S. for the Medellin cartel, was arrested in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. He was charged with money laundering and smuggling Quaaludes. Seal attempted to negotiate a deal with assistant U.S. Attorney Bruce Zimet, promising to give information on high-ranking Medellin cartel members Jorge and his brothers Juan David and Fabio Jr. When Zimet refused, Seal contacted the office of Baton Rouge U.S. Attorney Stanford O. Bardwell, Jr., who attended Baton Rouge High during the same time as Seal, but Bardwell refused to meet with him. Seal did, however, eventually manage to become an informant for the DEA.
Seal flew to Medellin, Colombia on April 8, 1984 and met with Escobar and the Ochoa brothers to make plans to ship a 1,500-kilogram load to the U.S. During the meet, Jorge Ochoa divulged to Seal that the Sandinistas had sold him a 6,000-foot landing strip in Nicaragua and had agreed to allow him use the location as a refueling stop during trips from Colombia to the states.
Following the April 30, 1984, murder of Justice Minister Rodrigo Lara Bonilla, Jorge Ochoa and Pablo Escobar met with former Colombian President Alfonso Lopes in Panama in May. The two attempted to negotiate with then Colombian President Belisario Betancur for amnesty via Lopez. Ocha, Escobar, Carlos Lehder, Frederico Vaughan and seven other individuals were indicted on drug trafficking charges by a federal grand jury in Miami on July 27, 1984. The indictment alleged that 1,452 pounds of cocaine was shipped from Nicaragua to the U.S., while $1.5 million was delivered to Escobar and Vaughan by the pilot of the aircraft ferrying the narcotics. The two subsequently requested that the pilot ship 2,200 pounds of cocaine back to the U.S. from Nicaragua.
Both Jorge Ochoa and his childhood friend, high-ranking Cali cartel leader Gilberto Rodriguez Orejuela, who was travelling with him, were arrested in Spain in November of 1984. While both the U.S. and Colombian governments requested to have both men extradited, Colombia won out, amidst suspicions that the Spanish judge who approved the extradition had accepted a bribe.
While Ochoa was released without being tried by the Colombian court, Rodriguez, who'd been caught with a Venezuelan passport in Spain, was put on trial with fellow Cali cartel leader Jose Santacruz Londono in Cali. However, the presiding judge refused to admit evidence submitted by the DEA in connection with U.S. indictments in LA and New York City and the two were acquitted.
In November of 1985, paramilitary troops believed to be financed by the Medellin cartel killed 11 of 24 Supreme Court justices during a raid on Colombia's Palace of Justice. On November 15, Jorge Ochoa and fellow drug trafficker Huberto Rodriguez were arrested by Interpol in Madrid, Spain due to an extradition request from the U.S. government.
On January 21, 1986, a Madrid court ruled that there were sufficient grounds to extradite Jorge to the U.S., where he was charged with shipping 3,300 pounds of cocaine into the country via Nicaragua in 1984. After a battle between the U.S. and his home country to determine who could claim him, Jorge was extradited to Colombia in March -- following the February 19, 1986 murder of Barry Seal, who was scheduled to testify against him -- and released.
On August 13, 1986, Judge Fabio Pastrana gave Jorge a 20-month suspended sentence, a $1,000 fine and probation following his conviction for falsifying documents in connection with importing fighting bulls from Spain. He was released after posting a $11,500 bond. At the time he was still sought by U.S. authorities for exporting 659 kilograms of cocaine to Florida.
In 1987, the U.S. government seized Juan David's Florida ranch along with 39 Paso Fino walking horses. That same year, Forbes magazine listed Jorge among the world's richest people, with an estimated net worth of $2 billion.
That June, Colombia's Supreme Court voted 13-12 that a 1979 extradition treaty between the U.S. and Colombia was unconstitutional. On November 21, Jorge was arrested for speeding in Bogota after being stopped driving a Honduran diplomat's car in the Valle del Cauca province. Following the traffic stop, he was unable to locate the registration that for the white 1987 Porsche. On November 23, the U.S. government formally requested that he be extradited in accordance with the 1933 Montevideo Inter-American Multilateral Convention. Cartel-associates subsequently attempted to break into the home of Medellin mayoral candidate Juan Gomez Martinez but were chased off by Gomez and one of his sons, armed with handguns and a hunting rifle. The cartel leaders, The Extraditables, later released a statement that read, "We want the government to know that if citizen Jorge Luis Ochoa is extradited to the United States, we well declare total and absolute war against the entire political leadership of the country. We will execute without any hesitation the main political leaders of the traditional parties." In December, Colombian Justice Minister Enrique Low Murtra ruled that Jorge was ineligible for extradition as a Colombian citizen citing the absence of an extradition treaty between Colombia and the States. Ochoa was released from La Picota prison, accompanied by his lawyers and Warden Alvaro Camacho, on December 30 and quickly driven to a private Bogota airport where he flew away in a private jet. The following week, Murtra issued warrants for Ochoa; his brothers Juan and Fabio; Escobar; and Gonzalo Rodriguez.
Another consequence of Jorge's release was made public on January 14, 1988, when U.S. Customs Commissioner William Von Rabb announced a new policy wherein all vessels and aircraft entering U.S. waters or airports after departing Colombia were subject to in-depth searches.
On January 24, 1988, a group calling themselves "The Extraditable Ones" announced that they'd kidnapped Bogota mayoral candidate Andres Pastrana the previous week -- January 18. Pastrana also happened to be the son of former Colombian president Misael Pastrana Borrero. The following day, "The Extraditable Ones" took credit, via a statement released to local media, for the murder of Colombia's attorney general, Carlos Mauro Hoyos. The group relayed, "We announce that we have executed Atty. Gen. Carlos Mauro Hoyos for the crime of treason against the fatherland...You can inform that the war will go on." Hoyos was intercepted by 10 men in four vehicles -- a car and three jeeps -- at about 7:30 a.m. on his way to the Medellin airport after spending a week in the city investigating two judges and five other officials suspected of having a hand in Ochoa's early release from prison. Hoyos' Mercedes-Benz was run off the road and his pair of bodyguards were killed during the ensuing gun battle. Altogether, the two had been shot 19 times. Hoyos, who'd also been shot to death, was found blindfolded and handcuffed near the site of the shootout. A police officer who witnessed the attack said that it appeared that Hoyos had been shot in the throat. Authorities searching the hillside hours after the shooting inadvertently found Pastrana in a farmhouse where he'd been held after being flown there via helicopter. The Extraditable Ones, who vehemently opposed being extradited to the U.S. to face drug trafficking charges, included Escobar and Juan David and Fabio Ochoa, Jr.
Jorge also made Forbes' list of the world's richest people again in 1988.
In January of 1990, CBS News reported that the Medellin cartel was planning to target U.S. President George H.W. Bush aboard Air Force One with anti-aircraft weapons upon his arrival for the February 15 summit on the international drug trade involving the heads of Colombia, Bolivia and Peru. Bush's security measures for the trip included: U.S. Navy vessels patrolling Colombian waters, including a submarine and a helicopter carrier -- the USS Nassau.
On January 29, 1990, former customs judge Fabio Pastrana Hoyos was convicted on the charge of obstruction of justice and given a six-year prison sentence for ordering Jorge's 1986 release from Cartegena. He was fired from his position as a judge prior to the conviction.
Accepting the Colombian government's September 5 promise not to extradite drug traffickers who turned themselves in and confessed to at least one crime, Fabio Jr. surrendered December 19. On January 15, 1991, Jorge turned himself in to Colombian authorities at Caldas and subsequently detained in an Itagui jail.
All three brothers were incarcerated together and ate meals prepared by their mother.
Meanwhile, Fabio Sr. opened another restaurant, La Margarita del Ocho, near Bogota in 1994.
Jorge, Juan David and Fabio Jr. were released from prison in 1996.
After being arrested on drug charges again in 1999, Fabio Jr. was extradited to the U.S. in September of 2001. In 2003, he was convicted of drug trafficking, narcotics conspiracy and distribution of cocaine in the U.S. and sentenced to 30 years in federal prison.
Jorge, Juan David and Fabio Jr. were released from prison in 1996.
After being arrested on drug charges again in 1999, Fabio Jr. was extradited to the U.S. in September of 2001. In 2003, he was convicted of drug trafficking, narcotics conspiracy and distribution of cocaine in the U.S. and sentenced to 30 years in federal prison.
Juan David returned to ranching following his release from prison. On July 25, 2013, he died of a heart attack in a Medellin medical clinic.
Related:
