Pubdate: Wed, 27 Aug 2003 Source: Sun-Sentinel (Fort Lauderdale, FL) Copyright: 2003 Sun-Sentinel Company Contact: http://www.sun-sentinel.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/159 Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/coke.htm (Cocaine) COLOMBIAN DRUG LORD GETS 30-YEAR SENTENCE IN MIAMI COURT MIAMI -- A federal judge on Tuesday sentenced the highest-ranking Colombian drug lord ever to face U.S. justice to more than 30 years in prison. Fabio Ochoa Vasquez , who helped transform cocaine smuggling into a tightly run, billion-dollar business in the 1980s, was sent to federal prison for joining a network capable of moving 30 tons a month from 1997 to 1999. The charges had carried a possible life sentence, but prosecutors recommended 30 years even though the defense insisted a sentence longer than 12 years would violate conditions of Ochoa's 1999 extradition. The final sentence was 30 years and five months. "It shows the bad face of the U.S. government," said defense attorney Roy Black. "The U.S. government, despite its arrogance in refusing to follow international agreements, must be held responsible for making promises to the government of Colombia." Ochoa, 46, was convicted in May of joining a smuggling network run by one of his former cartel underlings after serving a five-year Colombian prison sentence and getting amnesty for his cartel days. Under U.S. procedures, past convictions are used to bump up sentences, but Ochoa's Colombian prison term does not count. Prosecutors are allowed to seek an "upward departure" to expand punishment beyond past convictions. "We feel, we believe, we are totally confident in our assertion that we have honored our agreement," said lead prosecutor Ed Ryan. The defense claimed at trial that Ochoa socialized with members of a network uniting Colombian suppliers and Mexican distributors but abandoned the drug world for good in 1990. By treaty, Ochoa could not be prosecuted for crimes before Colombia and the United States renewed extradition in 1997. Ochoa wasn't the original target; authorities in the United States and Colombia were after Alejandro Bernal Madrigal, who ran a 30-ton-a-month smuggling ring, when they planted a bug in his Bogota office. But when Ochoa turned up on the tapes the target turned witness, testified for the government and received a reduced, 14-year sentence. Although Ochoa merely made a cameo appearance on hundreds of hours of wiretaps and videotapes, it was enough for prosecutors to prove he had returned to the cocaine trade. Last May, a jury took just five hours to convict Ochoa of two cocaine-conspiracy counts. Ochoa dramatically dropped to his knees and blessed himself as those verdicts were read. Ochoa's sentencing also marks the close of a bloody chapter of South Florida history. During the cocaine wars of the 1980s, so many Colombians were gunned down on the streets of Miami that the county medical examiner rented refrigerated trailers to store the overflow of corpses. The now-defunct Medellin cartel then was responsible for 80 percent of the cocaine brought into the United States, raking in an estimated $7 billion a year, authorities said at the time. The cartel protected its empire through intimidation, murder and wholesale corruption of the Colombian justice system. Staff Writer Ann W. O'Neill contributed to this report. - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom