Pablo Escobar's partner was arrested again in Colombia, but quickly released after 3 days

Pablo Escobar's criminal partner, Carlos Lehder, was arrested on Friday, March 28, immediately after landing at the Bogota airport. Country officials said he was still wanted for drug and arms trafficking. However, on March 31, the former head of the Medellin cartel was released. The court ruled that the sentence for these crimes had expired.

This is reported by UNN with reference to CBSnews.

Details

The son of a German immigrant who arrived in Colombia in the 1920s, Carlos Lehder began his criminal career in the 1970s while living with relatives in New York. To open cocaine markets for the Medellin cartel, he used his contacts and knowledge of English and became a key ally of his boss Escobar.

Arrest history

In 1995, Colombian authorities convicted Lehder of drug trafficking while he was serving another sentence in an American prison. An American court sentenced the drug dealer to life imprisonment. He later managed to mitigate his sentence by providing investigators with information that was used to prosecute Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega. At the same time, the drug dealer received 24 years in prison in Colombia.

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In 2019, according to Colombian law, his term of imprisonment there ended.

And a year later, in 2020, Lehder was released from a US prison after serving two-thirds of his sentence, namely 30 years.

Last detention

After his release, Lehder did not return to Colombia, but last Friday he still wanted to visit relatives, so he flew to his homeland. There he was detained right at the airport.

Immigration officials said the man was still wanted on charges of drug trafficking and arms smuggling. On Monday, Colombian authorities released the former head of the Medellin cartel after a court ruled that the drug trafficking sentence against him in Colombia had expired.

Earlier, UNN wrote that another assistant of Pablo Escobar returned to Colombia after 20 years in a US prison. Fabio Ochoa reunited with his family and plans to live in Medellin.