TRAFFICKING COCAINE:-PART2

A sting operation to capture Jorge was set up at the Dadeland Twin Theaters, a cinema opposite a liquor store. As the deal went down in the parking lot, armed agents surrounded the vehicles and arrested nine Colombians, including Jorge's sister and brother-in-law. Racing away on a motorbike, Jorge slipped through the sting and fled the country.

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After Jorge returned to Medellín, Restrepo was murdered. On July 31, 1978, DEA correspondence reported:

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Jorge Ochoa is currently residing in Medellin, although he keeps a home in Barranquilla, and it has been learned that Ochoa has inherited the trafficking organization of the departed Restrepo. It is speculated that Ochoa ordered the murder of Restrepo to install himself as the undisputed head of the organization. Several sources of information have related that Ochoa has become one of the most powerful traffickers in Medellin and the northern coast of Colombia, and is continuing to introduce between one hundred and two hundred kilos of cocaine into the US by several unknown methods.

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The Ochoa brothers - Jorge, Juan David and Fabio - had grown up with money from cattle breeding and restaurants. Jorge and Juan David were stocky, but nothing compared to their rotund father, Fabio Sr, an esteemed trainer and breeder of Colombian horses. At home, Fabio Sr occupied a throne-like chair customised for his extraordinary girth. He was the patriarch over a big family of adventurous men and strong women. Although he never got caught with his hands in the trafficking operation, some authors have claimed that Fabio Sr was the true godfather of the Medellin Cartel. Pablo respected him and valued his advice and folk wisdom. In the 2006 documentary film, Cocaine Cowboys, the former Medellín Cartel associate Jon Roberts mentioned Fabio Sr: "As many people want to believe that Pablo Escobar was the king of cocaine, they can believe that, but the man that was really the king was Ochoa."

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In the mid-1960s, the Ochoa family toiled around the clock at their restaurant, Las Margaritas. Jorge Ochoa later joked that he'd invested in cocaine to prevent the rest of his family from working themselves to death in the restaurant. After Restrepo's murder, Jorge (a.k.a. the Fat Man) assumed leadership of the family's cocaine business.

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Jorge was quiet, strong on family values, and didn't participate in drugs other than the occasional glass of wine. As exemplified during the sting at the Dadeland Twin Theaters, he had a knack of avoiding the law that would serve him well for the rest of his life.

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While Jorge was forming El Clan Ochoa, with an established distribution network in America, Pablo was building his own gang, Los Pablos, with a fearsome reputation on the streets of Medellín. His organisation absorbed people who'd previously been rivals. When a war broke out between two cocaine traffickers in Medellín, resulting in workers and their family members getting killed, Pablo brokered a deal whereby they entered a partnership under him.

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Initially, shipping cocaine to America was easy for Pablo and far more profitable than smuggling bulky marijuana. Up to forty kilos could be packed into used airplane tires, which pilots would discard at Miami. They were taken to a dump, followed by one of Pablo's workers who would retrieve them. The cocaine was distributed through a network of Latinos in Miami

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Pablo no longer smuggled drugs himself. He paid others to do it. On the phone, he used code words such as emeralds and diamonds to frustrate the efforts of drug agencies and to avoid providing any verbal evidence that could be used against him.

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To stay ahead of the DEA, he continuously changed his smuggling methods. He stopped using airplane tires and had Colombian and US citizens board planes with cocaine in their suitcases or in specially made clothes. Holding up to five kilos, the suitcases had double walls. They were paid $1,000 and their flight tickets. Some wore shoes with hollowed-out bottoms. The shoes had been manufactured with the cocaine sewn inside. As well as passengers, Pablo recruited crew members, including stewardesses, pilots and co-pilots, who breezed through airports without getting searched. People in wheelchairs could smug. gle up to $1 million worth of cocaine in the frames. Some smugglers dressed as nuns. Others posed as blind people with canes packed with cocaine. Some swallowed cocaine in condoms. If the condom opened, they died. Newspapers reported such tragedies.

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With the authorities obsessed with eradicating the drug that had been demonised for decades in America - marijuana - cocaine slipped into the US unnoticed. The federal government had classified marijuana as a Schedule 1 substance, more harmful than cocaine, and equally as harmful as heroin, where it remains to this day.

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Over time, instead of sending people with suitcases, Pablo just sent the suitcases. They were checked onto a flight and picked up at the other end. Airport officials were bribed with hundreds of thousands of dollars to look the other way. An official on a meagre salary ended up getting arrested with $27 million in his bank accounts.

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To keep expanding, Pablo paid bigger bribes. To enable the police on his payroll to get promotions and pay increases, Pablo allowed them to confiscate massive amounts of cocaine. The media recorded the busts and reported them on the news. The government was delighted as such seizures enabled them to get more money from America to fight the War on Drugs. The confiscated cocaine was reported as destroyed, returned to Pablo and exported to the US. Corrupt governments all over the world still run this scam on US taxpayers.

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Due to the smells released from making cocaine, Pablo moved his kitchens from residential areas to the jungle. He moved into El Poblado, one of Medellin's wealthiest neighbourhoods with lots of

white stucco houses, heavy on marble, glass and armed guards. The locals ate at fancy restaurants with views of the city lights and shopped at expensive boutiques. His brother urged him to stop and focus on real-estate investments, but Pablo was addicted to the power, money and lifestyle.

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By offering high rates of return, Pablo attracted investors. An investment of $50,000 would be repaid with $75,000 in two weeks. If the drugs were busted, investors received half of their money back. To obtain investment capital, people sold their cars and houses or cashed in their savings.

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Pablo set up a form of insurance whereby businessmen could invest a few thousand dollars for a share in a shipment of cocaine. After it was sold in America, the profits would be distributed. Pablo guaranteed their original investment even if the shipment was seized. For providing this insurance premium, he took ten percent of the American value of the cocaine. He even offered businessmen loans to invest.

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Pablo was making millions, but things were still relatively small. For him to become a billionaire, it would take the ideas of a man who worshipped both John Lennon and Adolf Hitler: Carlos Lehder, the character in Narcos with a swastika on his arm.

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