After Brian Ross's September 5, 1983 report, on the U.S. television network NBC, made public the corruption of Bahamian government leaders,[21] Lehder could not return to Norman's Cay. connections where to scramble frequencies. own credit cards to do things relevant to the operation, so they were Interviews - George Jung | Drug Wars | FRONTLINE | PBS In this episode of Behind The Mask we dive into some of the most interesting evil lair ever to exist (or to be made up). What happens to you? Why is Frank McCourt really pushing it? Escobar - whose partnership with Lehder was portrayed in the hit Netflix series Narcos - was killed in a shoot-out with police in Medelln in 1993 as he attempted to avoid extradition to the US. The Luthor Scale. few hours, and give the pilot enough fuel to go back to Colombia. Lehder shared Escobar's scorn for Colombia's extradition agreement with the US. The 70-year-old Lehder was one of the leaders of the Medellin cartel that dominated the global cocaine trade in the 1980s. fear. me a tremendous amount of money. But he was a very, very instrumental help in getting monies back and forth. TIL Colombian drug trafficker Carlos Lehder bought himself an - Reddit Then we'll call someone, and say, "The shipment is here." masqueraded the whole thing so we looked pretty clean. In 1982, however, authorities in the Bahamas, reportedly pressured by the United States, began cracking down on the drug smuggling in Normans Cay, and Lehder was forced to end his operations there. Carlos Lehder Rivas ran Medelln cartel alongside Pablo Escobar that smuggled cocaine worth billions to the US in 1970s and 80s. Eventually, Lehder wanted to rebuild his fortune, but he was captured at a farm he had just established in Colombia, when a new employee of his informed the police of his location. Why am I going to talk to a DEA agent, how am I going to trust Inspired by the idea, Lehder decided to apply the principle to cocaine transport and formed a partnership with Jung. an arrest. Carlos Lehder, a 70-year-old Colombian-German national, became known for creating a base for drug smuggling on a private island in the Bahamas. Joey Diaz Shares the Story of Columbian Nazi Narco Carlos Lehder These activities led to his 1974 incarceration in a federal prison in Danbury, Connecticut. "Of the Medellin cartel, he was definitely the most intelligent.". The activity on Norman's Cay attracted US attention, culminating in a DEA raid in 1980. Sex, drugs and rock'n'roll:even "Crazy Charlie's" last day of freedom was like a movie. . personal friends. somebody becomes an enemy. Colombians, close friends of his, right away. Where did those drugs go then? Met Gala 2023: Stars celebrate Karl Lagerfeld, Shooting suspect was deported four times - US media, King Charles to wear golden robes for Coronation, Street piano confiscated as public 'break rules', Yellen warns US could run out of cash in a month, Qantas appoints new CEO to replace Alan Joyce, Photo of Princess Charlotte shared as she turns 8. So Carlos is on the run. Well, then there was the incident with the DC-3. No, it's an underestimation. jibe with your experience, or is that an underestimation? Carlos Lehder It's said that Lehder was the only Colombian drug boss with more fans than employees. Escobars, by the Gachas. In this line of But defense attorney Jose Quinon, arguing against allowing the jury to see and hear the tapes, claimed that Lehder was being tried for his political views instead of the 11-count indictment. serious indictments. don't ask me dollar amounts, because I was not active with him them. country. The April 30, 1984 assassination of Rodrigo Lara Bonilla, the Colombian Minister of Justice, initiated the beginning of the end for Lehder and the Medelln Cartel. Carlos Lehder, in full Carlos Enrique Lehder Rivas, (born September 7, 1949, Armenia, Colombia), Colombian-German drug smuggler, a leader in the powerful Medelln drug cartel, who was credited with revolutionizing the transportation network for delivering cocaine to the United States by vastly increasing the volume of smuggled drugs. Lehder, whose father was a German immigrant, spent his childhood in Colombia but moved to the United States in his teens. A full body orgasm at the L.A. Phil? Mr. I had an attorney in Florida to represent me in some capabilities of getting organized and doing things. And there was no bigger cocaine cowboy than, (***TIMESTAMPS in Description Below) ~ Tim McBride is one of the biggest weed smugglers in American history. because he was no longer seen as a serious person. He also loved Coca-Cola, calling it the "only good thing about imperialism." a DEA agent? logistics are, which coordinates, where are we going to land it, and I'll have Do you think the drug war per se can be won by Americans? It is believed the Medelln cartel supplied an estimated 80% of the cocaine smuggled into the US in the 1970s and 1980s. Five males, ten females and everybody runs naked and everybody switch "It's been 17 years since I last saw him. But I used that business as a front many times to acquire proceed to pay the pilots. Michael McManus. Carlos Lehder Rivas aboard his own plane 1979. So we had to find alternative ways of doing it, which is a small private campaign, statements that he made. In the end, there is nothing more dangerous than a crazy dealer whose escapades threaten to bring down the entire operation. us, they are going to find an empty island and that's how it happened. Lehder's political party, called the National Latin Movement, had a "fascist-populist program [that] called for radical changes in Colombia's political landscape." [12] Lehder was one of the founding members of Muerte a Secuestradores ("MAS"), a paramilitary group whose focus was to retaliate against the kidnappings of cartel members and their families[5] by the guerrillas. "It would not shock me that he's going there to open up markets, just like he opened up a transshipment point in Norman's Cay in the Bahamas during his heyday. But Lehder had other, more reactionary views. It was estimated that Lehders network supplied as much as 80 percent of the cocaine that arrived in the United States in the 1980s. . tons, and I'm talking not 20 or 30 tons, but tons and tons of cocaine to this We'll bring a vehicle with 100 kilos, and exchange It was in 1977, I believe. Lehder relocated to Colombia, building a hacienda and spreading money around Armenia, the district in west-central Colombia where he was born. On February 4, 1987, acting on a tip that some people believed came from Escobar himself, Colombian national police raided a ranch near the town of Guarne in Antioquia department and captured Lehder. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video. . There was never a question about the money being there and every penny being VideoOn board the worlds last surviving turntable ferry, Indian officials wife distraught as his killer is freed, I didnt think make-up was made for black girls, Why there is serious money in kitchen fumes. Lehder argued that, having already served 20 years in prison, which corresponded to two-thirds of the 30-year maximum time stated in the treaty, he had completed his legal sentence and should therefore be released. for us." BRICS nations offer alternative to West. I knew they were big people and they were I would call my pilots and I would give them He lost every credibility as a political figure. man, you'll I Like Escobar, also Lehder had a political awakening in the early 1980s. went into hiding, and they continued operating after I joined DEA. Carlos Lehder: Pablo Escobar's crime partner freed from US jail This entailed benefits such as transfer to a lower security prison where he could access visits and . Noriega was always saying that he would welcome us into his country with drugs, He got Once we get it to the island on the Bahamas, we're Lehder agreed, but his sentence was only reduced to 55 years, whilethe former Panamanian president was extradited to France in 2010 and spent the last weeks of his life under house arrest in Panama before dying of cancer in 2017. where it ended up in the United States. (14.05.2020), For decades now, cocaine worth billions of dollars has financed the FARC's war on the Colombian government. up with techniques that would make our operation more smooth, more productive, Villains Di. . And I had houses and automobile leases, and it was all in the name Lehder was an innovator when it came to drug routes and transportation methods, Vigil said. RVs, to just private automobiles in several shipments, you name it. "He was always looking for angles [and was] probably one of the most cunning drug traffickers that I have ever met. We can be wild, we can be loud and we can be seen. Colombia They also ran a small business producing vegetable oils and importing luxury goods such as wine and canned foods. Qu dijo Carlos Lehder tras su liberacin? The court sentenced Lehder to life in prison without parole. The wild, impulsive and unpredictable Lehder is said to be critically ill. Colombia's conundrum over Pablo Escobar's escapee hippos. He shot the man, who also happened to be one of the woman's lovers. So, you might lose the island, but you and your people will What was your typical day like? Beginning in 2005, Lehder made pleas to various government entities in the United States and Colombia, saying that he was now entitled to be released under the agreement he had made in 1991, but he remained in prison until 2020. Pablo Escobar's former right-hand man has been deported from a US prison to Germany. The clown, that side of his Did he ever fear the DEA when he was operating on the island? money that came from the Ochoas, it was good as gold. [24], In May 2008, Lehder's lawyer declared to El Tiempo that a habeas corpus petition had been filed, alleging that Lehder's cooperation agreement had been violated and that "a court in Washington" had less than 30 days to respond to the notice.[25]. . It features interviews with George Jung (Main Character in Blow), agents who works on capturing Lehder and Escobar, drug producers . [26], Lehder was released from prison on June 15, 2020, and escorted to Germany by two US officials on a regular passenger flight from New York to Frankfurt and handed over to German authorities. . And I would take that There was going to be a phone call Panamanian banks, Carlos Lehder and the Birth of the Medellin Cartel - YouTube He made admissions of being a drug dealer I made a trip to the island. and we're going to get out of here on time. in our organization, somebody that we knew would count the money. On June 24, 2015, Lehder wrote a letter to then-President of Colombia Juan Manuel Santos, in which he requested mediation with the United States to be allowed to return to Colombia. They saw that he was a man Eleven hours later, he was headed to Miami, the first victim of an extradition treaty he fought against. If it is the first time you login, a new account will be created automatically. never be exposed to drugs, money laundering, violence, none of the Carlos Lehder: What is known about the life in freedom of the former that. He eventually forced Jung out of their partnership. You say you dealt with bankers a lot. According to his daughter, Lehder arrived on a regular passenger flight from New York to Frankfurt. . This is Escobar gave up Lehder to the Colombian government, Vigil told Insider in 2017 though Escobar, before his mysterious death in 1993, denied doing so and he was captured on a ranch early on February 4, 1987. approached Pablo Escobar and he told him, he is the one who said to Escobar, we female agent of the DEA met with me personally and I said, "Okay, we got some Carlos Lehder rose from a petty criminal to become one of the major players in the Medellin Cartel.Compared to Pablo Escobar, he is one of the lesser known members of the cartel, but if it was not for him, the cartel's cocaine smuggling may never have really got off the ground.. tools and planes and automobiles and things like that. I'll try to explain it very simply. neighborhood around here. In an interview with George Jung, he was asked how he became a marijuana dealer, and how did . a long time ago. They did it through Lehder and through many other sources. We had the machines that the banks used to count money the Ochoas. The Bahamian government had to do what it had to "His legacy is that he stands out as probably one of the most intellectual capos of the Colombian drug trade, because he was definitely smarter than Pablo Escobar. He was visited regularly by family members and had access to TV and a computer with only email access. So you lived the high life, but you didn't save any money. government and other governments to be on retainer, and always fed moneywise in Carlos Enrique Lehder Rivas (born 7 September 1949) is a German-Colombian former drug lord who was co-founder of the Medelln Cartel.He was released from prison in the United States after 33 years in 2020. Image courtesy of Ron Chepesiuk. But they were there These smaller organizations were left vulnerable to the multi pronged preexisting pressures being applied against the Medellin Cartel. Of course, I was Glenn Youngkin rules out presidential campaign while in California, 7 bodies found during search for missing Oklahoma teens, US to lift most federal COVID-19 vaccine mandates next week, Multiple fatalities on Illinois highway during a blinding windstorm. He also could operate on that island because he bought the government, Because I was part of a group that was associated with him. U.S. District Judge Howell W. Melton said he may recess most of Wednesday to allow him to determine whether the tapes, which are in Spanish, can be admitted into evidence. Hitler-loving Medellin cartel co-founder Carlos Lehder Rivas goes free in Germany after 30 years in American prisons. While serving a sentence for car theft in federal prison in Danbury, Connecticut, Lehder decided that, upon his release, he would take advantage of the burgeoning market for cocaine in the United States. He knew I spoke "Or hell, in the end." We had a bill of lading. While on the run in the jungle, he got sick with a fever. That plane cannot go back to Colombia without refueling. Let me give you an example. do. At the time, Lehder's 1988 trial was the biggest court case against a foreign drug smuggler in US history. And I remember, specifically, getting out of It was the most stupid thing Sign up for notifications from Insider! Impossible. by Dominic Streatfeild. The government has to rule and live by the threat of of cocaine into the United States. The Most Risky Job Ever. Reporting on ISIS in Afghanistan. legitimate. In Fight Against ISIS, a Lose-Lose Scenario Poses Challenge for West. Bahamian government was getting lots of money--not only through Carlos' "Lehder embodies the ambition and ingenuity of the cocaine trade," said Toby Muse, author of "Kilo: Inside the Cocaine Cartels," which documents his decades of work as a journalist in Colombia. ", Born to a German father and Colombian mother in 1949, Lehder relocated to the US at age 15. We Personally? . Using a small stolen plane and a professional pilot, the pair began to fly cocaine into the United States via the Bahamas, in the process increasing their financial resources and building connections and trust with Colombian suppliers, while spreading money around among Bahamian government officials for political and judicial protection. TIL Colombian drug trafficker Carlos Lehder bought himself an island in the Bahamas where he put an airstrip which controlled the drugs coming in from South America and entering the US. This is not a political crime, answered Merkle, who added that Lehder smuggled drugs to further his political views. publicly to the press. Captured in Colombia in 1987, he was extradited to the US and sentenced to life plus 135 years in jail. couple of days off." Lehder is estimated to have spent $4.5 million on the island in total. Now, at 70, Lehder is in Germany, butthe days of sex, drugs and rock'n'roll are definitively over for Crazy Charlie. . As es la vida en libertad de Carlos Lehder, exsocio de Pablo Escobar There is one thing about the Colombian drug trade. By Jungs account, Lehder persuaded him that importing cocaine by airplane would be significantly more lucrative, and upon their release in 1976 the two went into business together, transporting the drug from Medelln, Colombia, to the United States. Carlos Lehder and Pablo Escobar come together to destroy kidnappers and ultimately decide to join forces to build a massive drug cartel.Catch MANHUNT: KILL O. And they believed in their They were funneling tons of money, and Lehder was a leading individual on the crackdown list. As the threat of extradition to the US grew, Lehder a self-described admirer of Adolf Hitler formed his own far-right political party, the Latino National party, in the hope of stirring nationalist anger over the idea of Colombians facing trial in a foreign court. Ukrainian soldiers find remains of German WWII soldiers, LGBTQ+ rights situation at home drives young Slovaks abroad, Remembering the horrors of Colonia Dignidad in Chile, At the height of his rule, narco-kingpin Pablo Escobar imported a few hippos for his private zoo. bring a load and we didn't find any other sources, and we called Mr. Noriega, Lehder's rallies were held w th giant posters of Hitler and Mussolini for backdrops. This is a very eloquent statement that Mr. Lehder is in fact guilty, said Merkle, after reviewing the transcript of the audio tape. In 1978 Lehder began using the Bahamian island of Normans Cay as a transshipment point, from which planes laden with cocaine would fly to abandoned airstrips in Florida, Georgia, and North and South Carolina. The trial continued until May 1988, when he was convicted on all counts. Lehder often quoted the Nazi leader and reportedly plastered a home with photos and memorabilia of him. Take a Manuel and so forth; physics. partners and everybody drinks and smokes marijuana and alcohol and three days There was the purchase of weapons. [19], As Lehder paid or forced the local population to leave, and began to assume total control of the island, Norman's Cay became his lawless private fiefdom. The best Podcast API to search all podcasts and episodes. And we would meet at a shopping center in I would go to Arguments Continue Over Tapes Of Colombian Interview | AP News Jung and Lehder were released in the late 1970s and started working together. guerrillas and the FLN and the internationals and all this FARC. The drugs went to a stash house. I didn't know in those days, I didn't know precisely how much [5][6] Born in Armenia, Colombia, Lehder eventually ran a cocaine transport empire on Norman's Cay island, 210 miles (340km) off the Florida coast in the central Bahamas.[5][7]. had the means to buy a 747; we didn't do it, because we knew we couldn't do with other businesses. Additionally, Lehder "founded a neo-Nazi political party, the National Latin Movement, whose main function, police said, appeared to be to force Colombia to abrogate its extradition treaty with the United States."[13]. He was sentenced to life without parole plus 135 years in 1988, which was reduced to 55 years after he testified against Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega, who had supported the Medellin cartel while he was in power. Pablo Escobar's fortress in Medelln was demolished last year, Pablo Escobar museum closed in police raid, AI chatbots 'may soon be more intelligent than us', Russia troop deaths hit 20,000 in five months - US, 'My wife and six children joined Kenya starvation cult', Cat-and-mouse chase with China in hotly contested sea, On board the worlds last surviving turntable ferry. Does that Manuel Noriega was benefiting a great deal from money accounted for--never. Carlos Lehder first got involved with the Medellin cocaine cartel headed by Pablo Escobar in the mid 70s, when it was . man. Carlos made some serious mistakes in his political (United States v. Lehder-Rivas, 136 Fed. [18][5][7] At the height of his operation, 300 kilograms[20] of cocaine would arrive on the island daily, and Lehder's wealth mounted into the billions. His battles with the church arent over, How Palm Springs ran out Black and Latino families to build a fantasy for rich, white people, U.N. envoy says Sudans warring sides agree to negotiate, Yellen says U.S. could hit debt ceiling as soon as June 1, U.S. says 20,000 Russians killed in Ukraine war since December, Speaker Kevin McCarthy addresses Knesset amid fraught U.S.-Israel ties, First Republic: Cheap, interest-only jumbo mortgages to Silicon Valleys elite fueled the banks failure. The DEA was the greatest fear. Medelln cartel co-founder transferred to Germany after prison sentence Then we fly an American airplane out of Florida somewhere, Is climate change killing Australian wine? I should have, but I didn't. of Sodom and Gomorrah. and cigar boats and all kinds of equipment, as plan B or plan C to evacuate. automobiles. Despite that contribution, Escobar began to see Lehder as more of a liability than an asset. . But defense attorney Jose Quinon, arguing against allowing the jury to see and hear the tapes, claimed that Lehder, 38, was being tried for . Even so, he was left very weak. Now would not doubt it for one minute. After that, Lehder's whereabouts within the prison system remained unknown, stoking rumors in Colombia. Fragmentos de Entrevistas a Carlos Lehder - YouTube He was released from prison in the United States after 33 years in 2020. Nova Scotia. Carlos Enrique Lehder Rivas (born September 7, 1949) is a German-Colombian former drug lord who was co-founder of the Medelln Cartel. somewhere in the Caribbean, air drop the load to a waiting boat, and go and in a short period of time. And when you leave out of land on the island. The Ochoas were the source of our cash flow. Maria Del Mar Lehder[1] (1982[citation needed]), Carlos Enrique Lehder Rivas (born 7 September 1949)[4] is a German-Colombian former drug lord who was co-founder of the Medelln Cartel. . they knew that nothing was going to happen. say, I sort of signed my death penalty, but it was important. the cartel and plan the activities of the day. aircraft that will bring 1,000 kilos at a time. these groups are well formed, well financed, well trained, and they own the Lehder's daughter told Colombia's Caracol Radio on Wednesday that she hadn't spoken to her father since his release but that he was happy to be out and was "planning a quiet freedom." So we'll do the same thing that we did with He bought a small island in the Bahamas called Norman's Cay, just 340 kilometers (211 miles) off the Florida coast, bribed Bahamian authoritiesand began transporting tons of white Colombian snow to the US in small airplanes. Did you take bribe money to politicians? problems here and we can be of help to you. who came from Colombia on his way to Germany to purchase weapons that Carlos And he never did. Carlos was furious at the Bahamian government for not releasing five Three years after that, Lehder wrote a letter to a federal district judge, complaining that the government had reneged on a deal to transfer him to a German prison. He knew they needed him, so he went in there on his own. When he married Helena Rivas, the daughter of a jeweller from Manizales, Caldas, he changed his name to Guillermo Lehder. "The only thing that Carlos Lehder knows is the drug trade," Vigil said. From that moment on, his star began to fade with Escobar. tico W le trae los detalles de estar en prisin fuera de Colombia. At one point, it was estimated that four out of every five bags of cocaine that made it into the US were delivered by Lehder's fleet of planes. Get the day's top news with our Today's Headlines newsletter, sent every weekday morning. Escobar's faction, initially both the most powerful and violent, rapidly disintegrated in the face of attacks by the rival Cali Cartel, Colombian police/army, organs of the U.S. government, and vigilante paramilitaries. The ideal thing would be to buy a 747 and load it with And Carlos would call me and says, "Listen, don't worry about it. I would get up in the morning, have breakfast with my very close associates at Within weeks of sending that letter in the fall of 1995, Lehder was whisked away into the night, according to several protected witnesses at the Mesa Unit in Arizona. ISIS is in Afghanistan, But Who Are They Really? She retired Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree. connection with the drug cartels, suggested that we contact the Drug Missouri, instead of having to put a load down in the Bahamas where it is Shaped By Adolf Hitler And John Lennon. There were many ways of the eventuality of anything happening. and put us in jail and extradite us and do whatever was necessary. There is no question in my mind that the Ochoas Lehder rose to power in the Medellin cartel, alongside Pablo Escobar, but among a notoriously brutal generation of narcos, Lehder stands out for his violence and cunning. understand why you don't just fly it into the United States. The DEA was We will advise you. Within hours he was sent to the United States, which had sought his arrest since 1979. There he was housed with George Jung, who had established an operation using airplanes to bring marijuana into the United States. Carlos knew about these forces, the Ochoas, the Gachas and the Escobars. And we had the name of Why they didn't, I don't understand because DEA know about the operations. . of military assistance to Colombia, which would be the only way to win the war. What is more surprising is that Escobar didn't simply have him quietly knocked off as he had so many others. He saw Jung used his prior connections to take up a more modest line of independent smuggling for Pablo Escobar and stayed out of Lehder's way. Yes, the Ochoas. Lehder invited him into the cocaine business in the early 1980s as a public relations representative for the cartel . Carlos Lehder, a 70-year-old Colombian-German national, became known for creating a base for drug smuggling on a private island in the Bahamas. any Colombian army put together. According to his lawyer, Lehder was transferred to a minimum security prison in Florida. I'm not a witness of it, but in my opinion, I have no question about it. I made a trip to the island, before I was active. I saw myself as an asset to Carlos. This has become a political trial, nothing more, nothing less, said Quinon. In the 1980s he rose to the top of the ranks of the legendary Chokoloskee, Florida illegal import conspiracy. "There were many of these anecdotes about just a hair-trigger temper," Muse said. He will make promises that, yes, we can bring the very skeptical. (26.12.2016). Carlos is being chased He also claims he was guaranteed there would beno way he would rot in jail longer than Noriega. Florida. Accused drug kingpin Carlos Lehder virtually admitted his guilt in radio and television interviews given in 1983 and 1985, federal prosecutors claimed Tuesday as they argued for the interviews to be presented at his trial. Carlos Lehder, Medellin Cartel Drug Smuggler Released After 33 Years and getting caught with a kilo of cocaine or on thing or the other. Lehder revolutionized drug smuggling in the late 1970s. What exactly was the use of the island? He had an island called Norman's Cay. Put the deal together, let me know what the 'Cocaine Cowboy' Carlos Lehder Released From Prison - YouTube Accused drug kingpin Carlos Lehder virtually admitted his guilt in radio and television interviews given in 1983 and 1985, federal prosecutors claimed Tuesday as they argued for the interviews to . In return, Lehders sentence was reduced to 55 years. We had the means to do it. There were contingency plans of blowing airplanes and blowing the airstrip and we are going to make cocaine the drug of the 1980s; and they succeeded. They went and proceeded through the legal process to put people in jail safely to the United States. in street dealing. landed airplanes in Ocala and I got confirmation through my radio, then I will Tell me about the parties. . For good measure, it added another 134 years for allegedly flooding US streets with 2,000 kilos (4,409 pounds) of cocaine.