Juan David Ochoa Dead: Eldest Brother Of Ochoa Family Dies Of Heart Attack,

Founded Medellin Drug Cartel With Pablo Escobar

BOGOTA, COLOMBIA -- The eldest of the three Ochoa brothers who founded the
Medellin cocaine cartel in the 1980s with Pablo Escobar has died of a heart attack at
age 65.
Hospital officials and a cousin said Juan David Ochoa died Thursday at a private clinic
in Colombia's No. 2 city.
Ochoa and brothers Jorge Luis and Fabio had all surrendered when the manhunt
intensified for Escobar.
Ochoa turned himself in 10 months before Escobar was killed and served five years and
five months. Then-Justice Minister Carlos Medellin called his 1996 release "a national
disgrace."
He returned to the family business of raising gait horses.
While Juan David avoided extradition to the United States, his youngest brother Fabio
would not. Arrested in 1999, Fabio was later sentenced to 30 years for drug trafficking.
Mauricio Santoyo Velasco, Retired Colombia General, Indicted On Drug Charge
BOGOTA, Colombia A retired Colombian police general who was security chief for
former President Alvaro Uribe from 2002 to 2005 betrayed international
counternarcotics operations for nearly a decade while on the payroll of major drug
traffickers, according to a newly unsealed U.S. indictment.
Ex-Gen. Mauricio Santoyo Velasco is charged with conspiracy to export cocaine to the
United States in collusion with far-right paramilitary bosses and with a collection agency

of sorts run by drug traffickers that hired assassins and kidnapped and extorted, chiefly
to collect debts.
Santoyo's alleged crimes were committed from about 2000 to November 2008,
according to the indictment, which details an alleged wholesale betrayal of counterdrug
operations by Colombian, U.S. and British law enforcement.
Santoyo's whereabouts could not immediately be determined. A senior official in
Colombia's chief prosecutor's office said no arrest warrant has been issued for Santoyo.
The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak
publicly.
Uribe said in a statement posted on his website Monday evening that he "rejects, with
pain and indignation, whatever illegal activity" Santoyo might have engaged in.
He said the police and Defense Ministry had put Santoyo in charge of his security
"without any intervention on my part."
Uribe, who left office in 2010, was immensely popular for security gains during his
government, but has been plagued by corruption and domestic spying scandals
involving close associates.
The May 24 indictment handed up by an eastern Virginia grand jury and unsealed last
week alleges that Santoyo received "substantial bribes" in exchange for:
_Tipping off the traffickers to ongoing drug-trafficking investigations as well as wiretaps
targeting them.
_Promising to "facilitate the transfer of corrupt police officers, who would further assist
these drug-traffickers in their business."
_Notifying traffickers of upcoming arrest operations, including joint Colombian
investigations with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.

_Conducting unauthorized wiretaps on behalf of the traffickers.

_Provide intelligence collected by Colombian law enforcement to drug traffickers,
including on people later targeted to be murdered by the traffickers.
A spokesman for U.S. Attorney Neil MacBride declined to comment on the indictment
Monday.
Santoyo was chief of anti-kidnapping police in Medellin from 1996-1999. Uribe was
governor from 1995-1997 of Antioquia, of which the city, Colombia's second-largest, is
state capital.
From 2000-2002, Santoyo commanded an elite anti-terrorism task force. In 2008-2009
he was police attache to Italy.
Santoyo's alleged betrayal coincided with a huge influx of U.S. aid under Plan Colombia
to fight drug traffickers and leftist rebels and included Uribe's decision to make peace
with the far-right paramilitaries represented by the United Self-Defense Forces, known
by its Spanish initials AUC.
The AUC was classified as a foreign terrorist organization by the United States in
September 2001. Colombian authorities blame it for thousands of killings.
Most of the AUC's top leaders were extradited to the United States by Uribe in 2008 and
a number of them have recently been cooperating with U.S. prosecutors in hopes of
obtaining sentence reductions.
A former close adviser to Uribe, Jose Obdulio Gaviria, said the allegations against
Santoyo could be revenge against Uribe from paramilitary warlords for having them
extradited.
But Uribe's critics say the former president owes Colombians an explanation for why he
stood by Santoyo when the police officer came under question a decade ago as a
scandal broke over illegal wiretapping of human rights activists by members of the

Medellin anti-kidnapping unit he had led. Two activists had disappeared and were
feared killed.
Then-Col. Santoyo was never accused of involvement in the disappearances but the
public prosecutor later deemed him responsible for the illegal wiretapping and ordered
him fired.
Santoyo appealed to a high court and had the order overturned.
His promotion to general was recommended by then-police director Gen. Teodoro
Campo, the defense minister at the time, Marta Lucia Ramirez, tweeted on Saturday.
"His superiors in the police guaranteed to me that (Santoyo) was an upright and ethical
person," she said.
In 2008, four former members of the Medellin anti-kidnapping unit were sentenced to 11
years in prison each for hundreds of illegal wiretaps from late 1997 until early 2001.
___
Colombia Reigns Number One In Cocaine Production
Colombia can keep its title this year as the world's number one producer of cocaine.
According to the International Narcotics Control Board's 2011 report released today,
62,000 hectares -- 620 million square meters -- of Colombian land was devoted to the
cultivation of the illicit narcotic in 2010. That amount is equivalent to more than 57,000
soccer fields.
Though the area decreased by 11,000 hectare, or 15 percent, from 2009, Colombia still
encompasses the largest portion of South America's 154,200 hectares of illicit coca
bush cultivation. Peru follows closely behind with 61,200 hectares, and Bolivia houses
31,000 hectares.

Despite ongoing cocaine seizures, including a shift from North American consumer
markets to source areas in South America, the region has seen only a 6 percent hectare
decrease since 2009.
From South America, a vast majority of the illegal product is shipped to North America
- the worlds largest drug market -- by both air and water.
Mexico remains a major hub of transit for narcotics traveling north to the U. S.,
trafficking 90 percent of the nation's cocaine. But pressure from Mexican authorities has
forced some drug cartels to move their operations to other Central American countries.
Honduras, Costa Rica and Nicaragua have risen to the occasion and presented
themselves as major transit centers for drug smuggling to the U.S.
According to the report, traffickers often use speed boats and submarines, along with
light aircraft, to move illicit substances north from South America.
The International Narcotics Control Board, an independent monitoring body of the
United Nations, publishes an annual report that summarizes nationwide drug control
and identifies trends. Aside from its findings on cocaine production and trafficking, the
organization also warned of a recent influx in the use of illegal Internet pharmacies to
distribute illicit drugs.
Often times, these pharmacies advertise their services through social media to reach a
larger audience and convince customers that they are legitimate. However, the World
Health Organization has found that over half of the medicines sold through these
pharmacies are counterfeit.

Colombia Drug Submarines Becoming Vehicle Of Choice For Cartels

Off the east coast of Central America, the Honduran navy recently captured a
submarine with some four tons of cocaine and five crew members on board.

The drug mob is now believed to have a whole fleet of submarines used to ship cocaine
from producing countries like Colombia and Peru to distributors in Mexico and Africa,
where it then can make its way onto the lucrative European and US markets.
Experts have expressed amazement at the technical savvy that lies behind the
submarines design and construction. The boats are built expressly for the drug trade. A
few weeks ago, Colombian authorities captured a brand-new submarine in a river in the
middle of the jungle. The boat was 30 meters long, and although empty when seized, it
had room for four people and eight tons of cocaine.
"With a vessel like that, it would take you eight, maybe nine, days to get from Colombia
to Mexico and you could stay submerged the whole way," says Colombian General
Jairo Erazo.
The submarine found in the jungle belonged to the latest generation of narcosubmarines, and unlike earlier-generation boats, it is completely submersible. A similar
model was found by narcotics agents in Ecuador, another in 2008 in Mexico.
Jay Bergman, US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Andean regional director,
has called the advent of narco-submarines a game-changer, and new models are
even more sophisticated.
"Theyve made a huge technological leap forward," says Colombian Admiral Hernando
Wills. The propeller-driven boat found in the jungle, which apparently had yet to make
its maiden voyage, was 10 meters longer than earlier models.
The submarines leave from the impoverished port city of Buenaventura on the Pacific
coast of Colombia. There are enough out-of-work captains and sailors there who, for
good money, are willing to risk making such a run.
Buenaventura is one of the most dangerous cities in Colombia. The region, inhabited
mainly by Afro-Colombians, is not only where drug transportation is organized, its also
where the cartels deal arms. Marxist FARC rebels and right-wing paramilitary groups
are avid takers for the weapons, and also important players in the Colombian cocaine

trade.
Drugs for weapons, round-trip
Criminal groups control every aspect of the drug trade in Colombia, from inland
production to transportation. They can earn double if the drugs are shipped by
submarine to Mexico because, on the return journey, the boats can be loaded with USmade weapons that gangs smuggle over the American border into Mexico.
Experts can only guess at the number of submarines currently shipping tons of cocaine
from Colombia to Mexico. But even just one delivery of eight tons puts hundreds of
millions of euros into cartel coffers.
The black-market price for a kilo of cocaine can be as high as 70,000 euros. Every
successful submarine run means sales of up to 500 million euros at street prices. When
the cocaine gets to Mexico, local cartels there take over distribution.
The cartels use some of the huge profits to invest in new technology that enables them
to run rings around narcotics squads. Before he was killed in 1993, Colombian drug
baron Pablo Escobar had cocaine flown to Mexico and the States in small planes, one
of which can be seen at his hacienda near Medelln, now a local tourist attraction.
When police found the hidden runways used by the cocaine planes, the smugglers
began throwing packets of cocaine out of the planes at predetermined locations. When
the police got wise to that, the cartels chartered speedboats and used them until the
coast guard caught on. And now they have submarines, whose presence cannot
currently be picked up by radar systems or by patrolling law-enforcement ships and
planes.
Experts estimate the cost of building a narco-submarine at around $2 million; their
design requires not only highly specialized engineering skills, but expertise in such
fields as fiberglass technology and ballast calculation.

The drug mafias narco-submarines are prompting states to set ideological differences
aside and join forces. Even the US and Bolivia, whose diplomatic relations are not good,
are working together behind the scenes on a cooperation agreement, and Bolivian
President Evo Morales has abandoned his campaign to have the coca leaf declared a
part of humanitys intangible heritage. That the record amount of cocaine seized so far -25.5 tons -- was seized in Bolivia last year should scare even him.
For over a year, Colombia and Venezuela have been working together to fight the drug
trade, with some success: in recent months, 17 high-ranking drug bosses have been
arrested.
Colombian Drug Cartel's Parrot 'Arrested' For Alerting Traffickers
A parrot in the Colombian city of Barranquilla has been "arrested" for allegedly tipping
off members of a local drug cartel during a police raid.
Authorities say Lorenzo the parrot had been specially trained to alert narcotics
traffickers. As it spotted uniformed officers, the bird reportedly yelled out, "Run, run -you're going to get caught," in perfect Spanish. He was just one of nearly 1,700 trained
parrots which have since been seized by Colombian officials.
Despite the guard bird's best efforts, officials seized more than 200 weapons, a stolen
motorcycle and a large quantity of marijuana in the raid, according to AOL News. At
least four men and two other birds were also arrested in the raids. As for Lorenzo
himself, he's now in the hands of environmental authorities.

Colombian hit men blamed for 200 murders arrested in Spain

Two Colombian hit men alleged to have kidnapped, tortured and killed more than 200
people on the orders of drug cartel bosses have been arrested in Spain.

The men had been hiding out in the Valencia region in eastern Spainusing fake
identities. One had even altered his fingerprints to evade detection.
Police named them as Henry Norberto Valdes Marin, 36, alias Pollo meaning Chicken
and Mauricio Alberto Gonzalez, 44, aka Ronco meaning Husky.
"These are the most dangerous Colombian citizens to have been detained in Spain up
until now due to their history and the variety of criminal activities that they were involved
with," said a statement from Spain's interior ministry.
The pair are suspected of working for Colombian drug cartels as "debt collectors". They
are also wanted for drug trafficking and illegal weapons possession.
Spanish police said they had relocated to Spain to continue their criminal activities in
the country, which serves as the main entry point for South American cocaine into
Europe.
Valdes Marin is believed to have acted as logistics chief of La Negra, a group of hit men
working for Colombia's Norte del Valle drug cartel.
La Negra is thought to operate across eight countries and is blamed for the murder of
more than 200 people in Colombia alone, including the footballer, Albeiro "El Paloma"
Usuriaga, who was gunned down in 2004.
Gonzales Sepulveda is one of the suspected leaders of the AUC, a paramilitary
organisation serving Colombia's Envigado drug cartel, whose hallmark was chopping up
bodies using a chainsaw. Now confined to a wheelchair after taking three bullets in a
shoot-out, he had skin grafted to his finger tips to disguise his identity.
The pair, who both appear on Colombia's list of most wanted criminals, were arrested at
different address in the Valencia region on Sunday night by Spanish police acting on
information given to them by the Colombian counterparts.
They now face extradition to Colombia.