There are reports that he was still actively involved in the business while in Colombian prison.
I don't know whether he was still involved with it recently or not. Regardless, the fact that he is being brought up here for trial is not going to impede the flow of cocaine into this country. I'm not saying it's a bad thing to go after the people responsible for bringing drugs into this country. I'm just pointing out that nailing a guy like this doesn't really have any effect on the average coke user here in America. What does affect the average coke user on the street, are massive seizures of cocaine like the dozens of metric tons that have been seized over the past couple of months from just two or three vessels. This makes a difference because it may actually cause cocaine prices to go up or at hopefully put the breaks on some of the downward slide we've been seeing in cocaine prices lately. The most important thing we can do in attacking the supply side of the cocaine markets is to keep stopping the huge loads. This increases the costs involved in getting drugs to end consumers which should increase prices.
Cocaine prices need to increase. It's much cheaper for consumers than it was twenty years ago and purity has gone up. That means users can afford to do more of the drug and that increases the risk that they'll become addicted. Cheaper prices also make it easier for young people to afford the drug that was once too expensive for many kids to even try.