Ochoa - Finally convicted!
Posted on 05/29/2003 8:37:45 AM PDT by cgk
Ex-Colombian druglord found guilty of conspiracy
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A jury convicted legendary drug cartel boss Fabio Ochoa Wednesday afternoon of running a 30-ton-a-month cocaine smuggling network during the late 1990s.
Clad in a blue blazer blazer, Ochoa dropped to his knees and made the sign of the cross after the jury convicted him. Ochoa, who once ran the Medellin cartel, remained on bended knee while his lawyer Roy Black polled jurors.
The conviction is a major score for federal prosecutors because Ochoa is one of the most prominent smugglers to face trial in this country since the U.S. and Colombia resumed extraditions in 1997. He faces a possible life sentence.
Black said he would appeal the conviction and that Ochoa appeared to be the victim of his own notoreity.
''It was guilt by history, association or something other than he was charged with,'' Black said.
Ochoa ran the cartel during the 1980s before he went to prison in Colombia. After his release following an amnesty treaty in his homeland, prosecutors say, he rejoined the smuggling industry.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Ed Ryan said the defendant joined and advised a smuggling network consisting of Colombian suppliers from Mexican distributors who moved mountains of cocaine from 1997 to 1999.
Ryan said the Bogota-based operation was run by Alejandro Bernal, who turned government informant. The case was built on the testimony of drug dealers turned informants and 1,500 hours of Colombian police tapes - although Ochoa was only heard on a three-hour segment in Bernal's bugged office June 16, 1999.
Black said Ochoa had given up the drug trade after his release from prison, but he never turned his back on friends, even if they were drug smugglers. Black also said the voice captured on Bernal's tape was not Ochoa.
Black said the feds were desperate to get Ochoa, blamed for smuggling tons of cocaine into the United States in the 1970s and 1980s.
Jurors were not swayed. They took less than five hours to convict Ochoa.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
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