Reputed Cocaine Kingpin Released
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BOGOTA, Colombia — Jorge Luis Ochoa, reputed kingpin of one of the world’s largest cocaine cartels, was freed from jail despite American attempts to bring him to the United States for trial, officials in Colombia said Saturday.
Justice authorities said Ochoa, 36, who is wanted by the United States on several drug trafficking charges, dropped out of sight Wednesday after receiving a 20-month suspended sentence on charges of falsifying documents for importing fighting bulls from Spain. Authorities in Bogota said Ochoa was also fined $1,000.
On Nov. 15, Ochoa was arrested in Madrid on an Interpol extradition request from the United States. But a Colombian magistrate also requested Ochoa’s extradition, and Spain turned him over to Colombia.
News of the release came Saturday night, three days after Ochoa left the jail in Cartagena, where he had been held since his extradition from Spain five months before.
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