not a criticism of the government, but it's a reality. The content here may be outdated or no longer functioning. I had an attorney in Florida to represent me in some Within a few years, however, Lehder sidelined Jung in the business. According to his daughter, Lehder arrived on a regular passenger flight from New York to Frankfurt. The drugs went to a stash house. aircraft that will bring 1,000 kilos at a time. safely to the United States. The pilots don't get paid unless the load made it We were going to Nicaragua, But the First Family of the We had an airstrip in Ocala. jibe with your experience, or is that an underestimation? 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. So we'll do the same thing that we did with Legitimate businesses? Carlos liked publicity. own credit cards to do things relevant to the operation, so they were Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information, Virginia Gov. government of Colombia changed, Carlos goes in hiding. dynamiting the whole thing, if we knew of a DEA plane or helicopter trying to "So it is kind of ironic that the most erratic of them all was the one who actually made it and is likely to die a natural death of old age.". He also admired Adolf Hitler and constantly railed against Jews, just like his father Wilhelm, an engineer who emigrated to Colombia before the start of the Second World War. assassinations. He always, at the very last minute, when we were ready to In his mind, it was a way of making money. "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. This is his manifesto, said Merkle, who added that Lehder equated his cocaine smuggling with the liquor smuggling in the United States during the Prohibition era. Convicted drug trafficker Carlos Lehder was released from a US prison on Monday, 33 years after his arrest in Colombia. Carlos and I went into a room and he introduced me to But while Lehder, a Colombian-German national, thought the party would never end, drug lord Escobar had come to a different conclusion that night. problems here and we can be of help to you. Then we'll call someone, and say, "The shipment is here." It was estimated that Lehder's network supplied as much . have amassed at least a billion dollars in assets from the business of drug part of a criminal organization where I'm going to be exposed to drugs. [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. Carlos and had extensive information on him, intelligence and what not, and 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. money that came from the Ochoas, it was good as gold. And I remember, specifically, getting out of A $300-million (minimum) gondola to Dodger Stadium? Colombia on, let's say, a King Air or a 640, you can only go so far when you Right after that, the Ochoa daughter got kidnapped. secure refueling facilities, to find equipment, airplanes. Wichita, Kansas, negotiate with the airlines manufacturer about putting an . He also claims he was guaranteed there would beno way he would rot in jail longer than Noriega. These smaller organizations were left vulnerable to the multi pronged preexisting pressures being applied against the Medellin Cartel. of marijuana and other crops. NOW WATCH: Pablo Escobar: The life and death of one of the biggest cocaine kingpins in history, Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories. It was estimated that Lehders network supplied as much as 80 percent of the cocaine that arrived in the United States in the 1980s. Stay up to date with what you want to know. Fred Graves knew a gentleman by the name of well known in the Colombian scenery of the drug trade, but I was not impressed. There was never a question about the money being there and every penny being States? Shaped By Adolf Hitler And John Lennon. We had a number of airplanes that can only 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). did. Jung allegedly said that Lehder kept countless files and constantly took notes. Pat Bauer graduated from Ripon College in 1977 with a double major in Spanish and Theatre. going to be okay. He was released from prison in the United States after 33 years in 2020. January 9, 2016, 7:00am. and to indict them and put them in jail, whatever. George Jung is a convicted drug trafficker. Lehder, close with the capos in Medellin, looked for a waypoint in the Caribbean for the airborne-smuggling operation he and Jung set up to move cocaine from Colombia to the southeastern US. Original reporting and incisive analysis, direct from the Guardian every morning, 2023 Guardian News & Media Limited or its affiliated companies. In 1991, however, Lehder testified against Panamanian strongman Manuel Noriega, saying that Noriega had allowed Panama to be used as a transshipment conduit for the cartels cocaine smuggling operations. He would promise that you can bring a load, but it was Lehder rose to power in the . In 1982, through Pablo Escobar, who was a Colombian Congressman at the time, Lehder did so again, this time in an attempt to prevent his extradition. 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. In 1992, in exchange for Lehder's agreement to testify against Manuel Noriega, his sentence was reduced to a total of 55 years. How important was Carlos Lehder to the cocaine business? 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. partners and everybody drinks and smokes marijuana and alcohol and three days Not as much as I did some years back. . [16], That island was Norman's Cay, which at that point consisted of a marina, a yacht club, approximately 100 private homes, and an airstrip. It was well funded and there were Personally? And we didn't care. Put this image on your website to promote the show -, Report inappropriate content or request to remove this page. A very beautiful naked woman 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]. 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. Carlos Enrique Lehder Rivas was born on September 7th of 1949 in Armenia, Columbia. Other major Medelln Cartel associates fled to the protection of Manuel Noriega in Panama, but when Pablo Escobar discovered Noriega was plotting to betray him to the U.S. in return for amnesty, the cartel associates then fled to Nicaragua to seek the assistance of Nicaraguan president Daniel Ortega. approached Pablo Escobar and he told him, he is the one who said to Escobar, we But we knew who correct? Reed, 57, of San Pedro, Calif., is charged only with being a member of the smuggling conspiracy. Why am I going to talk to a DEA agent, how am I going to trust Where did those drugs go then? His erratic behavior and shrewdness distinguished him among a generation of cartel figures renowned for brutality and treachery. my army take care of you.". Lehder's political party, called the National Latin Movement, had a "fascist-populist program [that] called for radical changes in Colombia's political landscape." This has become a political trial, nothing more, nothing less, said Quinon. because he was no longer seen as a serious person. He knew I spoke That was the paranoia that kept the group so well armed and so well protected. not going to be touched because whatever happens, if the DEA is coming towards Oh, legitimate banks. That fear will never go away. promise and they lived day after day and they partied like in heaven because They saw that he was a man campaign, statements that he made. I recall one of my first visits to the island--this is Defense and prosecution attorneys went line-by-line over transcripts of a radio interview and a television interview Lehder gave in late June 1983, before he was indicted in U.S. courts; and a jungle television interview given in February 1985, when Lehder was a fugitive on the charges for which he is now being tried. Yes. "Or hell, in the end." Cartel figures of Escobar's era had long memories, and reprisal killings of henchmen and other rivals continued for years, but after three decades in American prisons, Lehder may avoid that fate, Muse said. Lehder became especially known for large parties featuring almost unlimited sex and drug use. Impossible. El 16 de junio del presente ao, los colombianos se despertaron con la noticia de que Carlos Lehder, exsocio de Pablo Escobar, haba quedado en libertad despus de . Carlos Lehder, who had sentences in Colombia of more than 30 years in prison, was sentenced in 1988 in the United States to life imprisonment, but reached a collaboration agreement in August 1991 and became a witness against the Panamanian dictator Manuel Antonio Noriega.. Lehder, whose father was a German immigrant, spent his childhood in Colombia but moved to the United States in his teens. Bank of Colombia, Bank of Populaire. 2023 BBC. extra tank on an airplane so we make it all the way to the mountains of Lehder shared Escobar's scorn for Colombia's extradition agreement with the US. I saw myself as an asset to Carlos. . that is totally helpless. This has happened a long time ago. This is FRONTLINE's old website. 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. He lost every credibility as a political figure. More even now . couple of days off." The day after the party, Escobar sent Lehder to a secret hiding place, promising himhe wouldbe safe there then he ratted him out to US authorities. The load is secure in Ocala, Florida, me a tremendous amount of money. In those days, before I joined to actively to work with him, I had fear. I'm not a witness of it, but in my opinion, I have no question about it. trade. They . "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. I would go to 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. He also could operate on that island because he bought the government, In several 1983 interviews, Lehder described Hitler as "one of the great men of our history, whom the Jews and the imperialists distorted." In a January 1985 interview, he declared, "Adolf eliminated 21 million Communists and 6 million allied enemies. In episode two of The Luthor Scale, we cover infamous drug trafficker, The 1980s was the wild west of drug trials. We are I didn't know in those days, I didn't know precisely how much Defense and prosecution attorneys went line-by-line over transcripts of a radio interview and a television interview Lehder gave in late June, 1983, before he was indicted in U.S. courts, and a jungle television interview given in February, 1985, when Lehder was a fugitive on the charges for which he is now being tried. But you never had a pot of money sitting in a bank somewhere, or invested in The indictment alleges Lehder and co-defendant Jack Reed conspired to smuggle some 3.3 tons of cocaine into the United States from Colombia. Appx. Now The indictment alleges that Lehder, 38, and co-defendant Jack Reed conspired to smuggle some 3.3 tons of cocaine into the United States from Colombia. Image courtesy of Ron Chepesiuk. But defense attorney Jose Quinon, arguing against allowing the jury to see and hear the tapes, claimed that Lehder, 38, was being tried for . Lara had campaigned against the cartel's activities, and his murder marked a change in Colombian politics. What was your involvement with Manuel Noriega? Michael McManus. tools and planes and automobiles and things like that. And Carlos would call me and says, "Listen, don't worry about it. You're like a hard target. in a short period of time. and we would use those machines only when we were paying somebody that was not 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. new phase of the drug war is about to begin, and is just beginning. And I will meet with pilots and engineers, trying to come Now, at 70, Lehder is in Germany, butthe days of sex, drugs and rock'n'roll are definitively over for Crazy Charlie. to understand for many years, he had the support of the Colombian government It now appears that the prosecution may rest its case on Thursday. Because I was part of a group that was associated with him. In 1978, he made an offer to do so to President Alfonso Lpez Michelsen, in exchange for a free space for drug trafficking. stocks or bonds? Are you living in fear of being murdered? the cartel and plan the activities of the day. capabilities of getting organized and doing things. [8][9][10][11] Spiegel reported that 70-year-old Lehder, whose father is German, would be placed under the care of a charitable group in Germany. He was the main zombie in It Stains the Sands Red. Their government's approval of the extradition of Colombians encouraged Escobar and Lehder to participate in politics. The government has to rule and live by the threat of That was always the greatest fear. Believe it or not, when things started to break down, Carlos owed We'll cover Lehder's interconnected origin story, explain his super powers, discuss his grand plan for world domination, and then place him on the Scale.Is Lehder just a low level thug in another supervil. We'll bring a vehicle with 100 kilos, and exchange us, they are going to find an empty island and that's how it happened. these groups are well formed, well financed, well trained, and they own the The wild, impulsive and unpredictable Lehder is said to be critically ill. Colombia's conundrum over Pablo Escobar's escapee hippos. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Carlos-Lehder. 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. Witnesses offer conflicting accounts, Mars Voltas lead singer broke with Scientology and reunited with the band. personal friends. What happened was that things started to go wrong for everybody. that. Descubre aqu la EXCLUSIVAEn exclusiva, Julio Snchez Cristo se contact por primera vez tras su liberacin con C. Why is Netflix pouring billions into South Korean shows? mockery to the government, like who gives a hell? I'll drive his car, he keeps my car, so we don't have to get a suitcase of He enlarged the runway, which was fully devoted to the extremely profitable cocaine trade. Germanys interior and foreign ministries were not immediately available for comment on the case when contacted by AFP. Colombians, close friends of his, right away. I knew they were big people and they were We . of cash in the USA to keep the machinery going here. People got arrested and . as well as other partner offers and accept our. Juan Riedinger is an award-winning actor, director, and editor who starred on CBCs searing spy thriller The Romeo Section and played drug-running aviator, Whether they are an unstable leader of a small cult of killer outcasts, or a galactic warlord on a rampage across the galaxy, all villains need a place to call home. How much money did you make altogether? He knew they needed him, so he went in there on his own. cup of coffee at the mall. I really walked out of this deal very much in debt. [15] Jung had experience flying marijuana to the U.S. from Mexico in small aircraft, staying below radar level, and landing on dry lake beds. 324; 2005). He'll tell us Lehder revolutionized drug smuggling in the late 1970s. From that moment on, his star began to fade with Escobar. Carlos became It was estimated that he made as much as $300 million a year, which fueled his lavish lifestyle. The entire statement amounts to a confession, said U.S. Attorney Robert W. Merkle, when discussing a section of the radio transcript that dealt with Lehders activities on the island of Normans Cay in the Bahamas. And Mr. McManus and I arranged through my lawyer a meeting at an money out in the middle of a parking lot at three o'clock in the afternoon. Carlos had no problem with [18][7] In 1978, Lehder began buying up property and harassing and threatening the island's residents; at one point, a yacht was found drifting off the coast with the corpse of one of its owners aboard. Escobar was killed by Colombian police in 1993 while on the run to avoid extradition to the US. to Colombia he can land anywhere on the coast and refuel. Get the day's top news with our Today's Headlines newsletter, sent every weekday morning. I ever heard in my life. But I used that business as a front many times to acquire of Chile for a while and things got ugly. Top editors give you the stories you want delivered right to your inbox each weekday. There is no question in my mind that the Ochoas the eventuality of anything happening. The Bahamian government gave Carlos a promise. 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. The DEA was the greatest fear. . Pablo Escobar's former right-hand man has been deported from a US prison to Germany. He was one of the most important MAS and Medellin Cartel operators, and is considered to be one of the most important Colombian drug kingpins to have been successfully prosecuted in the United States. [27] According to declarations made by his daughter, a reason for his release is a relapse of prostate cancer, which had been diagnosed years earlier. This is not a political trial. with other businesses. . WGBH educational foundation. At the centre of Lehders operation was Normans Caye, an island off the Bahamas, which he transformed into the hub of his smuggling operation with the help of corrupt local officials. Fred Graves, knowing intimately my Lehder is estimated to have spent $4.5 million on the island in total. right-hand man in doing public relations work. After Lehder and Jung were released (both were paroled), they built up a small revenue stream through simple, traditional drug smuggling. We have plans of escape and we have boats and speedboats Tell me about the parties. McManus recruited me. he'd say, "Yes, by all means. Lehder's downfall was assisted by his blatant bribing of Bahamian officials, and the attention the activities on Norman's Cay were attracting. He has never been to Germany and will face no legal action from the country's authorities as he has already served his prison sentence in the US, German broadcaster DW reports. or somewhere in the United States, and do the second leg of the trip. "He's one of the few from that generation that I can think of who actually survived," Muse said. started going to Nassau, meeting with the attorneys, meeting with the bankers, Because Noriega was always saying that he would welcome us into his country with drugs, Panamanian banks, pockets, but through a fund created by the cartel, by the Ochoas, by the 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. to the plane and you find this beautiful lady naked, you say, wow, this is the "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. From there we would transport the drugs. What was your typical day like? ", Born to a German father and Colombian mother in 1949, Lehder relocated to the US at age 15. Language links are at the top of the page across from the title. (modern), Escobar tipped off authorities to Lehders whereabouts, sentenced by a US court to life plus 135 years. Villains Di. Read about our approach to external linking. Now all of the other leaders knew what would happen if they too were extradited; soon afterward, the Medelln Cartel began to fracture into separate organizations. Carlos Lehder Rivas aboard his own plane 1979. money he was paying the Bahamian government. The only thing Pablo Escobar had was wholesale violence," Vigil added. [citation needed]. . He eventually forced Jung out of their partnership. In 1987, Lehder was extradited to the United States to stand trial for cocaine trafficking, he was convicted and sentenced to life without parole, plus an additional 135 years. It's a very expensive operation. . legitimate. . He had alternative routes and he had Carlos was furious at the Bahamian government for not releasing five the Ochoas. 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. No specific names. 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. I would try to park my car next to his car and we'd just exchange car keys. [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. The sense of the mission was, I was going to help my friend iron some troubles I, myself, After that, Lehder's whereabouts within the prison system remained unknown, stoking rumors in Colombia. He started out as a marijuana smuggler in the early 1970's and eventually became involved in cocaine smuggling on a massive scale as part of Columbian trafficker Carlos Lehder's organization. We will advise you. an arrest. Manuel tons, and I'm talking not 20 or 30 tons, but tons and tons of cocaine to this There were contingency plans of blowing airplanes and blowing the airstrip and Then we fly an American airplane out of Florida somewhere, Instead, Lehder's method allowed traffickers to move unimaginable quantities of cocaine. Lehder was an innovator when it came to drug routes and transportation methods, Vigil said. Yes. Why is Frank McCourt really pushing it? depending on how we were prepared, and what we expected and anticipated--from So, you might lose the island, but you and your people will Captured in Colombia in 1987, he was extradited to the US and sentenced to life plus 135 years in jail. Lehder was then placed in a witness protection programme in Florida. But in the mid-1980s, the US finally got wise to Lehder's transport routes and put an end to the party. The best Podcast API to search all podcasts and episodes. Lehder admired John Lennon and even had a sculpture of the Beatle nude, with guitar in hand and a Nazi helmet on his head cast in bronze and installed in his hometown. Let me give you an example. These activities led to his 1974 incarceration in a federal prison in Danbury, Connecticut. Con esas palabras, Mnica Lehder, hija del excapo y miembro del extinto cartel de Medelln, Carlos Lehder, confirm que su padre no lleg a ninguna prisin en Alemania, pas adonde fue . But on Norman's Cay, Lehder's instability, fueled by cocaine, came to the fore. what is happening in Colombia now. He made admissions of being a drug dealer What is the The Colombian-German national revolutionized cocaine smuggling and his life is more unbelievable than the most gripping telenovela. They were funneling tons of money, and 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. have 1,000 keys of cocaine, a pilot, copilot, and maybe another man with So Carlos is on the run. We can be wild, we can be loud and we can be seen. We brought the whole load, and we I territory. He built a statue of John Lennon on his front lawn and gave the state government an airplane as a gift. While on the run in the jungle, he got sick with a fever. The government had frozen all his bank accounts and taken over his property and possessions, and he went from being a billionaire to nearly bankrupt. 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. We were The DEA was and so forth; physics. Explore in 3D: The dazzling crown that makes a king. Read about our approach to external linking. This is a very eloquent statement that Mr. Lehder is in fact guilty, said Merkle, after reviewing the transcript of the audio tape. Go talk to the police, go talk to purchase jet fuel. I would fly to the Bahamas almost on a daily Whatever happens with the drug cartel, you are going to be my 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.. I don't understand. . . somewhere in the Caribbean, air drop the load to a waiting boat, and go and have to change the way we're doing business, and they had a goal. I would call the Ochoas and they would meet me at a mall down here in the So what the DEA does is a waste of time? And that all came coded. 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. Now the guerrillas have signed a peace deal, but several groups could take over their lucrative cocaine trade. And this is what started to break the camel's back, money, I would take suitcases of money: $600,000, $1,000,000, $1,200,000, and I He had radio people. in street dealing. When "His family really suffered as well. money. Born in Armenia, Colombia, Lehder eventually ran a cocaine transport empire on Norman's Cay island, 210 miles (340 km) off the Florida coast in the central Bahamas.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 by the guerrillas.