Capítulo 30: Arrest:-PART3
From another recording: "I have never transported drugs. It is just that my lands, the flexibility afforded by their location being 200 miles from the US, provided the opportunity for the Colombians, who were being trapped like flies over there with little suitcases and with little boxes, of going in there, by means of a different system, a different means, a different platform."
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Speaking loudly, one of Lehder's lawyers expressed outrage. "This is a case in which the government brought into this courtroom twenty-nine bought witnesses."
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Holding up a MAC-10 that had been found on Norman's Cay, the US Attorney attacked Lehder's businessman defence. "You have seen tragedy upon tragedy come into this courtroom. They were at war with society, together with Mr Lehder. He's still at war. He hasn't stopped. A trail of bribery, corruption, violence and personal debasement has been created and fostered by Mr Lehder with the help of those witnesses, and that wreckage exists in Colombia, the Bahamas and the US. That wreckage is the legacy of Mr Lehder's children. That wreckage in Colombia and the Bahamas and the US is an open wound, and that wound will not be healed by vengeance. That wound will only be healed by justice and truth and reconciliation." Holding up a spoon, he said it held one thirtieth of a gram of cocaine, and that Lehder was responsible for bringing in eighteen million grams or one billion snorts.
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"Mr Lehder was an opportunity waiting to meet another opportunity: the US demand for drugs.. His strength, ladies and gentlemen, was he was able to capitalise on the weakness of others… the disenchanted, the rogues, the crippled. He bought, charmed or pushed aside all obstacles. He's finally come to a situation where he can't do that."
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In his final rebuttal to Lehder's lawyers, the US Attorney said, "The striking story in this case is that America, a substantial portion of America, has been an active partner with Mr Lehder. While it is true, as Mr Lehder told you on his own tapes, tragically, that his acts were motivated by hatred and bitterness against the US, it is also true that all of Mr Lehder's money and all of his guns and all of his power could not force American pilots to fly for him, could not force American businessmen to sell property to him, could not force aircraft sales-men to sell planes for cash, could not force victims of Mr Lehder's crimes to inject cocaine into their arms. or to snort it up their noses. The story of this case is the story of an absence of love, an absence of responsibility, a fleeing from responsibility by the witnesses in this case and by Mr Lehder. So your verdict is an act of reconciliation with truth, an act of reconciliation with the past. You have a duty and you have a privilege of returning a true verdict in this case, a duty which you must not shirk and you must not fear.
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Thank you.
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After the jury left to deliberate, Lehder held up a sign to the journalists and other attendees: "Just Say No to Racism."
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Over seven days, the jury deliberated for forty-two hours. In the packed courtroom, the anticipation of the verdict was palpable. While three women on the jury cried, the judge announced that Lehder was guilty on all counts. With a blank expression, Lehder gazed at the floor.
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Both legal teams made announcements to the press. "Until we take the problem out of the schoolyard," one of Lehder's lawyers said, "you can put all of the Carlos Lehders you want in prison, but the problem is it doesn't work. What have we accomplished? Do we have one gram of drugs less available to us because of this prosecution?"
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The US Attorney claimed it was a victory for the good guys and the American people. It "reflects to people in other nations that we are a nation of laws and will not tolerate the violence of drug traffickers." As if challenging Pablo directly, he said that the cartel had "nowhere to run, nowhere to hide…. I think their days are numbered."
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A journalist asked about the effect on the drug trade.
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"The War on Drugs is not measured in terms of the amount of drugs that's seized. It's a war of the human spirit... the real issue is will. The will of the American people versus the will of the cartel." He said that the violent nature of the Medellin Cartel would be its downfall. "The Carlos Lehders of the world are going to have a narrower and narrower opportunity to wreak their crimes on this country."
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Lehder had grown a beard by the time of his sentencing hearing on July 20, 1988. He spoke for almost half of an hour. "I feel like an Indian in a white man's court." He said he was a political prisoner, a victim of an overambitious prosecutor, and it had been a case of "twenty-nine confessed criminals against one Latin…. Witnesses that never had a second underwear claimed they made millions from Lehder.. I was kidnapped from my own country with the complicity of some Colombian police officers… I was flown against my will to this country. It's a far worse crime than any of these allegations. I am also against drug abuse. But I am also against kidnapping and extradition. This trial is illegal."
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"The truth of the matter," the judge said,"is your main goal was to make money, and you did so at the expense of others. Your conspiracy burned a path of destruction and despair from the coca fields of South America to the streets and byways of this country. Accordingly, Mr Lehder, the sentence I impose on you today is meant to be a message for drug smugglers who control large organisations and for importers of cocaine and for street pushers. This sentence is a signal that our country will do everything in its power and within the laws to battle the drug problem that threatens the very fabric of our society."
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He sentenced Lehder to life plus 135 years without any possibility of parole.
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On the afternoon of November 21, 1987, thirty miles east of Cali, a white Porsche worth a quarter of a million dollars slowed down for a tollbooth and was instructed to pull over by two policemen. They approached the driver's side and requested to see ID. After the driver gave an unsatisfactory response, the policemen said that the car, the driver and his female passenger would have to go with them to Palmira. The driver offered $12 for them to let him go, which they refused. He increased his offer. They refused $200 and $48,000 and $400,000. There was no way around it: Jorge Ochoa was going to Palmira police headquarters.
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Ochoa had an arrest warrant for a bull smuggling conviction and for violating parole. Getting booked into the jail, he was hugged by a female lawyer, who promised to sort every. thing out. Attempting to get an official to sign his release, she made some calls, but was unsuccessful.
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From a holding cell, Ochoa was transferred to an army prison, where he spent the night. On Sunday, a military plane took him to Bogotá, where policemen on motorbikes awaited him. By armoured van with a motorbike escort, he was transported to a military complex. There was no way for him to bribe his way out of the maximum security prison cell they put him in.
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The DEA issued a statement: "The president of Colombia could be courageous and greatly assist his country by throwing out Jorge Ochoa. Once Jorge Ochoa arrives in the US, he, like Carlos Lehder, will not be able to bribe, murder or intimidate his way out of police custody."
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Many Colombians thought Ochoa would be extradited as swiftly as Lehder, but Ochoa was only being held on bull-smuggling and the Supreme Court had ruled against extradition. The government's strategy was to keep Ochoa incarcerated, while arranging his extradition. The US government sent a legal team to Bogotá to find an extradition mechanism.
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Unlike Lehder, whose status in the cartel had slipped, Ochoa was a dominant force and one of Pablo's closest friends. His extradition had to be stopped at all costs.
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Shortly after Ochoa arrived at his cell in the military complex, a dozen hit men were dispatched to the house in Medellin of Gomez Martinez, the editor of the city's biggest newspaper. They banged on the door. Peeping out of a window, the editor's son yelled that murderers were outside.
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Martinez stopped watching TV, crouched behind a chair, grabbed a gun and started firing. Hit men sprayed the house with gunfire. Attempting to break down a sheet steel garage door, a van reversed into it multiple times, only bending it.
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After fifteen minutes of mayhem, a neighbour called the rest of the neighbours to arms. "They're trying to kill Gomez Martinez. Let's do something!"
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Under fire from the neighbours, a hit man was shot. His accomplices loaded him into a van and they disappeared.
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Having failed to kidnap Gomez Martinez with the goal of having him deliver a message, Pablo issued a communiqué:
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Respected Sir,
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We have found out that the government is trying by whatever means possible to extradite citizen Jorge Luis Ochoa to the United States. For us, this constitutes the vilest of outrages.
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in case citizen Jorge Luis Ochoa is extradited to the United States, we will declare absolute and total war against this country's political leaders. We will execute out of hand the principal chieftains. . .
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The Extraditables
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A week after his arrest, Ochoa's six lawyers, including three former Supreme Court justices, started to demolish the case. They were aided by the departure of the US legal team in mid December, 1987. By arguing that Ochoa had already served his time for bull-smuggling during his incarceration in Spain, Ochoa was released in time to celebrate New Year's Eve.
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Status de energia semanal
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-- Pedra de
Poder