Notorious 'Cocaine Cowboy' Carlos Lehder Released From Florida Prison
MIAMI (CBSMiami/AP) — Notorious Colombian drug lord Carlos Lehder, one of the original "cocaine cowboys" and Pablo Escobar's crime partner, has been released after a long prison sentence in the U.S. and been deported to Germany.
A lawyer for Lehder says his client left on a flight for his new home in Berlin on Monday after being released from a U.S. prison in Florida, where he had been held as part of the government's witness protection program.
The 70-year-old Lehder was one of the leaders with Escobar of the Medellin cartel that dominated the global cocaine trade in the 1980s.
He's portrayed in the Netflix series "Narcos" as a wild, ruthless criminal who set up a cocaine transit hub on a private island, Norman's Cay, a hundred miles off the coast of Florida in the Bahamas.
Escobar, his partner turned rival, never saw a U.S. jail cell, dying in a shootout with police in Medellin in 1993. But thousands of Colombian drug traffickers have since gone to U.S. prisons, many of them serving far less time than Lehder.
Arroyave, who didn't represent Lehder at the time of his arrest, said federal sentencing guidelines make it very costly for defendants who fight charges and lose in a jury trial.
"Nobody accused of drug trafficking goes to trial in the U.S. anymore," said Arroyave, who said he plans to travel soon to Berlin to share a celebratory beer with his client after such a long ordeal.
"Had he pled guilty, he would've been home 15 years ago. In today's world, there are drug traffickers far bigger that Carlos Lehder who pay five to six years."
Lehder was originally sentenced to 135 years plus life, but after agreeing to testify against former Panamanian strongman Gen. Manuel Noriega, he had his sentence reduced to 55 years.
He is a dual German-Colombia citizen. He acquired German citizenship through his father, an immigrant to Colombia. Arroyave said Lehder has no interest in returning to Colombia and German authorities provided assistance in allowing him to resettle in his adopted homeland.
