Carlos Lehder: Former Medellin Cartel boss released in Colombia after judge rules his sentence expired

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Colombian authorities released former Medellin Cartel boss Carlos Lehder on Monday after a judge ruled that a drug trafficked sentence issued in Colombia against the 75-year-old.

Lehder was arrested on Friday night shortly after landing at Bogota Airport, with immigration officials saying he was still sought in the South American country on charges of drug trafficking and weapons.

Lehder became the first Colombian drug dealer to be extradited to the United States after being arrested on his farm during a party.

The former drug dealer was extradited to the US in 1987, where he served more than 30 years in prison.

In 2020, Lehder was released after serving two -thirds of his US sentence. He was deported to Germany, where he is also a citizen.

Lehder has not returned to Colombia since his extradition to the United States. His lawyer, Sondra Macollins, said he tried to visit family members when he arrived on Friday.

“He recovers from cancer and has problems with high blood pressure,” Macollins told the Blu radio of Colombia. “We’re talking about someone who spent years in dark cells.”

Pablo Escobar and Carlos Lehder (American heroes channel)

The Colombian authorities found Lehder guilty of drug trafficking in 1995, while serving the separate sentence in an American prison.

The cartel boss was sentenced to 24 years in prison in Colombia, which means his sentence expired in 2019, according to Colombian law.

The son of a German immigrant who arrived in Colombia in the 1920s, Lehder began his criminal career in the 1970s when he lived with family members in New York.

He used his contacts and his knowledge of English to open cocaine markets for the Medellin Partel and became an important ally of his boss Pablo Escobar.

Lehder bought land in the Bahamas that became an important point for cocaine flights.

In Colombia, he owns a luxurious rural hotel, known as the Posada Alemana, which Lions had on his site and a great statue of Lehder’s favorite musician, John Lennon.

In the US, Lehder was initially sentenced to life in prison, but managed to reduce his sentence by providing our investigators with information used to prosecute Panamese dictator Manuel Noriega.

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