FBIS3-21724 "jptdd010__l94029"
JPRS-TDD-94-010L Document Type:JPRS Document Title:Narcotics 7 March 1994
LATIN AMERICA COLOMBIA

Details of Fabio Ochoa's Confession Reported

94WD0225A Santa Fe de Bogota EL TIEMPO in Spanish 7 Feb 94 p 16A 94WD0225A Santa Fe de Bogota EL TIEMPO Language: Spanish Article Type:CSO [Article by Camilo Chaparro] [Text] A week before Juan David Ochoa Vasquez is to work out a settlement with the Prosecutor General's Office, EL TIEMPO obtained exclusive access to Fabio Ochoa Vasquez's confession. In this confession the youngest of the Ochoa Vasquez brothers gave the Prosecutor General's Office new details on how the Medellin drug traffickers operated. Ochoa's statement revealed routes, the modus operandi, drug destinations, money laundering, and their ties with the owners of "Tranquilandia." Based on this confession, which was supported and confirmed by testimony from two other drug traffickers who have confessed, Jaime Mejia Sanin and Jorge Luis Ochoa Vasquez, and by statements given to U.S. Justice Department officials by Max Mermelstein and Carlos Lehder, the state on 20 December 1993 sentenced Fabio Ochoa to eight and one-half years in prison, without reductions. As an example, Mermelstein--considered one of the Medellin Cartel's principal contacts in the United States--said that between 1981 and 1983 he worked with the cartel and helped bring 56 tons of cocaine to the United States. Speaking of the youngest of the Ochoa brothers involved in drug trafficking, Mermelstein said he first met him in 1978 and received from him "a kilo of cocaine in Miami; later he [Ochoa] showed me another 100 kilos in an apartment." He added that on a number of occasions he met with members of the Medellin Cartel--among whom he mentioned Fabio Ochoa--in Panama, Miami, and the capital of Antioquia, to discuss drug trafficking deals. He also said he had visited the "Tranquilandia" lab, set up by the cartel between 1983 and 1984 in the Yari forests (Caqueta department).
The "Stake" System
Fabio Ochoa confessed to being involved in drug trafficking for 16 years, starting in 1974 and leaving the business, he said, in mid-1990, when he turned himself in. Ochoa's testimony, obtained exclusively by EL TIEMPO, says that "he primarily sold drugs, periodically exporting varying amounts of cocaine, which increased over time, to the United States." According to this confessed trafficker, his first shipment consisted of a half kilo of drugs; over the years he sent tons of drugs to the United States. Of these amounts, Ochoa said that only part belonged to him, as they were sent through a system the drug traffickers called "a stake," meaning that the shipment did not come from a single person, but from several people. Although Ochoa gave details on some of the shipments, the Prosecutor General's Office and the special judge of Medellin, who endorsed the settlement between the state and this criminal, said that because of the passage of time and the informal and clandestine way in which those operations were conducted, no further information is available on each of the drug shipments in which the youngest of the Ochoa clan participated. Ochoa said that in 1988 he participated "as a stake-holder in shipping cocaine to the United States." The special Medellin judge revealed in his sentence that the cocaine was shipped on a route that started in Bolivia and went through Argentina. On this shipment, the document reveals that Ochoa faked the import of salted anchovies to New York to conceal 1,124 kilos of cocaine. In late 1989 and early 1990, he was also involved in sending cocaine to Spain, but the final destination of this shipment was the United States. The youngest of the Ochoa family, the first of the family to turn himself in, also confessed to the crime of conspiring to commit a crime, as he set up and ran a drug trafficking organization.
Failure in Darien
He also stated that there were links with some drug processing labs and that he had lent approximately $250,000 to the owners of "Tranquilandia," possibly so they would complete the construction of that laboratory in the Colombian forests. Ochoa added that they paid that money back with "cheaper and better quality merchandise." In 1984, according to his confession, he again provided money to finance a large drug processing lab in the Darien region near the Panamanian border, but according to Ochoa, this facility never operated because it was discovered by the authorities. According to Ochoa, on "one occasion in 1986, he rented land and had a runway developed near the banks of the Middle Magdalena River. This runway was to be used for transporting drugs." This clandestine runway, he added, was a failure because it was in an area with strong guerrilla influence. The drug trafficker also confessed to illicit enrichment, "acquiring horses, livestock, cars, and ranches." These assets came to an approximate total value of $2 million. "He is prepared to turn over the equivalent of this amount, since this property has been converted into other assets, both personal and real estate property," said the special judge in confirming the negotiated settlement reached between the Prosecutor General's Office and the accused. Ochoa also confessed that he had used various persons from his organization in financial and commercial operations to launder the dollars he received from drug trafficking. These operations took place in Panama and in Medellin.