Colombian cocaine trafficker Carlos Enrique Lehder Rivas was born on September 11th, 1949, in Armenia. As a member of the Muerte a Secuestradores paramilitary group and a co-founder of the Medellin Cartel, he is well-known in his homeland of Colombia. Carlos is presently detained in the United States.
Carlos Lehder Biography
Born on September 7, 1949, Carlos Enrique Lehder Rivas is a Colombian actor, director, producer, and musician. In Armenia, Carlos’s father worked as an engineer on a variety of projects, including a church. Carlos was raised with three brothers and his family managed a small inn where German immigrants would gather. Nazis were said to have taken refuge here during World War II, according to rumors. Having grown up in New Jersey, Carlos and his mother relocated to New York City at the age of 15.
Carlos Lehder Net Worth
It was once estimated that Carlos Lehder had an estimated net worth of $2.7 billion. On his own private island in the Bahamas, Carlos Lehder established and ran one of the largest cocaine trafficking networks in the world. It’s safe to say he was one of the wealthiest drug traffickers ever. He was jailed in the United States after amassing enormous wealth through his narcotics enterprises. Lehder is currently living in Germany, where he served half of his reduced sentence. When Lehder was a drug smuggler, Pablo Escobar was only one of the famous names he worked within the worldwide trade.
Carlos Lehder Career in crime
While in the United States and Canada, Lehder began his criminal career by trafficking marijuana and stolen vehicles, but he was quickly arrested. For his sentence, he made the best of it by talking to other convicts and learning as much about the global drug trade as he could. In the end, he came up with a strategy to utilize small planes to transport cocaine over international borders.
His bond with fellow convict George Jung, a marijuana smuggler who could fly planes and carry drugs, was also a source of support. Using drug mule money, Lehder and Jung bought an airplane after their release.
As soon as they had hired a professional pilot, they began their meticulously planned smuggling operation into the United States from the Bahamas. It didn’t take long for it to become evident that Lehder had far more ambitious plans than Jung.
Jung became a small-time, independent Pablo Escobar smuggler while Lehder purchased a private island in the Bahamas, Norman’s Cay. His coercion and threats forced the previous residents to leave, even though he had only purchased part of the island’s territory at that time. Lehder then purchased the entire island for $4.5 million, making him the island’s sole owner.
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Carlos Lehder To his detriment
Norman’s Cay was Lehder’s crowning achievement as well as his most serious flaw. Even though the private island allowed Lehder to run his worldwide narcotics enterprise off, it also attracted the wrong kind of scrutiny. The world community was beginning to discover that Lehder was bribing Bahamian officials openly. Over time, politicians in Columbia began to take drug trafficking more seriously.
Carlos Lehder’s bank accounts and properties were frozen and seized by the Bahamas’ government in 1983. The rich drug lord was wiped out in a matter of hours. Because of Pablo Escobar’s quick thinking, Lehder’s life wasn’t in jeopardy. As a result of Escobar’s intervention, Lehder was flown to the hospital via helicopter. After the incident, Lehder took on the role of bodyguard for Escobar. Only a few more years of Lehder’s freedom remained before he was apprehended by Columbian authorities. Some believe that Escobar betrayed Lehder, handing him up to the authorities in exchange for money.
As soon as he was extradited to the United States, Lehder worked with authorities to gather information against other drug traffickers and corrupt politicians, including Manuel Noriega. Despite this, Lehder was given a life sentence plus an additional 135 years. Lehder’s lawyers contended over the years that he should be released for a variety of reasons. Because of an extradition treaty between Columbia and the United States, Lehder’s attorneys argued that he should be released. According to the terms of the agreement, a Columbian citizen extradited to another country can serve no more than 30 years in prison.
Release: After completing his term in the United States, Carlos Lehder was said to have been moved to Germany in 2020. Lehder was in a low-security jail in Florida for the last several years before his release, where he had access to things like TV and email. Because Lehder has no family in Germany, he is being rehabilitated by a German nonprofit. After his release at the age of 70, it seems unlikely that he will return to his illegal enterprise.
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Carlos Lehder Personal views
Carlos Lehder’s strong militant worldview was one of the most unique aspects of his character. Adolf Hitler’s teachings influenced Carlos Lehder from an early age. Eventually, the Latino Nationalist Party would be formed by Lehder. The far-right party opposed extradition since it was based on Nazi ideas. As a result of Lehder’s violent activities, several Colombian drug traffickers may have been concerned. It has been speculated that Lehder’s associates betrayed him because of the attention that his militant activities were generating for their collective drug-dealing operations.