Colombian Drug Lord Sentenced to 30 Years in U.S.

Fabio Ochoa, once one of the world's most feared drug kingpins, was sentenced to 365 months in prison on drug conspiracy and money laundering charges by a federal judge in Miami on August 26.

DEA Administrator Karen Tandy said "I am extremely pleased with the sentence received by Fabio Ochoa today. In the 1980s, he was a founding member of the Medellin Cartel, one of the most ruthless and violent criminal organizations the world has ever known. We owe a debt of gratitude to the officers and agents from the Colombian National Police and the DEA, along with the Assistant U.S. Attorneys from the Southern District of Florida, who worked night and day for the last five years to bring Ochoa to justice."

Ochoa was extradited by Colombian authorities to the U.S. in September 2001 to stand trial on charges emanating from Operation Millennium, a joint DEA-Colombian investigation in 1999 that shut down a massive cocaine trafficking organization. Operation Millennium revealed Ochoa to be heavily involved in a conspiracy to ship 30 tons of cocaine per month into the United States from 1997-1999. On May 28, 2003, a Miami federal jury convicted Ochoa