What you see below is 14 tons of Cocaine. It was confiscated in the fourth largest bust of illegal drugs in the world, but it’s just half a days work for the then Pablo Escobar and Medellín Cartel.
Pablo Escobar was one of the biggest coke kingpins in history. At the height of his criminal activities, he was earning- millions of dollars– every day.
At today’s value, this was worth around $2.2 billion. However, this would have only made a small dent in Pablo Escobar’s yearly income which was believed to be around $25 billion annually at that time.
He achieved such a high income by supplying around 50% of his cocaine to the United States. As his operation was so big, it took many vehicles to meet the demand for his drugs.
He would use boats, planes, helicopters, and even submarines to smuggle the drugs to wherever it was needed. A lot of the drugs were made in a secret laboratory in a jungle called Tranquilandia.
This laboratory had its own airstrip and a personal army. It even had off-the grid electricity and water supplies and dormitories for those who worked there.
The DEA were desperate to catch this coke Kingpin and used tracking devices on his raw materials to hunt him down and seize his drugs. The seizure took place in 1984 and the DEA recovered approximately 14 tons of cocaine.
Out-gunned, Out -manned, and Out -moneyed, one man stood in opposition :Luis Carlos Galán.
The Supreme Court of Justice of Columbia condemned Former Spy Chief General Miguel Maza Márquez to 30 years in prison, for his participation in the murder of Luis Carlos Galán , in August 1989.
General Miguel Maza Márquez –the one time worst enemy of the Medellin drug cartel and Pablo Escobar , was found guilty of allying with that same syndicate to murder a likely landslide candidate for President of Colombia Luis Carlos Galán in the August 1989.
By then, the Liberal candidate was the clear favorite to win the 1990 presidential election and had promised to extradite the drug traffickers.
And Maza Márquez was the head of the now defunct Administrative Department of Security (DAS), the Colombian secret police.
From enemy to accomplice
The ruling is particularly striking because Maza was a key figure in the struggle against the Medellín cartel in the 1980s, when Colombia was hit hard by a wave of assassinations and bombings ordered by Pablo Escobar, who died in 1993.
And Maza himself was the target of several assassination attempts ordered by Escobar and his allies.
photo: Luis Carlos Galán and his children before his murder
Luis Carlos Galán had promised to extradite the drug traffickers.
In fact, after the assassination of Galán, the Medellín cartel blew up a car bomb in front of the DAS facilities in Bogotá, killing about 70 people and leaving the headquarters of the organization half destroyed.
But now, in a 267-page ruling , the Supreme Court of Justice points out that Maza was a key ally of the paramilitaries who killed Galán on behalf of his archenemy.
According to the judges, Maza had “friendly ties” with paramilitary leader Henry Perez, who Escobar and the Medellin cartel commissioned the crime.
The magistrates believe in the testimonies according to which, while Maza led the now defunct DAS between 1985 and 1991, that agency also instructed the paramilitaries of Henry Perez to do “dirty jobs”.
The links
One of those testimonies is that of Diego Fernando Murillo, “Don Berna” , a drug trafficker friend of Pablo Escobar, who was extradited to the United States in 2008.
In a court statement, Murillo said Maza was “very close to those of Puerto Boyacá,” the town where Perez had his operations center.
photo:Carlos Galán, the son of the murdered senator, was present at the trial.
So much so, that when he escaped from the prison where he was imprisoned in Bogotá, he was aided in his escape by detectives of that organization, always according to the Court.
The court also assures the DAS helped mercenary Yair Klein enter Colombia four times. Yair Klein was in charge of training the paramilitary groups of the region where Henry Perez had his private army, in the 80s
The judges also highlighted , Maza changed Galán’s escort chief a month before the crime for a man – a former police officer named by himself – who had a history of bad behavior.
They also concluded the escort accompanying Galán on the day of his death – was only composed of six people – and was clearly insufficient in the face of the climate of violence that existed at that time in Colombia.
“Absurd accusation”
Maza, who is now 79 years old, categorically denies the accusations and refutes he had links with the paramilitaries that killed Galán.
And, among his arguments, he stated his long fierce fight against Pablo Escobar when Escobar was treated as a “hero”.
According to General Maza, the entire accusation against him is “absurd”, “irresponsible” and “contradictory”.
The decision of the Supreme Court of Justice against the former director of the DAS, however, can not be appealed .
An outspoken opponent of drug trafficking, Galan was in favor of forming an extradition treaty with the USA, and thus found himself a target of organized crime networks in Colombia.
He declared himself the enemy of Pablo Escobar and Jose Gonzalo Rodriguez also known by the nickname “El Mexicano,” both leaders of the infamous Medellin cartel.
After a number of death threats and thwarted planned attempts on his life, Galan was assassinated at a political rally in Soacha, Cundinamarca on the August 18, 1989 in front of thousands of spectators.
Luis Carlos Galan had a political career spanning from 1970 until his death in 1989, he was a well-known Liberal politician who formed his own party Nuevo Liberalismo.
Gen Miguel Maza Marquez also found guilty of contributing to the murder by reducing security around Mr Galan, days before he was killed.
The murder, in front of thousands of people, shocked Colombia and his death triggered an extensive investigation, which found that he was killed in a plot involving a political rival, and the drug lord, Pablo Escobar.
Escobar’s top hit man John Jairo Velasquez, also known as Popeye, was arrested in 1992 and convicted of the killing.
He was released from prison in 2014 after serving 22 years of a 30-year sentence.
Mr Galan and his family had received a number of death threats in the run-up to his murder on 18 August 1989.
