Carlos Lehder Biography

Carlos Lehder was born on September 7, 1949, in Armenia, Colombia, into a German-Colombian family. His father was a German engineer, while his mother was a Colombian school teacher.

Early on, the family resided in the Medellín area, where they operated a semi-legitimate used car business. It was during this time that Lehder first got involved in criminal activities. He began stealing cars and supplying them to his father, who sold them as used cars.

By the time Carlos Lehder became an adult, he had completely immersed himself into criminal activities. Starting off as a stolen car dealer, he progressed to becoming a marijuana dealer and a smuggler of stolen cars between US and Canada.

Lehder’s car theft business got him into a prison in Danbury, Connecticut. It was while serving his sentence that he decided to start dealing in cocaine. By then, drug addiction in America had caught up with the youth and more and more people demanded the drug. He struck a deal with his prison inmate George Jung, a former marijuana dealer, as his future partner in the cocaine business.

Lehder updated himself with all the necessary information required for starting his cocaine business. He learned tricks of money laundering and smuggling and also trained himself in the skills required for cocaine transport. He spend hours questioning inmates and taking down notes. He filed all the information for future use.

After their release, Carlos Lehder and Jung started with small-scale traditional drug smuggling. Though their ultimate aim was to revolutionize the cocaine trade by transporting it to the American soil, they could realize it only through small steps.

The duo’s first successful cocaine transportation was realized when two young women who were on paid holiday to Antigua brought the drug to the country in their suitcase. The trick paid off and both the women indulged in several such trips to help Lehder and Jung have enough to buy an aeroplane.

Instead of buying an aeroplane, Lehder used stolen aeroplane for his burgeoning cocaine empire. He hired a professional pilot who transported the drug into US via Bahamas. In no time, he built on his financial resources, bribed Bahamian government officials for political and judicial protection and started building connection and trust with Colombian suppliers.

Until the 1970s, all seemed OK between Lehder-Jung, but soon, it all began to swerve, thanks to Lehder’s secret scheming of securing a personal island in Bahamas and turning it into the his fledgling empire’s headquarters.

Norman's Cay, the island that Carlos Lehder eyed upon, had about 100 private homes, a yacht club, a marina and an air strip. To evacuate the island, he started torturing the residents to the point of making them leave it, either forcefully or through bribery. His efforts finally paid off as Norman's Cay came under the control of Lehder. It served as his privately owned lawless paradise.

During the time Lehder was directing his resources to take control of Norman's Cay, he forced Jung out of the partnership. He then found a new partner in international criminal financier Robert Vesco. By 1978, Lehder had turned Cay into a drug smuggling hub. He made it his tropical hideaway and a playground for his drug deals.

Lehder and his associates flew cocaine in from Colombia by jet and then reloaded it into the small aircraft that further distributed it to locations in Georgia, Florida and the Carolinas. Lehder received 1 kilo out of every 4 that was transported through Norman's Cay.

For the smooth running of the cocaine transportation, Lehder built a 3,300-foot runway protected by radar, bodyguards, and Doberman attack dogs. Almost 300 kg of cocaine would arrive on the island daily. His personal wealth rose into billions of dollars.

He expanded his influence into the political arena as well. He founded the National Latino Movement which managed three congressional seats and popularized itself by making speeches against extradition.

After the assassination, the then Colombian President, Belisario Betancur, revised his previous policy and announced his willingness to extradite Colombian drug lords to the United States. Lehder, who by then had become a big name in the drug industry, featured at the top in the crackdown list.

Carlos Lehder’s downfall started when American investigative journalist Brian Ross exposed Lehder’s blatant bribing of Bahamian officials and his unauthorized and unlawful activities on Norman's Cay. In his report on September 1983, in NBC, he made public the corruption of Bahamian government leaders.

Ross’ report resulted in dire consequences for Lehder – he could not return to Norman's Cay. His bank accounts were seized and so were his property and possessions. Once a billionaire, he was now a man without money and power. To escape arrest, he ran into the jungle where he got ill.

Just when everything seemed dimed out for Lehder, Pablo Escobar came to his rescue. He sent a helicopter for Lehder and brought him back to Medellín, where he provided medical attention. When Lehder fully recovered Escobar hired him as a bodyguard.

Carlos Lehder wanted to rebuild his fortune; he established a farm in Colombia. According to sources, one of his new employees informed the police of his location. As per some other report, members of the Medellín Cartel were not happy to have Lehder by their side. They believed he would jeopardize their cocaine empire. To throw him out, Escobar himself provided Lehder's whereabouts to the police, leading to his capture.

In 1995, there were rumours of Lehder being set free, but it was later learned that Lehder had been tranferred to another prison. He was held in WITSEC, the US Bureau of Prisons’ version of the federal Witness Protection Program.

On June 24, 2015, Carlos Lehder wrote a letter to then President of Colombia Juan Manuel Santos, requesting the latter’s mediation so as to be allowed to return to Colombia.

Lehder was released from prison on June 16, 2020, and escorted to Germany and handed over to German authorities by two US officials.

Carlos Lehder is known for his interest in astrology and often incorporated astrological beliefs into his decision-making process.

Lehder is a skilled pilot and played a key role in the transportation of drugs using small aircraft, earning him the nickname "The Crazy Pilot."

He is one of the co-founders of the infamous Medellín Cartel, which dominated the global cocaine trade in the 1980s.

Lehder was one of the first drug traffickers to use remote Caribbean islands as transshipment points for cocaine, revolutionizing the drug smuggling industry.

Despite his criminal activities, Lehder was also known for his charisma and charm, which helped him establish connections with powerful figures in politics and law enforcement.