Colombia: The Fall of a Cocaine Kingpin

The tip was vague: check out a mansion 20 miles outside Medellin, the hub of the country's cocaine industry. At daybreak a 20-man elite police unit moved in. When the gunfight ended almost half an hour later, all 15 people inside the house were under arrest. But it was only when police demanded the papers of the captives that they realized they had cornered one of Colombia's most powerful and dangerous cocaine drug lords. Exclaimed Police Major William Lesmes: "We've caught him! This is Carlos Lehder Rivas." Dressed in a T shirt and blue jeans, Lehder muttered, "This is the one place I never expected you'd catch me."

The arrest of the drug boss and his 14 bodyguards was no small coup. The baby-faced Lehder, 37, is a leader of the Medellin cartel, a powerful crime cabal that is said to supply 80% of the world's cocaine. The group rakes in billions of dollars annually, allegedly smuggling up to 15 tons of cocaine monthly into the U.S. and Europe. Aware that underlings might try to rescue their billionaire boss, U.S. and Colombian officials hastily drew up papers to extradite Lehder to the U.S. Before the sun had set, he was en route to Florida, where he will stand trial on a 1981 indictment on charges of smuggling drugs and running a criminal enterprise, which could put him behind bars for life.

As satisfying as Lehder's capture was for both the Bogota government and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, it will not put the Medellin operations out of business. Lehder is only one of the cartel's half a dozen barons, and there is speculation that he may have been set up by one of his brethren who found the arrogant Lehder too power hungry. "We cannot say we have enacted a crippling blow by this arrest," conceded DEA Administrator Jack Lawn. "Its impact lies in the fact that the government of Colombia, in spite of all its losses, has declared its intent."

Bogota's move against Lehder was taken at great risk. Over the past few years, Colombia's on-again-off-again war on drugs has claimed the lives of dozens of judges, policemen and journalists. The battle had slowed noticeably when Virgilio Barco Vargas was sworn in as President last August. The early months of his administration suggested to some that Barco was more interested in his country's economic troubles and did not assign high priority to the drug war.

But in recent months the President has come on strong. When the Colombian Supreme Court used a technicality to void a controversial extradition treaty with the U.S. that was aimed at drug traffickers, Barco quickly reactivated the agreement. A few days later, a prominent newspaperman who had been openly critical of drug traffickers was slain in Bogota. Barco ordered a sweeping offensive against la mafia, as the drug barons are known. Police stepped up raids, arrests and drug seizures. Since then, Barco has signed several decrees making it easier for authorities to move against drug traffickers.