Word: lehder
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1980-1989
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...first shipments of cocaine to the U.S. were smuggled in suitcases; he even used his mother as a courier. From humble beginnings as a small-time pot dealer in New York in the early 1970s, Carlos Lehder Rivas rose to become a pivotal figure in the international drug trade, commanding a squadron of | airplanes that is said to have brought 15 tons of coke into the U.S. every month. Last week the onetime drug lord went on trial in a heavily guarded federal courthouse in Jacksonville...
...Lehder, said prosecuting U.S. Attorney Robert Merkle, "was to cocaine transportation what Henry Ford was to automobiles." As part of the notorious Medellin Cartel, he and his partners allegedly controlled 80% of the U.S. coke trade. Extradited to Florida last February, Lehder is specifically accused of shipping 3.3 tons of cocaine into the U.S. The trial, which should last three months, will include testimony from some 200 witnesses presented to an anonymous jury...
...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...
...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...
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...