CARLOS LEHDER: WHAT HAPPENED TO THE COLOMBIAN RAMBO

*UPDATE* June 16, 2020

Medellín cartel co-founder transferred to Germany after prison sentence

Lehder has been transferred to Germany from the United States, according to Spiegel Online. Carlos Lehder Rivas, who has both German and Colombian citizenship, was escorted to Germany by two US officials on a regular passenger flight from New York to Frankfurt and handed over to German authorities, the report said.

Carlos Enrique Lehder Rivas is a German-Colombian former drug lord who was a co-founder of the Medellín Cartel. He is currently in witness protection and imprisoned in the United States though officials won't say where he is. Spiegel reported that 70-year-old Lehder, whose father is German, would be placed under the care of a charitable group in Germany. Read More

Though not as famous as his partners Pablo Escobar and the Rodriguez Brothers aka Gentlemen of Cali, without Carlos, they might have remained doing business on a much smaller scale in Colombia.

Carlos is one of the most colorful of all the original drug lords, so I thought he'd be fun to post about today. His power went right to his head and lack of discretion and a narcissistic love for attention led him to a life behind bars. He claimed to be a Nazi and he loved Adolph Hitler and Beatle John Lennon. Lehder had his own "Gestapo" on Norman Cay used to chase stubborn residents off the island.

Born in Armenia, Colombia, Lehder eventually ran a cocaine transport empire on Norman's Cay island, 210 miles off the Florida coast in the central Bahamas. Born: September 7, 1949 (age 70 years), Armenia, Colombia.

Lehder spent his childhood in Colombia but moved to the United States in his teens. He began smuggling stolen cars, operating in Canada and on the American east coast and was sometimes involved in the delivery of marijuana.

Pablo and Carlos

These activities led to his 1974 incarceration in a federal prison in Danbury, Connecticut. There he was housed with George Jung, who had established an operation using airplanes to bring marijuana into the United States. Johnny Depp played George Jung in the movie "Blow".

By Jung’s account, Lehder persuaded him that importing cocaine by airplane would be significantly more lucrative, and upon their release in 1976, the two went into business together, transporting the drug from Medellín, Colombia, to the United States. Within a few years, however, Lehder sidelined Jung in the business.

George Jung and Carlos Lehder

Chased off Norman's Cay, Carlos fled back to Colombia and He reportedly fell from favor with Pablo Escobar, the head of the Medellín cartel.

On February 4, 1987, acting on a tip that probably came from Escobar himself, Colombian national police raided a ranch near the town of Guarne in Antioquia and captured Lehder. Within hours he was extradited to the United States, which had sought his arrest since 1979. Carlos was drawing too much negative attention to the other Narcos.

Lehder went on trial in October 1987 in Jacksonville, Florida, on charges of conspiracy and running a criminal enterprise as well as other charges related to the importation and sale of cocaine. The trial continued until May 1988, when he was convicted on all counts.

Manuel Noriega and Carlos

He was later sentenced to life without parole and an additional 135 years in prison. In 1991, however, Lehder testified against Panamanian strongman Manuel Noriega, saying that Noriega had allowed Panama to be used as a conduit for the cartel’s cocaine smuggling operations. In return, Lehder’s sentence was reduced to 55 years.

Lehder's Ex-Wife, Eight Others Plead Guilty

Beginning in 2005, Lehder made pleas to various government entities in the United States and Colombia, saying that he was now entitled to be released under the agreement he had made in 1991, but he supposedly remains in prison, though no one seems to know where.

At one time he was being held in isolation at the maximum-security prison in Marion, Ill. But as of today, no one seems to know. Is he free? Did they cut him loose? There are rumors he is out of the prison system but with Carlos's hugely narcissistic traits, odds are he couldn't remain out of the spotlight for this long.

retrokimmer@gmail.com

GANGSTERS INC INTERVIEW DRUG KINGPIN FRANK MATTHEWS!

GANGSTERS INC
Drug boss Frank Matthews came up like a rocket. His organization made hundreds of millions from drug trafficking, billions in today’s currency. When authorities closed in, he jumped bail in 1973 and vanished with his girlfriend and $20 million. He remains a wanted man. “He disappeared off the face of the earth. No photos. No snitches. No fingerprints. Nothing!”

Now, this mysterious tale filled with narco kingpins, ghetto stars, and Mafiosi will be turned into a motion picture by production company D4E (Dan4Entertainment Inc.), run by Dan Pearson. The Matthews project is repped by the Paradigm Talent Agency and will be based on the book Black Caesar: The Rise and Disappearance of Frank Matthews, Kingpin by author Ron Chepesiuk.

Gangsters Inc. sat down with both men to discuss the project and the life of kingpin Frank Matthews.

Read the interview on Gangsters Inc.

READ THE BOOK

NARCOS: SEASON 3 PREMIERES ON NETFLIX SEPTEMBER 1

Pedro Pascal aka Javier Peña   Kenneth Nguyen Photography

I just loved Narcos season 1 and 2 insanely! Here is a bit of information for the Narcos fans out there!

What will Narcos look like in a post-Pablo Escobar world? Fans will find out when the Netflix drama returns on Friday, Sept. 1.

In Season 3, DEA agent Javier Peña (Pedro Pascal) turns his attention to the Cali Cartel. “Led by four powerful godfathers, this cartel operates much differently than Escobar’s, preferring to bribe government officials and keep its violent actions out of the headlines,” the official logline reads.

Halt and Catch Fire‘s Kerry Bishé joins the cast for Season 3 as Christina Jurado, wife to cartel money launderer Franklin Jurado (played by Sense8‘s Miguel Angel Silvestre).

FULL CAST/CREW AND EPISODE GUIDE

REAL LIFE SHAWSHANK ESCAPEE GLENN GODWIN STILL WANTED BY FBI

Andy Dufresne                           Glen Stewart Godwin

In 1982, Stephen King wrote his novella "Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption" – which was turned into an outstanding Hollywood movie starring Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman a decade or so later.

But, in 1987, a Folsom Prison inmate named Glen Stewart Godwin slipped through an open manhole and crawled 750 feet down a storm drain to the American River, where he used a raft left by an accomplice to paddle his way to freedom. Those who've seen the movie or read the novel would understand the similarities.

Like his fictional counterpart, Godwin headed to Mexico after regaining his freedom.

Video: Andy Dufresne escapes

In 1985, while serving his sentence at Soledad Prison, Godwin married Shelley Rose. He was then transferred to Folsom Prison, a maximum-security facility, where he escaped through a 300-yard storm drain and floated across the American River on a raft to freedom in June 1987.

Apparently gaining assistance from someone who cut the iron bars on the storm drain from the outside, Godwin was the third person to escape from Folsom in 25 years. Lorenz Karlic, who had once shared a cell with Godwin, was arrested in Hesperia, California, for aiding Godwin in his escape.

After two years without any leads on either Glen or Shelley, who was last seen renting a car at the San Jose Airport, authorities were notified of a man in a Mexican prison under the name of Stewart Carrera, whose fingerprints matched those of Godwin’s. Reportedly, Mexican authorities had arrested Glen on drugs and weapons charges six months after his escape.

While California officials were working to have Godwin extradited back to the United States, he murdered a fellow inmate in Puerto Vallarta Prison—an attempt to avoid returning to the high security prisons in California. Shortly thereafter, he escaped from the Mexican jail.

In December 1996, Godwin appeared on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted List. Shelley Godwin, who, unbeknownst to California law enforcement officials, had divorced her husband and remarried in Texas, was apprehended in Dallas when a story on the Godwin case appeared on television’s America’s Most Wanted, but Glen Godwin remains at large.