Court orders release of Medellin Cartel founder Carlos Lehder

A Bogota court ordered the release of founding Medellin Cartel member Carlos Lehder, claiming his arrest on Friday had been illegal.

Lehder was arrested after he returned to Colombia 38 years after his extradition to the United States where he served a prison sentence for drug trafficking until 2020.

Police detained the legendary drug trafficker so that a court could verify whether or not an outstanding warrant for his arrest as still valid.

According to Judge Martha Yaneth Delgado, the arrest warrant referred to an arms trafficking conviction from 1996 and had thus expired.

In view of the foregoing arrest warrant and taking into account that in the order of the date the statute of limitations of the sentence imposed on the convicted Carlos Enrique Lehder Rivas was decreed, his arrest is not legalized and a release ticket is issued to the Criminal Investigation Directorate of the National Police and Interpol.

Judge Martha Janeth Delgado

Consequently, Lehder will be able to travel freely in Colombia and return to Germany, where the drug trafficker has lived since 2020,  without any legal impediments.

According to the attorney of the Medellin Cartel founder, Lehder has been effectively reintegrated and is no longer involved in illegal activity.

Between 1976 and 1987, Lehder controlled some of the Medellin Cartel’s most profitable drug trafficking routes to the United States.

Lehder additionally was a member of “The Extraditables,” a terrorist group former by the cartel bosses that declared war on the Colombian State to prevent their extradition to the United States.