BOGOTA, COLOMBIA – The eldest of the three Ochoa brothers who founded the Medellin cocaine cartel in the 1980s with Pablo Escobar has died of a heart attack at age 65.
Hospital officials and a cousin said Juan David Ochoa died Thursday at a private clinic in Colombia's No. 2 city.
Ochoa and brothers Jorge Luis and Fabio had all surrendered when the manhunt intensified for Escobar.
Ochoa turned himself in 10 months before Escobar was killed and served five years and five months. Then-Justice Minister Carlos Medellin called his 1996 release "a national disgrace."
He returned to the family business of raising gait horses.
While Juan David avoided extradition to the United States, his youngest brother Fabio would not. Arrested in 1999, Fabio was later sentenced to 30 years for drug trafficking.