Name Fabio Restrepo Role Businessman | ||
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Children Fabio Ochoa Vasquez, Jorge Luis Ochoa Vasquez, Juan David Ochoa Vasquez Born 1923 (age 78–79) Colombia Died 2002 (aged 78–79), Medellin, Colombia Similar José Gonzalo Rodríguez Gacha, Fabio Ochoa Vásquez, Juan David Ochoa Vásquez | ||
Fabio Ochoa Restrepo ("Don Fabio" 1923–2002) was a Paso Fino enthusiast, rancher, businessman, and patriarch of a notorious Colombian crime family associated with the Medellín drug cartel of Pablo Escobar.
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Career
Ochoa kept many ranches near Medellin, raised more than a thousand thoroughbreds and was a successful businessman. Because most of his wealth did not come from criminal activities, it is generally assumed that Ochoa himself was not linked to drug trafficking, although his sons are well known for their involvement in the trade. Jorge Luis Ochoa, was at one time considered the number two leader in the Medellin cartel: In 1996 he was arrested and given a five-year prison sentence in Colombia. Fabio Ochoa Vázquez "Fabito" (b. 1957) was extradited to the United States in September 2001.
"In his autobiography, 'My life in the world of Horses,' published by a vanity press Mr Ochoa writes that 'Don Fabio is to Colombia's Horse world what Garcia Marquez is to Colombia's world of letters or what Fernando Botero is to Colombia's world of painting." A 1989 picture of Fabio Ochoa Restrepo shows him signing his book which he planned to send to the Pope.
Death and legacy
He died on 2002 from kidney failure.
He was the subject of a brief segment in Full Circle with Michael Palin. He was portrayed in the 2006 documentary film Cocaine Cowboys, where the former Medellín Cartel associate Jon Roberts said of him: "As many people want to believe that Pablo Escobar was the king of cocaine, they can believe that, but the man that was really the king was Ochoa".
