report

Pablo Escobar’s former right-hand man has been deported from a US prison to Germany. The Colombian-German national revolutionized cocaine smuggling — and his life is more unbelievable than the most gripping telenovela.

(QREPORTS) Sex, drugs and rock’n’roll: even “Crazy Charlie’s” last day of freedom was like a movie. It was 1987. Carlos Lehder Rivas was at a Medellin Cartel party, snorting cocaine and amusing himself in the company of a prostitute when one of Pablo Escobar’s hitmen had the temerity to knock on the door.

Lehder didn’t think twice. He shot the man, who also happened to be one of the woman’s lovers. Gunshots, screams and a dead body in the middle of a fiesta with blaring salsa music; the Netflix series Narcos is a harmless joke when compared to the reality in Colombia at the time.

Lehder apologized to Escobar, the body was disposed of and, of course, the party went on. But while Lehder, a Colombian-German national, thought the party would never end, drug lord Escobar had come to a different conclusion that night.

In the end, there is nothing more dangerous than a crazy dealer whose escapades threaten to bring down the entire operation. The day after the party, Escobar sent Lehder to a secret hiding place, promising him he would be safe there — then he ratted him out to US authorities.

Pablo Escobar drops his right-hand man

Escobar penned an open letter vehemently denying any involvement in his business partner’s arrest. Still, Lehder’s stock had fallen dramatically with his boss. What is more surprising is that Escobar didn’t simply have him quietly knocked off — as he had so many others.

For most “narcotraficantes” — or “drug traffickers” — life generally holds one of two possible fates: death, like Escobar’s at the hands of US and Colombian special agents during a raid in Medellin in 1993; or prison in the US, like Carlos Lehder. At the time, Lehder’s 1988 trial was the biggest court case against a foreign drug smuggler in US history.

The court sentenced Lehder to life in prison without parole. For good measure, it added another 134 years for allegedly flooding US streets with 2,000 kilos (4,409 pounds) of cocaine. As serious as the charges against him were, prosecutors often spoke of his skills with admiration, comparing his smuggling system to Henry Ford’s automated assembly line.