The drug trafficking career of Carlos Lehder is almost as remarkable as that of Pablo Escobar himself. A founder of the Medellín cartel alongside Escobar, Lehder established himself as a canny and intelligent operator who was capable of thinking outside the box to get things done, i.e. to smuggle drugs to wherever they might be profitable. He was a skilled pilot, which therefore made him a powerful smuggler, and set up bases for drug trafficking in the Bahamas, in one case utilizing a private island. He also proved his worth early on by retaliating against those who kidnapped family members of an ally, per PBS’s Frontline. With his combination of cunning and ruthlessness, Lehder helped establish the Medellín cartel as one of the most dangerous in the world. As his aspirations in terms of control over Columbia grew, Lehder created his own anti-communist political party, which was also intended to overturn the extradition treaty between Columbia and the U.S. and block cartel members from facing justice.
But despite his aptitude for organized crime, Lehder, like many of his fellow cartel traffickers, lived a wild personal life, which involved extreme hedonism and the emergence of anti-Semitic beliefs that began to take hold (via the Independent). His use of cocaine affected his perception of the world around him. He became obsessed with the Nazi leader Adolf Hitler, and in one incident reportedly executed a love rival in front of several witnesses. He was eventually apprehended in 1987, after years on the Drug Enforcement Agency’s radar. And according to Lehder, his partner Pablo Escobar had an unexpected hand in his downfall.
