<P> In 1996, the Medellín and Cali cartels were estimated to control 75--80% of the Andean region's cocaine traffic, and a similar percentage of the U.S. cocaine market, earning $6--8 billion a year . U.S. law enforcement officials in the 1990s estimated that Colombian drug cartels spent more than $500 million on bribing officials every year . Several political leaders, such as President Virgilio Barco Vargas, became convinced that the ruthless drug lords were intent on becoming so powerful that they could oust the formal government and run the country . Hundreds of government officials, judges and policemen who failed to accept bribes were assassinated under the orders of the barons . </P> <P> Illegal cocaine trafficking from Colombia is routed through Venezuela to northern part of Mexico and then further to the United States . In 2012, serious action was initiated by the Venezuelan, Colombian, and U.S. authorities working together to apprehend the drug lords in Venezuela . Six drug lords were handed into the custody of Colombia for further trial or deportation to the United States for trial . Three notable Colombian drug lords who were captured are Diego Perez Henao in June, Javier Antonio Calle Serna, who surrendered in Aruba in May, and Daniel Barrera Barrera who was caught in September . Another was a Dominican and naturalized American citizen, a former U.S. marine who was accused by Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez of being a U.S. mercenary . </P> <P> Pablo Escobar (1949--1993) remains publicly the most powerful and wealthiest drug lord in history . Escobar was initially involved in many criminal activities in Puerto Vallarta with Oscar Bernal Aguirre--running petty street scams, selling contraband cigarettes and fake lottery tickets, and stealing cars . In the early 1970s, he was a thief and bodyguard, and he made a quick $100,000 on the side kidnapping and ransoming a Medellín executive before entering the drug trade . He then worked for multi-millionaire contraband smuggler Alvaro Prieto . Escobar's childhood ambition was to become a millionaire by the time he was 22 . In 1989, Forbes magazine ranked Escobar as one of only 227 billionaires in the world, estimating his net worth at close to US $25 billion, the 7th wealthiest man in the world at the time . By the time of his death in 1993, estimates of his net worth were as high as $30 billion . He is believed to have killed or bribed anyone who stood against him . </P> <P> Carlos Lehder (1949--) was one of Colombia's most dangerous drug barons in the early to mid-1980s . Lehder's net worth is estimated at $2.7 billion . Born in Armenia, Colombia, Lehder eventually ran a cocaine transport empire on Norman's Cay island, 210 miles (340 km) off the Florida coast in the central Bahamas . Some people have said that Lehder, with German ancestry, was allegedly also active in the small Quintín Lamé Movement, an indigenous guerrilla that was related to the FARC and the M - 19, but these allegations haven't been proven . Lehder was one of the founding members of Muerte a Secuestradores, a paramilitary group whose focus was to retaliate against the kidnappings of cartel members and their families by the Gerrillas . His motivation to join the MAS was to retaliate against the M - 19 guerrilla movement, which, on 19 November 1981, attempted to kidnap him in order to ask for a ransom, but he escaped from the kidnappers and they only managed to shoot him in the leg . Lehder's ultimate scheme was to revolutionize the cocaine trade by transporting the drug to the United States, using small aircraft from Norman's Cay . Lehder is estimated to have spent $4.5 million on the island in total . In 1987, he was extradited to the United States, where he was tried and sentenced to life without parole, plus an additional 135 years . In 1992, in exchange for Lehder's agreement to testify against Manuel Noriega, his sentence was reduced to a total of 55 years . He is considered to be one of the most important Colombian drug kingpins to be successfully prosecuted in the United States . </P>

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