FORMER DRUG KINGPIN INSISTS HE IS INNOCENT IN LETTER SENT TO COLOMBIAN MEDIA

BOGOTA, Colombia- Former Colombian drug kingpin Fabio Ochoa, sentenced to 30
years in a U.S. prison on a drug conviction, insisted in a letter to Colombian
media that he was innocent.

"I have a clear conscience," Ochoa said in the letter, portions of which were
aired on Colombia's FM Radio Wednesday. "I fulfilled my promise to never again
break the law when I turned myself over to Colombian justice."

As one of the leaders of the deadly Medellin cartel, Ochoa helped transform
cocaine smuggling into a tightly run, billion-dollar enterprise in the 1980s.
He received amnesty at home after serving a five-year prison sentence in
Colombia.

On Tuesday, he was sentenced in Miami for joining a smuggling network capable
of moving 30 tons a month from 1997 to 1999. But his attorney protested that
Ochoa was tried and punished for his cartel days.

Prosecutors recommended a 30-year sentence even though the defense insisted a
sentence longer than 12 years would violate conditions of Ochoa's extradition.

"My case is called the United States vs. Fabio Ochoa," he said in the letter,
which had Tuesday's date. "Facing that, what else could I hope for?"

The final sentence was 30 years and five months. The charges had carried a
possible life sentence.

Ochoa, 46, is one of the biggest Colombian drug defendants brought to U.S.
justice. He helped lead the now-defunct Medellin cartel, one of the most
powerful and feared drug networks of the 1980s. Its campaign of bombings and
assassinations was intended in part to keep Colombians from being shipped to
the United States for trial.