Leonidas Vargas - Biography

Biography

In his early life, Leonidas Vargas was a poor and little-educated meat vendor in the rural region of Caqueta, a southern region of Colombia. He eventually became associated with drug lords José Gonzalo Rodríguez Gacha and Pablo Escobar, the wealthy and powerful leader of the Medellín Cartel. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, Vargas ran a multi-million dollar cocaine empire that included a network of large cocaine-processing laboratories deep in the jungles of Caqueta. The mass-produced cocaine was then exported to the United States of America. Vargas eventually becoming one of Colombia's richest drug lords. His strongholds were among the guerrillas of the Marxist-Leninist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, with whom Vargas was believed to have established drug trafficking links.

Vargas became known as "The King of Caqueta", as well as the nickname "El Viejo", which means "The Old Man". Vargas has been accused of organizing hit squads of hired killers, and is believed to have ordered the murder of the Colombian presidential candidate Horacio Serpa. He was particularly known for a love of women, drink and football.

Vargas was jailed in Colombia in 1995 for 19 years and fined $1.5 million for drugs offenses, plus another 25 years in jail for murder and illegally carrying firearms. While imprisoned in 1997, he survived an assassination attempt when his rival set off a bomb at his jail. Vargas was released early in 2002, but authorities seized assets to the value of $40 million and 135 houses, four vehicles, two bank accounts and three companies, all of which were acquired with the proceeds of drug trafficking. Since about 2006, Vargas had been involved in a romantic relationship with Colombian actress and beauty queen, Liliana Lozano.

Spanish police arrested Vargas in Madrid in July 2006 on charges of trafficking 427 kilograms (940 lb) of cocaine, which had been discovered in a container in the port of Valencia in eastern Spain. At the time of his arrest, Vargas was in possession of a forged Venezuelan passport and was planning to travel to Germany for the final game of the World Cup Finals. At the time of his 2006 arrest, Vargas was on the list of Colombia's most-wanted cartel bosses, with a bounty of $5 million against him. Vargas was freed on conditional bail due to health reasons, with a trial date to be determined later as Spanish police completed their investigation. Due to the terms of his bail, Vargas was not provided security or a police bodyguard.