Fabio Ochoa Restrepo

Who was Fabio Ochoa Restrepo?

Fabio Ochoa Restrepo was a Paso Fino enthusiast, rancher, businessman, and patriarch of a notorious Colombian crime family associated with the Medellín drug cartel of Pablo Escobar. It is generally assumed that Ochoa himself was not linked to drug trafficking, although his sons are well known for their involvement in the trade. Jorge Luis Ochoa, was at one time considered the number two leader in the Medellin cartel: In 1996 he was arrested from a five year prison sentence in Colombia. Fabio Ochoa Vázquez "Fabito" was extradited to the United States in September 2001.

"In his autobiography, 'My life in the world of Horses,' published by a vanity press Mr Ochoa writes that 'Don Fabio is to Colombia's Horse world what Garcia Marquez is to Colombia's world of letters or what Fernando Botero is to Colombia's world of painting." A 1989 picture of Fabio Ochoa Restrepo shows him signing his book which he planned to send to the Pope.

He was the subject of a brief segment in Full Circle with Michael Palin.

He was portrayed in the 2006 documentary film Cocaine Cowboys, where the former Medellín Cartel associate Jon Roberts said of him: "As many people want to believe that Pablo Escobar was the king of cocaine, they can believe that, but the man that was really the king was Ochoa".