Fabio Ochoa Vasquez, founder of Medellin Cartel, gets out of jail

Prison authorities reported that Fabio Ochoa Vasquez, one of the founders of the Medellin cartel and a former associate of Pablo Escobar, has been released from a U.S. federal prison where he was serving a sentence for cocaine trafficking.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Prisons (BOP), Ochoa was released Tuesday after serving his sentence.

Along with his brothers Jorge and Juan David, he was allied with Pablo Escobar, leader of the dismantled cocaine cartel that was killed on December 2, 1993 by Colombian police.

Fabio Ochoa surrendered to Colombian justice in 1990 under a special law issued by the government of then-President César Gaviria (1990-94), which provided for reduced sentences and non-extradition for criminals who surrendered, confessed to their crimes and gave up their associates.

He was released in 1996 after serving a sentence of almost six years in the high-security prison of Itagüí, near Medellín, according to AFP.

However, he was arrested again in October 1999 as part of the multinational "Operation Millennium" which led to the arrest of dozens of alleged drug lords.

He was later extradited to the United States. In August 2003, he was sentenced in Miami to 30 years and five months in prison and fined $25,000 after being found guilty of participating in an organization that brought an average of 30 tons of cocaine into the country per month between December 1997 and October 1999.

Several members of the organization testified against Ochoa after reaching a plea agreement with U.S. prosecutors.