However, Muñoz Mosquera has claimed that he joined the Colombian army as a teenager before leaving in 1986 and was jailed on "three or four" occasions on minor theft charges.

[1] In 1991, he was arrested and convicted of being one of the main conspirators in the assassination of New Liberalism founder Luis Carlos Galán,[4] a candidate in the Colombian presidential election set to be held in May 1990.

[4] Colombian authorities also believe that he was directly involved in the bombing at the headquarters of the Administrative Department of Security in December 1989 and a rocket attack on the US Embassy.

After federal agents received a tipoff from Colombia, on September 25, 1991, Muñoz Mosquera was arrested along with two other men while using a payphone in the Jackson Heights area of Queens, New York, for traveling with a fake passport.

Muñoz Mosquera initially lied to agents, stating his name as Esteban Restrepo-Echavarria, before his identity was confirmed by fingerprint records provided by Colombian officials.

[4] He was convicted one month later of lying to a federal officer and possessing a fake passport and sentenced to the maximum term of six years in jail.

[6] While he was in jail, federal prosecutors claimed that he was a major player in the Medellín Cartel and was responsible for the bombing of Avianca Flight 203 on the orders of Pablo Escobar.

[3] Although the bombing had occurred in Colombia, he was eligible to be tried by the United States as two passengers on the flight, Carlos Andres Escobí and Astrid del Pilar Gómez, were American citizens.

We have no evidence linking Mr. Muñoz Mosquera to that attack.De Greiff was accused by United States officials of being involved financially in the cocaine trade.

Muñoz Mosquera claims that he did not recognize the prosecution's witnesses, and his defense hinged on the insistence that he was a small-time thief and not even a sicario (contract killer), let alone Escobar's chief assassin.