In Lérida, Restrepo met important rice producers who employed him, including associates of Diego León Montoya Sánchez, and worked in haciendas that had airstrips in Espinal, Ibagué and Venadillo.
[2] Restrepo returned to Colombia in late 2000 and began a purchase spree of haciendas, nightclubs, commercial establishments, office buildings and luxury apartments and vehicles.
On August 25, 2005, four witnesses testified against Restrepo alleging that he had links to mafias and to paramilitary groups associated to the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia; the Tolima Bloc.
[5] In 2004 an Attorney General's unit raided one of Restrepo's properties in the outskirts of Ibagué with an arrest warrant for delinquency, production and traffic and porting unauthorized firearms.
His two sisters Teresa and Norma served him as money-launderers, and racketeered through a company named Agropecuaria Palma del Río which was based in Ibagué and in 2005 was included in the Office of Foreign Assets Control's specially designated nationals list of the United States Department of the Treasury.
[6] In the second season of the TV Series El cartel, Restrepo is portrayed by the Colombian actor Gastón Velandia as the character of Renso Cobo aka.