The cartel's key members were Pablo Escobar, Carlos Lehder, José Gonzalo Rodríguez Gacha, Gustavo Gaviria, Jorge Ochoa, and his brothers Juan David and Fabio.

President Belisario Betancur refused, and a few months later, Escobar was indicted for Lara Bonilla's murder while the Ochoa brothers and Rodriguez Gacha were named as material witnesses.

On 17 July 1984, The Washington Times ran a story which detailed DEA informant Barry Seal's successful infiltration into the Medellín Cartel's operations in Panama.

Ten days later, Carlos Lehder, Pablo Escobar, Jorge Ochoa and Rodriguez Gacha were indicted by a Miami federal grand jury based on evidence obtained by Seal.

Once in Colombia, on 17 August 1986, and despite extradition requests from the U.S., Ochoa vanished after receiving a suspended sentence on charges of falsifying documents for importing fighting bulls from Spain.

In early 1988, an unknown entity calling itself the "Anti-Mafia Command of Carlos Mauro Hoyos" claimed it was going after the ranking Medellín Cartel members headed by the Ochoas.

Included in the list were José Gonzalo Rodríguez Gacha, Jario Mejia, Elkin Cano, Mara Ospina, Gustavo Gaviria, and the Cardenas brothers.

[5] During September 1990, Colombian President César Gaviria Trujillo offered drug traffickers reduced prison sentences to be served in Colombia, in order to entice them to surrender.

[6] Jorge Luís Ochoa Vasquez is portrayed by the Colombian actor Joavany Alvarez in the TV series Escobar, el patrón del mal as the character of Pedro Motoa.

Alejandro Edda portrayed Ochoa Vásquez in the 2017 biographical crime film American Made, whose plot centers around former TWA pilot Barry Seal.