He had dropped school already at 2nd grade, and by age 8 he was already involved in emerald business, by scratching the soil for the gemstones, and then a few years later as a mine worker in Chivor.
He found his first emerald mine in 1960, Peñas Blancas, and from then on his influence and power kept increasing, expanding his business by associating with others, buying share rights from new mines in Muzo and Quípama, and selling emeralds in Europe, thanks particularly to his business with lawyer Juan Beetar Down, who took Carranza to many countries and opened to him the doors of political influence and taught him in the art of diplomacy, leading to even meet often with presidents.
[2][3] The money flowing in from the newfound mines soon became a matter of conflict and in the 1960s a series of vendettas and disputes gave rise to the so-called "first green war," which he not only survived but used in his favor to increase his power.
[4] One of his most powerful associates was Gilberto Molina Moreno, the "emerald czar" of the time, and together they were the main beneficiaries of the requests for bids of the emerald mines by the governments of Misael Pastrana and Alfonso López, which essentially eliminated governmental control of the mines, and allowed Carranza and Molina to legalize their riches and to take control of the security of the regions.
[6] The death of Rodríguez Gacha and that of other emerald traders meant he obtained even more power, and in 1990 he signed a peace agreement with his rivals in the business, particularly Luis Murcia, (aka el Pequinés) mediated by the Catholic church.
He also bought many lands in the Llanos Orientales region, to such an extent that at his peak he managed to own about 10,000 acres,[1] and he created his own militia to protect them, the feared "Carranceros."
Despite the finding of corpses and a paramilitary training camp in some of his farms, he only spent three years and a half jailed in a DAS installation, during which time an attempt at his life was made by poisoning his food.
Nieto appointed himself as the new emerald czar and associated with the paramilitary forces at the service of Freddy Rendón (aka el Alemán) to fight Carranza.