Colombian drug lord Ochoa in "Narcos" and "Griselda" who came back...deportation after serving more than 20 years in the U.S.

Fabio Ochoa, one of Colombia's notorious drug lords, was deported after more than two decades of U.S. imprisonment and became free in his native Colombia, the Associated Press reported.

Ochoa arrived at the airport in Bogotá Eldorado, Colombia, on a flight on the 23rd local time and was released after being confirmed by immigration.

In a short statement posted to X (formerly Twitter), the immigration department said it had released Ochoa to be with his family after a fingerprint test confirmed he was not wanted by Colombian authorities.

Immigration officials wearing bulletproof vests came out to the airport to take over Ochoa's recruits, but no police were seen, and Ochoa left the airport and was bombarded with questions from reporters.

Ochoa was sentenced to 30 years and five months in prison in August 2003 for his involvement in the smuggling of 30 tons of drugs into the U.S. every month between 1997 and 1999.

Ochoa is the boss of Medellin, a drug gang that supplied more than 80% of the U.S. cocaine market in the 1980s, and was arrested in Colombia in 1999 through a multinational drug trafficking joint investigation called Operation Millennium before being handed over to U.S. authorities in 2001.

Along with his brother, Ochoa made a fortune when cocaine smuggling flooded into the United States in the 1970s and 1980s, making him on Forbes' list of the richest people in 1987.

Ochoa was first charged in the U.S. in 1986 with the murder of Barry Schill, an American aviator who carried cocaine.

Barry Schill is a real person in "American Made," played by Tom Cruise, who worked as a drug smuggler and then as an informant for the Drug Enforcement Administration.

Ochoa was jailed in the early 1990s after turning himself in with two brothers to Colombian authorities to avoid being sent back to the United States, but three years after his release from prison in 1996, he was re-arrested on drug trafficking charges and sent back to the United States.

Since the 90s, Ochoa's name has moved away from public memory as Mexican drug cartels have emerged as the center of the global drug trade.

However, as NetFlis' drama series "Griselda" has become more popular recently, the story of the Medellin cartel and the female entrepreneur Griselda Blanco, who controls the Miami cocaine market in the U.S., has become famous, he is back at the center of attention.

Ochoa also appeared in the other series "Narcos" by NetFlis as the youngest son of the wealthy horse rancher Medellin family, and was depicted as a character in stark contrast to Escobar from a poorer home.

Richard Gregory, a retired U.S. attorney who prosecuted Ochoa, said in a recent interview that he was unable to seize all proceeds from illegal drugs by the Ochoa family at the time.