“Pennies from heaven” Three case studies on civil forfeiture

Abstract

Colombia, 19th June 1991: Pablo Escobar turns himself in, a few hours after a Constituent Assembly overturned the extradition of Colombian nationals. Seven years of terrorism and political murders perpetrated by the Medellin Cartel and “The Extraditables”, whose motto was “we prefer a tomb in Colombia, than a dungeon in the US”, were over. That day, Colombia knelt down to the narcos: with no extradition law, no money laundering legislation, no international judiciary cooperation and a level of corruption that had reached the highest instances of power.