Jorge Ayala (gangster)

Jorge "Rivi" Ayala

Jorge "Rivi" Ayala (* in Cali , Colombia ) is a former Colombian car thief , drug dealer and hit man for Griselda Blanco . He confessed to being involved in 29 killings during the so-called "cocaine war" in Miami and was allegedly involved in 12 other murders.

Life

Early criminal career

Jorge Ayala grew up in Chicago . He worked as a mechanic at General Motors where, as he himself said, he learned how to break into cars. He and accomplices stole up to 6 cars in one night, which were then sold to car dealers. At that time he had various fake driver's licenses, which were proven to be under names such as Ed Vasquez, Jorge Rivera, Ed Ramirez, Jorge Cuesta and Carlos Mendez.

In 1980 he got in an argument about parking John "El Flaco" Castrillion know and went to Miami to look for him and the organization of Griselda "La Madrina" Blanco and her husband Alfonso Lopez Trujillo as a member of the infamous there Medellin cartel to work . He initially claims he made $ 1,000 a day by delivering drugs, collecting funds, and selling marijuana .

Killer for the cartel

One day, Ayala unwittingly prevented an attack on two brothers at Club Jacaranda who were in a feud with the Trujillo Blanco organization. Ayala promised Blanco to make amends to track down the escaped brothers and kill them - for each of the two he should receive 50,000 dollars.

After Griselda Blancos son Osvaldo had provoked their chief killer Jesús "Chucho" Castro and he insulted him seriously, Blanco ordered Ayala in 1982 to liquidate Castro. In a car chase and subsequent shooting, the almost three-year-old son Castro was accidentally killed. The murder of an innocent toddler triggered widespread protests and outrage within the organization as far as Colombia and prompted the chairman of the Medellín cartel, Jorge Luis Ochoa Vásquez , to severely reprimand Blanco and tried to keep her away from Miami, which however did not succeed there Blanco now operated largely independently.

From 1982 to 1984 Ayala took the role of Castro within the gang and was instrumental in all major contract killings. At the time he owned homes in Palm Beach , St. Augustine, and Chicago.

Ayala and his group killed Alfredo and Grizel Lorenzo in their home in June 1982 in South Miami, in the presence of their children, after receiving goods from Blanco on commission and not paying on time. Originally, Blanco's order was to liquidate everyone in the house, including the uninvolved children, but Ayala refused. Ayala had to keep Miguel "Miguelito" Perez Mejia, who wanted to collect additional money, at gunpoint from killing the children.

Paco "Papo" Mejia, a former member of the Trujillo Blanco organization, was doing business on his own account and should therefore be liquidated by order of Blancos. Ayala was sent to New York and eliminated eleven members of Mejia's vicinity within 24 hours, including his father Octavio. Mejia escaped this action, whereupon it was decided to blow up his house in Miami with dynamite. The attack succeeded, but the house was empty. Finally, on September 15, 1982, Miguel Perez ambushed him at Miami Airport and stabbed him in public with several bayonet stabs. However, Mejia survived the attack while Perez was arrested and sentenced to 15 years in prison. Ayala herself was at the airport that day.

Exit and arrest

In 1983, Darío Sepúlveda, father of Michael Corleone Sepulveda Blanco, separated from Griselda and went to Colombia with his new girlfriend. He offered Ayala to come with him and become the head of his business there. However, with law enforcement pressures mounting at the time, Ayala said he wanted to go back to Chicago as he said he had had enough of all the killing. Griselda also offered him no longer to be responsible for the murders, but alternatively for business; Rivi turned down this offer too, bought a new house in Chicago and sold up to 30 kilos of cocaine there per week.

In June 1984 Ayala received a call from Griselda with the request that her former hit man Jaime Bravo (nephew of Alberto Bravo and relative of Darío Sepúlveda) for $ 100,000, the drug smuggler Rafael Cardona Salazar for $ 500,000 and each other for US $ 50,000, as she was at war with her own organization following the murder of Darío Sepúlveda. Out of loyalty he did her a favor and just a week later he murdered three men from the aforementioned environment. Jaime Bravo, Miguel "Cumbamba" Velez and five other men ambushed Rivi in ​​a shopping mall, but Rivi survived the situation unscathed as two police officers were in his immediate vicinity and he pretended to ask for help. Salazar later offered him $ 1 million for Griselda's head, but he refused.

The drug smuggler Max Mermelstein was arrested in California in 1985. To avoid a long jail sentence, Mermelstein testified against the Medellin cartel and became a long-time key informant for the FBI . Because of his statements, Griselda Blanco and three of her sons were arrested in the same year. At around the same time, Ayala and his brother were also arrested at the Miami airport with a stolen car and in possession of cocaine. He first came into a witness protection program . Ayala reported that Blanco had killed for trivial reasons and sadism. If a payment term was overdue, the money was forcibly collected from the debtor and the person was killed in the most cruel manner possible, in order to gain respect and standing as the only woman through terror and extreme severity in the traditionally male-dominated, violent Colombian drug scene.

He was sentenced in 1993 to life imprisonment with the possibility of early release after 25 years for the murders he confessed to Johnny Castro and Alfredo and Grizel Lorenzo and escaped the death penalty for testifying against Griselda Blanco. Through his testimony, the authorities learned of 14 different murder cases by Griselda's organization. Ayala had to be dropped as a witness for a trial against Griselda Blanco because he was embroiled in a solid phone sex scandal involving secretaries from the Miami Dade Attorney's Office.

Last years

On June 6, 2004, Griselda Blanco was released from prison and on the same day Ayala was stabbed to death in Miami prison. He survived but refused to identify his attacker.

Ayala's attorney James ("Jim") Lewis plans to have Rivi's prison sentence reduced due to his substantial collaboration with law enforcement in the 1980s. His next hearing is in 2019.

Documentation

• 2006: Cocaine Cowboys
• 2008: Cocaine Cowboys 2

Individual evidence

1. ^ Vice - Griselda Blanco: So Long and Thanks for All the Cocaine
2. ↑ ^{a b c d} Miami Herald - After 25 years in prison, Cocaine Cowboys hitman wants reduced sentence
3. ↑ Biografias y Vidas - Jorge Luis Ochoa Vásquez
4. ↑ Extra News Feed - Griselda Blanco's Other Favorite Hitman Dies in Prison
5. ^ New York Times - Expert Witness Details Secrets of a Drug Cartel
6. ↑ NBC Miami - South Florida's Most Notorious 'Cocaine Cowboys'