Joaquin Perez, ‘Devil’s lawyer’ represents Colombia’s top narcos. Now he’s banned from entering the country.
In the cocaine capital of Latin America, Miami attorney Joaquin Perez is known as the “devil’s lawyer,” especially at notorious La Picota prison in Bogota, where Colombians charged with drug trafficking in the United States are held until their extradition.
Perez, a Cuban-American lawyer who has represented major narco-traffickers for decades, has been a fixture at the Colombian prison. He is among the pioneering criminal defense lawyers in Miami who fine-tuned the craft of serving up prized cooperating defendants to assist federal prosecutors in exchange for lower prison sentences.
Perez’s stock in trade would be to deliver them. They would supply intel on the drug cartels, serve prison time and sometimes get visas to stay in the United States. And, through it all, he got rich off huge legal fees.
It’s unclear whether Perez is named in the complaint. But Perez has been banished from Colombia, after immigration authorities issued an order to that effect.
