Dandeny Muñoz Mosquera (born August 27, 1966), also known as "La Quica" (Colombian slang for "the fat girl", a childhood nickname), is a former sicario for the Colombian Medellín Cartel, a prominent drug trafficking enterprise in Colombia in the late 1980s and early 1990s. He was described at one point as the "chief assassin" for the Cartel's leader Pablo Escobar.
He was believed to be responsible for the deaths of an unknown number of people with official estimates ranging in the hundreds. US authorities currently link him to the deaths of more than 220 people, having supposedly murdered members of both his own organization the Medellín Cartel and the rival Cali Cartel, as well as police officers and government officials. Colombian authorities connect him to the deaths of more than 40 police officers.
Arrested in 1993, he is serving multiple life sentences in a US prison. He was the first person ever to be convicted under a 1956 Federal law that made bombing a civilian aircraft a crime and the 1986 terrorism statute that allows the trial of foreign citizens in the United States if at least one victim was an American citizen. Among his convicted crimes is the 1989 bombing of Avianca Flight 203, which killed 110 civilians.
Early life
Born in Medellin, Muñoz Mosquera's father was a police officer and his mother an evangelist. He was raised in the church. He is believed to have joined the Medellín Cartel in 1978 at the age of twelve after being drawn into the gang by his brother Brance (also known as Tyson due to his resemblance to boxer Mike Tyson) before becoming a gunman in his teens. He was given the nickname "La Quica" (Colombian slang for "the fat girl") from a young age due to his resemblance to his great-aunt. He rose to become one of Pablo Escobar's highest ranking enforcers. However, Muñoz Mosquera has claimed that he joined the Colombian army as a teenager before leaving in 1986 and was jailed on "three or four" occasions on minor theft charges.
In 1991, he was arrested and convicted of being one of the main conspirators in the assassination of New Liberalism founder Luis Carlos Galán, a candidate in the Colombian presidential election set to be held in May 1990. Galán was murdered by an unknown gunman as he took the stage at a political rally to deliver a campaign speech in Soacha. He was jailed in the capital city, Bogotá, but escaped in April 1991 after paying more than $500,000 in bribes, the second time he had escaped from a Colombian prison.
He was wanted in connection with the murder of over 40 police officers in Colombia after Pablo Escobar began offering a $4000 reward for the murder of any officer in Medellín. Colombian authorities also believe that he was directly involved in the bombing at the headquarters of the Administrative Department of Security in December 1989 and a rocket attack on the US Embassy. He was also believed to run a training camp for teenage potential sicarios (hitmen) for the Cartel. He has two children.
US arrest and subsequent legal actions
In September 1991, Muñoz Mosquera travelled to the United States, landing in Miami before travelling to Los Angeles and New York. After federal agents received a tipoff from Colombia, on September 25, 1991, Muñoz Mosquera was arrested along with two other men while using a payphone in the Jackson Heights area of Queens, New York, for traveling with a fake passport. Officials stated that none of the men were armed and offered no resistance when challenged by officers. Muñoz Mosquera initially lied to agents, stating his name as Esteban Restrepo-Echavarria, before his identity was confirmed by fingerprint records provided by Colombian officials. He was presumed to have travelled to the United States on an assassination mission and was held without bail as a result. One of his suspected targets was believed to be Max Mermelstein, a former drug smuggler who had worked for Escobar but had entered witness protection and was expected to implicate Escobar in the murder of Barry Seal.