Juan Matta-Ballesteros, Date of Birth, Place of Birth

Juan Matta-Ballesteros

Honduran drug lord

Date of Birth: 12-Jan-1945

Place of Birth: Tegucigalpa, Francisco Morazán Department, Honduras

Profession: drug lord, drug trafficker

Nationality: Honduras

Zodiac Sign: Capricorn

Juan Ramón Matta-Ballesteros (born January 12, 1945) (also spelled Mata-Ballesteros) was a major narcotics trafficker who has been credited with being one of the first to connect Mexican drug traffickers with the Colombian cocaine cartels.
This connection paved the way for a major increase in the amount of cocaine smuggled into the United States during the late 1970s and throughout the 1980s.
Matta was indicted for operating several major cocaine smuggling rings in United States in the early 1980s.
He was also one of the narcotics traffickers accused of the kidnap and assassination of American DEA agent Enrique Camarena in 1985. In 1988 Matta was arrested from his Honduran residence in a controversial operation by the Honduran and American governments and taken to the United States, where he stood several trials for his drug smuggling activities and his part in the kidnap and murder of Enrique Camarena.
He was found guilty of drug smuggling, and of participating in the kidnapping, but not the murder, of Camarena.
Matta is currently serving multiple life sentences at the United States Penitentiary, Canaan, a high-security federal prison in Pennsylvania.