Jack Carlton Reed

Jack Carlton Reed (September 30, 1930 – October 12, 2009) was a drug smuggler and co-defendant of the Colombian drug baron and Medellín Cartel co-founder Carlos Enrique Lehder Rivas. Reed was a pilot working under Lehder’s cocaine transport empire on Norman's Cay, an out island 210 miles (340 km) off the Florida coast, in the Exuma chain in the Bahamas. and the Carolinas. It was flown into the United States via the Bahamas, a path made possible via Colombian suppliers and bribes allegedly spread among Bahamian government officials for political and judicial protection On Norman’s Cay, Lehder maintained a 3,100-foot (1,000 m) runway protected by radar, bodyguards, and guard dogs for the fleet of aircraft under his command.

Lehder lost his fight against extradition (by which point his net worth was approximately $2.5 billion). He is incarcerated for life in the United States, under WITSEC, the Bureau of Prisons’ version of the Federal Witness Protection Program.

Reed was sentenced to two consecutive life terms and fined $2 million. He was incarcerated at the Federal Correctional Institute in Memphis, Tennessee and later moved to a Federal Medical Center. After spending nearly 23 years behind bars, his two daughters contacted the courts on their father's behalf to petition for his release. According to them, it was God who saw that Reed was granted a Clemency Release with his sentence reduced to time served. He died after his release.