Marina Ochoa Vásquez was the younger sister of Jorge Luis, Fabio and Marta Ochoa.
A member of the wealthy Ochoa family of smugglers, Marina led an extravagant lifestyle spending her family's drug fortune. She fell in love with Pablo Escobar's cousin and her brother's business partner Gustavo Gaviria while they hid in Panama in 1989, and they began their affair shortly after returning to Colombia.
Her love affair caught the attention of one of her brothers' rivals, Hélmer Herrera. Herrera revealed the affair to her brothers; whom disapproved of the relationship and used it as an opportunity to sell out Gustavo to the authorities in exchange for a lenient sentence.