Gilberto Rodriguez Orejuela(Spanish Gilberto Rodríguez Orejuela) - a former Colombian drug lord, one of the founders and leader of the cocaine "" - an organization for the cocaine and opium trade, which at its peak controlled up to 80% of American and 90% of European drug trafficking. By the mid-90s, having British mercenaries at its headquarters, as well as countless informers and spies in governments different countries, - the cartel has become one of the largest crime syndicates in world history.
For his diplomacy, discipline and grandmaster's prudence, he received the nickname " chess player"(Spanish: "El Ajedrecista").
Early years and beginning of criminal activity
Gilberto (Hilberto) Rodriguez Orejuela was born on January 30, 1939 in a small Colombian town marikita(Spanish: Mariquita) in a poor, large family of a modest self-taught artist (Carlos Rodriguez) and a housewife (Ana Rita Orejuela). In addition to Gilberto, the family had 5 more children.
In the early 40s. the family moved to . Due to a difficult family financial situation, already at the age of 13, after school, the boy worked as an assistant pharmacist at a local pharmacy, delivering medicines to patients on a bicycle.
A criminal career began at the age of 30 - realizing that nothing could be achieved by honest work in this country, in 1969 Gilberto, together with his younger brother and friend (Spanish: José Santacruz Londoño), organized the Las Chemas group, which engaged in extortion, robbing trucks and kidnapping for ransom. Their most notorious “case” was the kidnapping of two Swiss citizens. Herman Buffa(German: Herman Buff) and Zaka Jazz Miliz Martina(German: Zack Jazz Milis Martin). According to some reports, the ransom for them amounted to $ 700 thousand, of which, according to assumptions, the share of the brothers Orejuela and Londoño was spent on setting up own business on drug smuggling.
Cali cartel
At first they were engaged in the distribution of marijuana, and then turned their attention to a more profitable business - the cocaine trade. They created a new organization, which at first bore the name Gentlemen from Cali and later renamed the Cali Cartel.
In the mid 80s. they met a former associate of the famous drug lord (Spanish Pablo Escobar) - (Spanish Helmer "Pacho" Herrera), who was sent to New York to organize a cocaine distribution center there. This decision was adopted at a time when the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) considered cocaine to be a much less dangerous drug than heroin. The DEA mistakenly believed that its use " does not cause physical addiction, which leads to serious consequences such as crime and hospitalization". This attitude of the DEA towards cocaine allowed the Cali Cartel to flourish.
The success of the cartel was largely due to a clear organizational structure at all levels. Unlike its main competitors - where power was almost completely concentrated in the hands of Pablo Escobar, the structure of the Cali Cartel was divided into independent, at first glance, independent of each other "cells" (Spanish "celeno"). Each such cell systematically reported to the highest division in the hierarchical chain, which, in turn, was subordinate to a higher level - up to the supreme leadership.
November 15, 1984 Gilberto Orejuela (along with another drug lord, one of the founders of the Medellin cartel -) was detained by the Spanish police in Madrid. Unlike Ochoa, Rodriguez was not officially on the international wanted list. US intelligence agencies only guessed about his illegal activities. After all, unlike Escobar, Gilberto Orejuela did not spend all the money he earned on a luxurious life for show, but preferred to invest in legitimate business. In the department Valle del Cauca(Spanish: Valle del Cauca) he was known as an authoritative and respectable businessman. However, in Spain, he was still charged with trying to organize a cocaine distribution network in Europe. After 2 years, the drug lords were extradited, Orejuela appeared before the court of Cali and, under the pretext that the purpose of his visit to Spain was really to organize a network, but not cocaine, but a pharmaceutical one, after a while he was released.
War with the Medellin Cartel
For a long time, the two most powerful cartels of the time coexisted quite successfully together. They stabilized cocaine prices and participated in joint ventures.
The sales markets in the US were clearly divided between the two cartels. The "Kalians" controlled the north of the country, with distribution centers in New York and Seattle, and the "Medellins" controlled the south, with centers in Miami and Los Angeles. Also, both drug empires had a joint money laundering bank located in Panama.
However, over the top ambitions and billions in revenue every year gave rise to all large quantity interests that were becoming increasingly difficult to separate.
The result was the beginning of a bloody war that lasted until 1993, ending with the death of Escobar, who at the same time fought not only with the "Kalis", but also openly challenged the entire government.
There is no conclusive evidence, however, there is a version that it was the “Kalians” who financed the Los Pepes organization (Spanish: Los Pepes, “People affected by Pablo Escobar”), incl. thanks to the actions of which in December 1993 Escobar was capitulated.
With the death of Escobar, the Medellin cartel immediately ceased to exist. The vacated niche was single-handedly occupied by the Cali cartel, which has become one of the largest transnational syndicates in the world.
Decline of the cocaine empire
The disappearance of the Medellin cartel led to the fact that the DEA (Drug Enforcement Administration, USA) turned its eyes on the Cali cartel, which was growing more and more powerful every day.
Despite constant ties to the Colombian government, bribery at all levels of government, and increased intelligence and counterintelligence headquarters, they were increasingly subject to drug seizures. In 1993 alone, US Customs intercepted and confiscated 17.5 tons of cocaine.
In the presidential elections of 1994 he won Ernesto Samper Pisano(Spanish: Ernesto Samper Pisano). Soon a high-profile political scandal, known as Trial No. 8000, erupted. It turned out that the election campaign was paid for by the Cali drug cartel. Samper himself was accused of taking a large bribe. This completely undermined the popularity of the president and the entire Liberal Party.
Immediately after this, the DEA began to conduct many large-scale operations aimed at eliminating the Cali cartel. As a result of one of them, computers were seized, in which, among other files, there was information that later provided an outline of the appearance of the complex organizational structure of the “Kalis”.
Thanks to this information, in 1995 a powerful blow was dealt to the cartel.
Gilberto Orejuela was the first to be captured, this happened on June 9, 1995 in his own apartment.
The second was José Londoño, who was arrested on 4 July 1995 in a restaurant near Bogota.
Miguel was captured in August 1995. The most recent of all the leaders of the cartel was Pacho Herrera arrested (September 1996, 2 years later he was killed in prison).
Gilberto and Miguel Rodriguez were sentenced to 15 years in prison, which was reduced to 7 years for good behavior.
It is widely believed that the bosses of the cartel, while still in prison for a long time, also continued to remotely manage their business.
In November 2002 they were released. However, after the US government publicly accused the Colombian Supreme Court of corruption and threatened to seriously revise diplomatic relations between the two countries, in 2004 Gilberto Rodriguez Orejuela was again arrested. In 2005, the Rodriguez brothers were extradited to the United States, where they pleaded guilty to all charges against them.
They later confess that they only signed the surrender agreement to US justice out of concern for their children. After all, there was a risk of their offspring getting into the so-called " Clinton List» (Specially Designated Narcotics Traffickers, SDNT) - a blacklist of individuals associated with money laundered from drug trafficking.
"We chose to stand trial in the United States and end our lives in prison because our children do not deserve unfair accusations."
They were sentenced to 30 years in prison and all their known assets of $2.1 billion were confiscated. With this verdict, the Cali drug cartel officially ceased to exist.
Rodriguez Sr. is currently serving his 30-year sentence at Butner Federal Penitentiary, in North Carolina, USA. His release is scheduled for February 9, 2030, by which time he may be 91 years old.
Surprisingly, virtually anyone can send Gilberto Rodriguez Orejuela an e-mail message, package and even money (although he hardly needs money), and you can also try to sign up for a visit with him at this
link (BOP Register Number: 14023-059).The thinking of the collective Ukrainian is cheerful and archaic. He sincerely believes in two self-evident methods: bans and cuffs, and he does not want to know the others. Where are they effectively fighting corruption, you ask him - and he will answer you: “Well, of course, in China. Thousands of officials are being shot there. That's how it would be with us."
We don't need to be effective, we need to be efficient. Not to work, but to look good on TV and satisfy the people's anger. To plant, and it is better to quarter, and even better to quarter and feed to dogs, after tearing off the nails, peeling off the skin and forcing you to listen to Justin Bieber. To make sure everyone is afraid and stop stealing. The effectiveness of the fight against corruption, as well as with any other lousy social phenomena, is ready to be assessed here only by the suffering of those responsible.
The sad thing is that it doesn't work. How abortion bans, the criminalization of prostitution and round-ups of moonshine makers do not work. Moreover, if you get too carried away with the landing component of the anti-corruption struggle, hammering a bolt on the rest, it will get worse.
Let's explain with a hot Latin American example. The location is Colombia. The reason for action is the exorbitant appetites of the powerful Medellin drug cartel and its leader Pablo Escobar. At some point, their scale became threatening - and the Colombian government, with the support of American partners, leaned towards a radical solution to the issue. This is where it all ends...
Features of Colombian anti-corruptionism
Medellin's competitor was the Cali cartel (the names of both cartels are derived from the names of the cities that were actually their capitals). At the time when it was decided to clean up Escobar, the war between them had already lasted for ten years. Cali has always been weaker, as it was a sprawling network of organizations that did everything from coca and opium to pharmaceuticals and banking. In contrast, Medellin was centralized and focused on cocaine trafficking, and therefore more disciplined and therefore less vulnerable to direct attacks. Escobar pressed Cali for a very long time - exactly until the Colombian government declared war on Escobar.
The main claim of the Colombian authorities to Escobar was not that he was a bloody maniac, but that he almost did not share with the officials at the top. If Escobar needed something, he would usually kill, take hostages, intimidate, blow up planes, and so on. Pablo was a typical feudal baron: he paid only in his fief, built houses for peasants, distributed social assistance, well, roads, ambulances and other garbage. Quite a Ukrainian alignment, adjusted for a broad Latin American soul and less tight-fistedness. He saw his development in expanding his allotment to the whole of Colombia. That is, sit in the presidential chair.
The Cali cartel was also bloody and quite officially fascist - under the slogan "Pure Cali - beautiful Cali!" its members simply killed thousands of prostitutes, "asocial elements", gays, Marxists, communists, leftists. The Cali cartel even had a whole River of Death - Kauka, where they dumped corpses until the content of cadaveric poisons in the water exceeded all sorts of norms. There were so many corpses that for a long time the cost of bringing the Cauca River into service in the department of Cali was a substantial part of the budget. One of the cities simply went bankrupt in the process of cleaning it up. But to officials, prosecutors, judges, ministers and presidents, Cali always bashly. That was the practice. As you may have guessed, effective.
And as Escobar took off, he was shot down by politicians affiliated with the Cali cartel. It was Kali and his puppeteer Gilberto Orejuelo, nicknamed Chess Player, who became the beneficiaries of a large-scale campaign to demonize Escobar and the subsequent witch hunt. About demonization or witch hunts, this is not about the fact that Escobar was an angel, and his managers were innocent sheep. Not to the fact that he was accused not in the case - even as in the case. All this here is to the fact that the essence of the special operation of the Cali cartel was to discredit and inflate the scale of the personality of Pablo Escobar, destroy the leadership of a rival cartel, demonize individuals and intercept the released flows. Criticism, demonization and even elimination individual people does not lead to a solution systemic problems- only to change those who earn on them.
To fight Medellin, the Cali cartel and a number of other organizations created the Los Pepes armed group. Peppa Pig has nothing to do with it, in decoding it is “victims of Pablo Escobar”. Then, after the scandal, when the scale of the bribery and influence of the Cali cartel on the Colombian government came to light, the director general of the Colombian national police was forced to admit that he was authorized to work with Los Pepes.
The members of Los Pepes, who, under the guise of an information campaign to discredit Escobar, were engaged in capturing the market for Cali, even received information from the CIA - this is to better understand why the United States is now not very fond of sharing intelligence with countries of dubious governability.
But back then, even the US Drug Enforcement Administration turned a blind eye to Kali's activities. As a result, the Cali cartel financed not only Los Pepes, but also Colombian law enforcement officers. Moreover, the famous special forces "Delta" (Delta Force) trained militants "Los Pepes", and the members of the cartel themselves actively infiltrated the law enforcement structures of Colombia. The Cali Cartel has essentially turned the anti-drug arm of law enforcement into their personal weapon against Escobar and other rivals, while at the same time giving the authorities almost complete immunity from scrutiny. Are you against Peppa pigs? So you are for Escobar's drug empire! Drug criminal!
In passing, Los Pepes legalized and trained their militants. In general, this group cleared out about 300 "managers" of Escobar, which was a very tangible loss for the Medellin cartel.
Later, the Los Pepes militants, well-trained by the US special forces and fed by the Cali budget, will become one of the active participants in the troubles in Colombia, and one of the leaders of the group will create his Envigado drug cartel and will control one of the most effective organizations of hired killers - the Terrace Group. Proceedings against the American intelligence services regarding cooperation with Los Pepes are still ongoing.
Escobar's main political opponent will be the Colombian Liberal Party. When Escobar wants to become president, the CLP Attorney General will campaign against him. The minister is killed. Escobar will also kill many other prominent CLP activists. It is the KLP president who will achieve the extradition of Exobar's associates to the United States and put him in prison.
As a result of the first stage of the campaign, Escobar will sit in Colombia in his personal prison, which he will build for himself - of course, with blackjack and whores - and will continue to manage his business from there. They will even bring traitors to prison for reprisal, and he will personally torture and kill them. This state of affairs, as you understand, will not suit the Cali cartel.
Then the CLP president will try to transfer Escobar from a personal prison to a normal one. Escobar will run away. Los Pepes, Kali and the police will follow the trail until they kill him during a police operation in 1993.
Immediately after the end of the campaign against Escobar, the Cali cartel will intercept all the remnants of his flows and take some of his people for themselves. By 1995, it will capture 90% of the entire world cocaine market, that is, it will become an almost absolute global monopoly with a multibillion-dollar turnover and billions in profits (according to estimates, net profit was $ 7 billion in that same 1995). The Cali cartel will multiply the volume of supplies and expand the range to opiates. The US Drug Enforcement Administration will see the light and suddenly declare that the Cali cartel has become the most powerful crime syndicate in history. History, you know? And who did it? At the end of 1994, information will surface that the president from the Colombian Liberal Party received loot from Cali directly into his campaign fund. A huge scandal will break out, which will ultimately lead to the decline of the Cali cartel and seriously undermine the position of the CLP, starting in 1995. New cartels and new corrupt officials will enter the vacated seats.
The results of Latin American anti-corruptionism
With the help of US law enforcement, the CIA, the US Drug Enforcement Agency, the US Special Forces Delta, and bright honest people who proclaimed the era of the anti-drug movement in Colombia, the Cali drug cartel established a monopoly position in the cocaine market and became the most powerful crime syndicate in history, expanding many times both volume and range of deliveries. With the help of these same people, the strongest competitor of Kali, the drug lord Pablo Escobar, was destroyed. His purely criminal system of blackmail and threats has been replaced by a massive system of bribing the very officials who led the fight against drugs.
All this led to the decomposition of the Colombian political system and the total slipping of Colombia into cocaine addiction (“not in the sense of sniffing, but in the sense of earning” (c)). In passing, all these bright people helped the St. Petersburg group in Russia (Putin's SPAG laundered the money from the Cali cartel - yes, I knew that you were not in the know). Yes, Kali is directly linked to Putin. Estimate, yes, and then the Kremlin fussed. No need to rock Escobar, otherwise Putin will attack. In passing, all these people have expanded the geography of the industry from a couple of states to almost the entire Latin America across the Andes.
The result of all these stunning stories was the launch in Colombia of a self-perpetuating bloody and corrupt moloch, which led to another aggravation of the civil war (five million displaced people from 1985 to 2014). Now, in place of one cartel, two new ones are growing, in place of one destroyed baron, two new ones, in place of the scheme that was made public, two new ones.
The drug mafia has increased its turnover and profits enormously. The number of victims has multiplied. In the United States, a prison economy was created, with which only now civil society The US is starting to fight through decriminalization.
Finally, in 2015, the wonderful film Sicario (in our translations, The Killer) received three Oscar nominations, where a former corrupt Colombian prosecutor works as a mercenary in the US special services, helping the Americans - what a surprise! — to make Medellin great again. Because it was somehow easier for the Americans to work with Medellin alone than with all the tilimilities formed on its ruins.
Every dog knows the name and schemes of Pablo Escobar. But this did not reduce the problems from the drug mafia, did not alleviate the situation of drug addicts, it did not lead to anything good at all, besides helping the Cali cartel to become a monopolist for five years and led to multi-billion dollar reinvestment in the drug industry. And well, now Colombian officials are trying to get bribes, and not immediately kidnap their children. What a pity that not all Colombians can be officials.
Who is to blame and what to do
“So, don’t plant at all ?! the Commonwealth will yell, shaking his fist in the direction of the monitor. “Confess, creature, how much did the bourgeois pay you?!”
I will answer: why not plant. Plant. But watch very carefully who, whom and how planting. And even more carefully - who does not plant. And how did Ernesto Pisano get a luxurious apartment. And how many new bodies are being created in the process of imprisonment, how many new restrictions are being introduced, and how many new opportunities to have your own profit are already opening up in the anti-corruption fight.
And the most important thing is to remember every minute that landings are a small part of the anti-corruption struggle. The main one is the maximum removal of state hands from the economy. Corruption is like rust or mold. It is ineffective to deal with them with emery and a teaspoon, effectively - right conditions storage.
You can’t cut billions at state-owned enterprises that don’t exist. It is difficult to take a bribe for permission, if it is already allowed. The missing regulator is not enriched. You won’t steal much on tariffs with a transparent formation scheme or refinancing with a clear accrual scheme.
In short, not to fight the consequences, but to destroy the causes, the conditions that make all this possible. Not waving a saber, but a fountain pen. Do not remove the pigskins in the caps-pies from the chairs in order to bring in pale young men with burning eyes, but remove the chairs altogether.
Sim win. Colombia and the US learned this from a very traumatic experience. But we are smart. We think with our heads and learn from the mistakes of others. Truth?
Colombian drug cartels are a huge octopus that has entangled with its tentacles not only Colombia, but also neighboring countries. Local residents obey them more than the authorities, and are more afraid of them than the security services. In their arsenal - kidnapping, torture, murder. Few people know about their structure, business and income - cartel members are used to keeping their mouths shut under pain of death. But some secrets of the Colombian drug lords nevertheless became known to the general public.
The main source of income for Colombian drug cartels is drug smuggling into the United States. This business brings crazy profits, but as you know, no business will develop well if you do not invest in it. And the Colombians have something to invest in the cause. Since overland delivery of goods is not only dangerous, but also fraught with great losses due to vigilant customs officers and border guards, Colombians, competing with each other, are actively looking for new ways to deliver contraband to the huge American market, trying to grab an additional market share at every opportunity. . Therefore, the most powerful drug cartels in Colombia have their own small fleet, which includes not only speedboats, but even submarines! Such submarines are able to covertly approach the shore in secret places, delivering huge cargoes of goods at once.
Of course, the supply of drugs and live goods is more convenient to carry out if you are covered by those who, on duty, must fight against your activities. And the Colombians spare no effort in this direction. Recently, the United States was rocked by a scandal when a former police officer from the District of Columbia claimed that from 2005 to 2008 he hosted parties with prostitutes for DEA agents financed by Colombian drug cartels. Moreover, everything took place right in the service apartments of drug fighters! Another police officer confirmed the information, saying that he was present at parties as a security guard who monitored the inviolability of weapons and personal belongings of police agents. In addition, he added, in addition to prostitutes, drug cartels supplied federal agents with money, gave them expensive gifts, including weapons. Yes, in such an environment, drugs are clearly not overcome!
Recently, as journalists report, drug cartels are mastering a new business - highly profitable and popular. This is their approach: they try to lay their hands on everything that brings a high income. In this case we are talking about oil - the main source of income for Mexico, which actively supplies oil to the United States, which is considered their main buyer. Already now, judging by press reports, drug cartels are actively engaged in illegal pumping of oil from Mexican wells, while actively looking for ways to subdue a highly profitable business. It is even possible that in the coming years the fire of criminal wars, which has been blazing for a long time in Colombia, will spread to Mexico if the cartels decide to get down to business seriously.
In 1985, the Colombian drug cartel and its militant link, the M-19 insurgency, took over the Palace of Justice in the Colombian capital, Bogotá. Bandits under the command of Pablo Escobar himself seized the building, taking several dozen people hostage. It took the involvement of the Colombian military, including tanks and helicopters, to regain control of the Palace of Justice. The attackers were killed, but dozens of innocents also died. Pablo Escobar needed this operation for intimidation: he did not want the Colombian government to put obstacles in his way, and in such a cruel way he decided to show that it was better to live in friendship with him.
Despite the strict laws of silence adopted by the Colombian drug cartels, any member who is caught transporting a large consignment of cocaine is almost always ready to turn in accomplices in order to save himself from a life sentence. The leaders of the cartels know this - and do not know pity, trying to nip treachery in the bud. The all-powerful drug lord Pablo Escobar was famous for his cruelty towards his own. Escobar had bouts of paranoia, complicated by insomnia, and at these moments, as biographers say, betrayal seemed to him everywhere. It was possible to fall under suspicion for the slightest reason or even for no reason at all. The suspect Pablo ordered to be brought to him for interrogation, beaten, severely tortured, and often killed, without ever knowing that this person had no guilt before him. The problem was exacerbated by Escobar's temper, which prevented him from thinking clearly and making the right decisions, including about the fate of his associates.
Colombian drug cartels are distinguished by outstanding skills not only in the field of making illegal money, but also in terms of turning it into legal, solid capital. To do this, they involve financial institutions around the world. Some drug cartels launder their money all the way to Hong Kong, allegedly buying goods there through trusted firms and transferring money for supposedly existing products to Hong Kong banks. To understand the scale of the phenomenon, let us recall one story. In 2014, Daniel Barrera was found guilty of money laundering by a US federal court. According to the prosecution, money laundering went through a Chinese bank in Guangzhou, and the amount was 5 billion dollars! For some countries, this is an entire annual budget. And for the Colombian drug lords - just one portion of the funds laundered in just one country in the world.
An investigation conducted in 2013 showed that every year thousands of Colombians become victims of modern slave traders. People simply disappear without a trace - and local authorities and law enforcement already know what this means. The Colombian police are doing what they can to save people, but, alas, the forces are unequal: in addition to the Colombian drug cartel, dozens of criminal communities around the world are involved in human trafficking. As a rule, the victims of modern slave traders are girls supplied for the sex industry and slaves of coa plantations, which the drug cartels use as free labor. US authorities have estimated the annual turnover of the modern slave market in America at $30 billion. Not surprisingly, Colombian drug lords have entered the business - they are attracted to anything that promises easy money.
Participation in terrorist attacks for Colombian drug cartels is in the order of things, and the death of hundreds of innocent people does not bother them at all. On November 17, 1989, Avianco Airlines flight #203 was supposed to depart from El Dorado International Airport in the Colombian capital of Bogota to one of the cities of California. At 7 am, the plane took off from Bogota, but just a few minutes later it exploded in the air. The speed of the Boeing 727 aircraft at that time was about 350 kilometers per hour, the height above the ground was about 6000 meters. The plane crashed to the ground, killing all on board - 107 passengers and crew members. After the tragedy, Pablo Escobar did not even hide the fact that the explosion was his work, just as he did not hide his goal - to prove to the government that power belongs to him. The lives of innocent people, from his point of view, were worth nothing.
Kidnapping is a favorite tool of the Colombian drug cartel
The cartel does not hesitate to use any means to achieve what it wants. Kidnapping innocent people and using them for trade is his favorite method. In 1991, members of the Medellin drug cartel kidnapped prominent journalist Diana Turbey. She was allegedly lured into a meeting with one of the leaders of the cartel by deception - however, instead of a drug lord, a group of bandits were waiting for her at the meeting place, who grabbed the journalist and took her away in an unknown direction. Turbey later died in an unsuccessful attempt by Colombian police to rescue her. The kidnapping of the journalist was only a small part of the drug cartel's global plan to kidnap as many government officials and journalists as possible in order to prevent the passage of a law on the extradition of criminal elements. However, Colombian legislators nevertheless passed a law that allowed the country's authorities, when searching for Escobar and other drug lords, to extradite them to the United States, placing them under the jurisdiction of an American court.
Medellin drug cartel - a terrible legend of Colombia
Until his death at the hands of agents of the US Drug Enforcement Administration in 1993, Pablo Escobar led one of the largest and most brutal Colombian drug cartels, the Medellin Cartel. This organization, engaged in smuggling and drug trafficking, was founded in the Colombian city of Medellin. In the 1970s and 80s, the cartel was headquartered in Bolivia. The Medellin Cartel has been called one of the most successful drug trafficking organizations in history. According to rough estimates, the cartel annually earned from 50 to 100 billion dollars on drug trafficking. However, in the 1990s, after the death of Escobar, the cartel was destroyed by competitors. By this point, the Medellin Cartel has earned such hatred from them (stemmed, presumably, out of envy) that the rival Cali drug cartel is credited with as much credit for destroying it as the US Drug Enforcement Administration.
An interview given by Bogota Mayor Gustavo Petro in 2014 was like a bombshell. In it, the mayor acknowledged for the first time that drug cartels have long paved their way to the highest echelons. state power. For years, Colombian lawmakers have shown a strange reluctance to take steps to shut down the country's illicit cocaine exports, which have already taken on the character of a national disaster. Regarding the situation that has developed in the country because of this, Gustavo Petro said: “I am sure that in order to achieve peace, we must change the political model, integrate the population of the country into public life and democratize Colombia ... But for this we need to find the courage and solve the problem of illegal drug trafficking. These problems go hand in hand: it all starts with people on the sidelines, it breeds violence - and as a result we are faced with illegal drug flows, where drug traffickers use violence for their own purposes ... If we do not solve the social problems that provoke violence , we will not solve the rest. Drug lords use violence to control the state, over the territory of Colombia. This makes the problem of drug trafficking insoluble. The drug lords have concentrated power over the country in their hands.”
Jairo Velasquez Vazquez, nicknamed Pollpay, the favorite hitman of Pablo Escobar, is rumored to have killed 300 people with his own hands and issued warrants for the murder of 3,000 more. The most incredible thing is that Popeye, having retired, released a memoir, talking about his life in the Medellin cartel - a terrible life that left behind thousands of corpses of innocent people. But Popeye talks about this in passing. The main theme of his memoirs is how he managed to survive all these years next to the paranoid tyrant Escobar. Popeye also confirms that in its prime years, the Medellin cartel kept a large portion of the Colombian government on its payroll. In addition, he says that a lot of money helped Escobar also bribe the highest ranks of the Colombian intelligence and national security services. Popeye admits to being involved in both bribing government officials and kidnapping and torturing them, as well as taking part in the 1989 Avianca Airlines plane bombing.
The Cali Cartel - The Brutal Successors of the Medellin Cartel
The Cali Cartel, led by brothers Rodriguez Orejuela and José Santacruz Londoño, broke away from Pablo Escobar's Medellin cartel in the late 1980s. His base was located in the south of Colombia, in the city of Santiago de Cali. When the Medellin cartel lost its leader, the Cali cartel quickly took its place in the drug market. In their better times The Rodriguez Orejuela brothers and their people controlled up to 90% of the world's cocaine traffic. Employees of the US Drug Enforcement Administration compared the Cali cartel with the Soviet KGB in strength and power and called it "the most powerful crime syndicate in recent history."
"Group 400" - a secret criminal alliance
A division of the Cali Cartel, the "Group of 400" was led by the famous mafioso Jorge Alberto Rodriguez, nicknamed Don Cholito. It was a community of 400 of the most talented criminals from around the world, acting with the support of government officials. Rodriguez was notorious for smuggling millions of dollars worth of cocaine into the United States before he was 18. He was brought to the Cali cartel by his father, Jorge Alberto Rodriguez, Sr. Subsequently, Don Cholito was called the most powerful drug dealer in the United States. In 1990, Rodriguez was arrested and sentenced to several decades in prison. However, according to rumors, after a few years, Rodriguez was released and is enjoying all the benefits that a multi-million dollar fortune can give, somewhere in the United States.
Drug lords do not disdain the murders of senior officials
This footage was taken on August 18, 1989 in the city of Soacha, where Colombian presidential candidate Luis Carlos Galán was killed by Colombian drug cartel militants. On the recording, automatic bursts are clearly audible - these are the killers sent by Pablo Escobar. Escobar made the decision about his death immediately after Galan announced his intention to participate in the presidential elections in 1990. The murder took place during a meeting of Shalan with voters and was the loudest and most daring action in a series of murders, assassinations and kidnappings, the purpose of which was to control the government. The cartel needed guarantees that the newly elected president would suit him - and to ensure the arrival of the candidate needed by the kings of drug trafficking, they stopped at nothing.
In September 2017, the American film studio Netflix released a sequel to the acclaimed television series Narcos, the plot of which is focused on the rise and fall of one of the largest transnational corporations in the world, which single-handedly occupied a vacant niche after the death and demise of its Medellin cartel.
Like the first two seasons, the continuation of the series caused a huge stir among viewers around the world. One of his main (if not the most important) heroes was the head of the cartel's security service, beloved by many - (Spanish Jorge Salcedo).
Surely, many have wondered: who is this decent and noble man, whose role was brilliantly played by a Swedish actor of Spanish origin Matthias Varela(Spanish: Matias Varela), is he a fictional character or did he really exist? Let's figure it out.
The answer is yes. Indeed, in real life Jorge Salcedo was the head of security, responsible for the security of the two "godfathers" of the Cali Cartel (the brothers and Rodriguez Orejuela) and their families for several years. And it was he who, in fact, risking the lives of himself and his family, was a secret informant for the DEA (Drug Enforcement Administration, DEA), whose information ultimately became decisive in the destruction of the famous cocaine empire .
“It was very risky, but I ended up in a nightmare trap. I had to run…”
Life before Cali
Almost all the facts from the biography of Salcedo, who has been under the federal witness protection program for 22 years, are carefully hidden by the American intelligence services. It is only known that Jorge was born in 1948 in the capital, his father was a retired general Colombian Army and respected diplomat.
He graduated from the university and received higher education in the field of mechanical engineering and industrial economy. He began his career in the development of forklifts and other equipment, and later managed an oil production business. By the end of the 1980s. enlisted in the army, the years of which coincided with one of the bloodiest periods in history.
Anti-government guerrilla-communist groups (, etc.) unleashed waves of kidnappings that terrorized the nation, including the families of wealthy drug lords. At the same time, Salcedo, who was well versed in electronic equipment, took part in many counter-terrorism operations.
High-ranking Colombian generals were concerned about what was happening in the country, considering the government to be insolvent, often making decisions without the approval of official Bogotá. So, in the late 80s. Jorge Salcedo, who enjoys a brilliant reputation in military circles, was secretly sent to Europe in order to assemble a team of professional mercenaries who were to launch a massive attack on the General Headquarters and the National Secretariat of the FARC, located in the foothills of the Eastern Cordillera, thereby putting an end to years of atrocities partisans. It is curious, but this operation was financed by people from.
At the last minute, the mission failed, and Salcedo himself left the army and went into reserve. By his own admission, he felt more like an engineer than a soldier.
Invitation to the cartel
Despite this setback, word of him reached the city. Local cocaine bosses involved in a bloody war with Pablo Escobar saw in the 41-year-old retired officer a man who could help them get rid of their nemesis.
Initially, the Kali leaders wanted him to use his connections to hire British mercenaries to assassinate Escobar.
In January 1989, Salcedo received a phone call saying that "someone from Cali" wanted to speak to him.
“I had to go. It was not an invitation that I could refuse. At that time in Colombia, even honest people had to deal with drug cartels.”
The next morning, on the very first flight, he arrived at Cali airport, from where he was directly taken to the luxurious mansion of Miguel Rodriguez Orejuela, where all 4 leaders of the criminal syndicate were already waiting for him.
“He got to the point first, saying that Escobar was a crazy criminal, a murderer who threatened them to kill their wives and children. Then Miguel, the younger of the two Orejuela brothers, put it more bluntly: he wanted Escobar to be killed, and he was confident that my experience in fighting guerrilla groups, as well as access to military surveillance equipment, would help ensure that the desired result was achieved.
This is how Salcedo became a member of the Cali cartel.
"I had no choice. However, at that moment I did not feel like a criminal. I fought the partisans. Now I was up against the most bloodthirsty drug lord in history, they convinced me that I would be doing the nation a huge service by removing Pablo Escobar. I agreed, but I immediately told myself that I was not one of them. So it was before last day working for these people, I had nothing to do with drugs."
Service in the cartel
Salcedo immediately took up his duties and began to develop plans for an attack on the head of the Medellin cartel. First it was supposed to be an attack on armed helicopters, then a planned attack by mercenaries in Panama, and finally, a massive aerial bombardment of Escobar's personal prison -. Each time, all these operations failed for one reason or another.
One of the episodes leading up to the last of these assassination attempts attracted international attention, after which the Colombian government, like Escobar himself, now knew who Jorge Salcedo was working for and what he was trying to achieve.
Attempts to kill Escobar failed and Salcedo was too deeply involved in the underworld. There was no turning back for him. His employers would not let him leave, however, there was nowhere to go - the sicarios of the Medellin cartel would surely have dealt with him very soon. Therefore, the Orejuela brothers relieved him of his previous duties and appointed him head of the security service, the purpose of which was to protect their families.
Gilberto and Miguel Rodriguez Orejuela
Upon assuming this position, Salcedo increased the security of his bosses and their families. “The families were huge. In my submission there were about 150 people who took care of the safety of these people. The local police helped. A lot of them were on the cartel's payroll."
Caught in the middle
After the death of Escobar in December 1993, the cartel immediately ceased to exist, and the cartel from Cali single-handedly occupied the vacant niche, which began to control up to 80% of American and 90% of European drug trafficking. However, the disappearance of the Medellin cartel has led the DEA to turn its full attention to Cali.
Despite constant ties to the Colombian government, bribery at all levels of government, and increased intelligence and counterintelligence headquarters, the cartel was increasingly subject to drug seizures. In 1993 alone, US Customs intercepted and confiscated 17.5 tons of cocaine.
“Every day we had more and more suspicions of information leakage, and every day Miguel became more and more paranoid - he saw traitors everywhere.”
In 1994, Salcedo witnessed the massacre of four "friends" of the organization who were suspected of treason. The head of the cartel's punitive wing (Navigante) strangled all four by putting plastic bags over their heads. At the same time, the Orejuela brothers insisted that Salcedo carefully observe this picture, "as if inviting him to their club."
“I tried to find an excuse to leave, however, I was forced to stay and watch as Navigante strangled them, three men and one woman. At the same time, I was well aware that they were not traitors.
Jorge Salcedo - Secret Informant
This moment became a turning point. Salcedo could not cope with the cruelty that the "Kalians" began to preach in recent times. He also knew that at any moment he and his family could be in the place of those four. The intention to hand over the Cali bosses to the secret services was also reinforced by the fact that Miguel ordered him to consider a plan to kill the chief accountant of the cartel. Guillermo Pallomari who knew too much about the cartel's bribes and business deals. Faced with an order to kill a colleague, the head of security fell into despair.
"I wanted to run for help, but I didn't even know which door to knock on."
Meanwhile, the US has stepped up pressure on official Bogotá, forcing the Colombian authorities to crack down on violent cartels. The Orejuela brothers tried unsuccessfully to negotiate a voluntary surrender.
Threatened with arrest, the billionaire brothers fled their palatial homes and ran the syndicate from safe house to safe house. One of the few who always knew where to find them was Jorge Salcedo.
He was waiting for an opportunity to use a non-buggy phone in the telecommunications building in Cali. In May 1995, he contacted a DEA agent Edward Kaseroski, with whom he secretly called back for several days.
A few weeks later, Jorge was called to the cartel's hideout to report to Miguel about how he planned to get rid of Pallomari. After careful consideration, Salcedo called Caseroski again and for the first time gave out the exact location of his boss.
"I am a corpse"
The next day, two DEA agents broke into Miguel's house, accompanied by a search party led by General Jose Serrano, Chief of the Colombian National Police. Turning the apartment upside down, they did not find the owner. It was obvious that there were secret hiding places in every cartel house, everyone was well aware of this. The search team tapped every inch of the walls and floors, but found no sign of Miguel. Jorge Salcedo insisted that the drug lord was there.
Miguel, who hid behind a thick brick wall a meter from the search party, was never found, but sensational documents were found - a journal in which important records were kept: 30,000 checks, cartel payments to the police, military, politicians and high-ranking officials, journalists and etc. (According to witnesses, the apartment search scene shown in episode 7 of season 3 of the series is very close to how it actually happened - ed.)
Around the same time, "friendly" Cali police arrived on the scene. In their report, they noted physical damage - a broken table and holes in the walls - and also found that the search party did not have a proper warrant. In addition, the American agents were armed, which is a violation of Colombian law. Under threat of arrest, the DEA agents and the Serrano team abandoned the search for Miguel Orejuela.
Salcedo was trapped. Only 5-6 people knew about this hideout, and he was the main suspect of all.
“What a nightmare, I'm a corpse! This is the first thought that popped into my head after the failure of that operation.”
Edward Kaseroski insisted on the immediate acceptance of his informant under the protection of American intelligence services. But Salcedo refused, realizing that it would take more time to evacuate his entire family from Colombia.
“I decided to play on the fact that I might not be discovered. I feigned innocence and immediately began to play in search of the mole.
This ploy seemed to avert suspicion from him. Jorge Salcedo bought time. And he used it, first helping Pallomarie's accountant to hide and stay alive, then helping agents cover up several cocaine laboratories, as well as the cartel's weapons and ammunition depots.
Fall of an empire
From mid-July to early August 1995, Salcedo continued to play the dual role of the man responsible for Don Miguel's security and his secret traitor.
Finally, on the first Saturday in August, 4 weeks after the last failed raid, Salcedo called the DEA and again reported the place where Miguel Orejuela was hiding. Already on Sunday at dawn, a strike group of 15 people from the Colombian national police, accompanied by all the same 2 American agents, broke into his apartment in northern Cali. Don Miguel heard about their visit too late - he was detained in the bedroom in his underwear. By that time, his brother Gilberto and Jose Santacruz Londoño were already behind bars.
In the days that followed, the entire infrastructure of the Cali cartel was exposed. Within a few months, about 130 people were charged.
J. Salcedo himself, as a key witness, was taken under the protection of special services and taken to the United States. He pleaded guilty to all charges brought against him, such as aiding drug trafficking and racketeering. However, after testifying extensively against his former employers, U.S. District Judge William Heveler noted that "the whistleblower, whose actions rendered an invaluable service to the United States and Colombia, saving the lives of many people, deserves fair compensation."
For helping to arrest and extradite drug lords, Jorge Salcedo received a reward of $1.7 million. But even 22 years after betraying his bosses, his life and the lives of his family remain at risk.
“You can’t imagine how lonely Jorge was, talking on phones he knew were constantly tapped… knowing how easily he could be compromised. This guy must have brass balls!” one of the federal prosecutors in charge of the Orejuela brothers case later confessed.
What happened to him then?
Since 1998, no one knows what the name of this guy who sank a giant drug empire is now. Together with his family, he lives somewhere in the USA (or maybe not), where exactly is unknown.
During all this time, he got in touch several times: he gave detailed interviews to a journalist from the LA Times a couple of times, and also in 2016 provided a brief consultation on the script to a person from Netflix. However, in all these cases, the conversations took place exclusively over a hidden phone. Therefore, neither the Times, nor Netflix, nor even Salcedo's personal lawyer has the opportunity to contact him, and there is also no information about his (even approximate) whereabouts.
“I am not proud that I worked for these people, but I am very proud that I helped them end their days behind bars!»
UP!| In 2017, Jorge Salcedo, or the person impersonating him, gave a long video interview for the Colombian TV channel RCN Televisión. This interview was featured on the popular TV show 4 Caminos.
Thank you so much for every repost! Gracias!
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Gentleman from Cali
Gilberto Orejuela was born into a very wealthy family, received an excellent education and fell in love with national poetry from childhood. Gilberto earned his first "capital" in the traditional illegal way for Colombia: he and his brother Miguel organized a kidnapping, demanding a ransom. Kidnapping - that's what it's called - brought solid money to novice bandits, and they decided not to stop there. Their most famous victims were Swiss citizens: diplomat Herman Buff and student Zach Martin. The group grew and by the end of the 70s, after the merger of several families, the famous Cali cartel was formed.
In 2001, Colombia was named the "kidnapping capital of the world"
No failures, no excuses, no second chances
Initially, the Cali cartel was engaged exclusively in the distribution of marijuana, but then moved on to trade in a more expensive drug - cocaine. The newly minted Cali drug lords immediately faced one big problem, whose name was Pablo Emilio Escobar. His Medellin cartel already controlled about 80% of the drug supply from Colombia and was not at all going to give in to newcomers from Cali.
Pablo Escobar is one of the most famous drug lords.
Gilberto Orejuelo saw only one way to survive against the background of Escobar's empire - to become better than him and beat him where he is weaker. Over time, Orejuelo planned to squeeze him out of business, out of Colombia, and out of this world. The leaders of the cartel from Cali made the main bet not on brute force, but on the systematic penetration of people loyal to the cartel into all sectors of Colombian society: politics, big business, the media, and the courts. The then head of the Drug Enforcement Administration, Robert Bryden, said: "Gangsters from Cali can kill you by simply sending assassins, but they prefer lawyers."
Gilberto earned his first "capital" by kidnapping people
The favorite weapon of the Kali people was a bribe: during the existence of the cartel, more than 8,000 corruption cases related to the cartel were registered. Another distinctive feature of the cartel was the creation of hundreds of cells both inside Colombia itself and outside it: in Europe, Asia, including Russia. These cells worked almost autonomously, while having the strictest code forbidding them to buy expensive cars, arrange noisy parties, abuse alcohol and drugs, kill and rowdy. For the slightest disobedience or failure, a member of the group "retired forever", and the entire cell disbanded and gathered again.
In general, Gilberto Orejuelo really looks like a chess grandmaster
Earned money Gilberto Orejuelo, unlike Pablo Escobar, was in no hurry to spend on the purchase of villas, cars and other attributes of a wealthy drug dealer. The Cali businessmen preferred to buy clean business with dirty money. So, Orejuelo owned 30 radio stations throughout Colombia and a whole network of pharmacies, the total cost of which was estimated at more than $ 216 million. In addition, to simplify the process of laundering money from drugs, Gilberto opened his own bank in Panama.
Too tight Colombia
At the beginning of its criminal path, the Cali cartel, although it perceived the Medellins as competitors, did not go into confrontation with them. Zones of influence both in the United States and in Colombia itself were divided, and the cartels cooperated on many issues. So, for example, the cartels worked together to launder money in Panama and fought together against the ultra-left rebels.
After Escobar, the Cali cartel became the main supplier of cocaine to the United States
However, the situation was heating up as the influence of the cartels grew. Mysterious arrests of cartel members followed, in which drug traffickers began to suspect each other. Soon there were even more contradictions between the cartels, then Pablo Escobar began his famous confrontation with the Colombian authorities, which led to the adoption of an extradition law. The “chess player” understood that it was impossible to win the war against the whole state, started by the ambitious Escobar, but you can take the opportunity to throw the king of cocaine off the throne.
LosPepes» participated in the operation to destroy Pablo Escobar
Starting with cooperation with the authorities in the fight against Escobar, very soon the Cali cartel moved into open confrontation with the people of Medellin. Colombia is in the grip of another wave of violence. Kali spared no expense, they supplied their fighters with modern weapons, even using military aircraft and wiretapping technologies. They founded an armed group of former military and police whose relatives fell victims of the terror of the Medellins, known as "Los Pepes" (Spanish. people persecuted by Pablo Escobar). Having at its disposal loyal thugs and the location of the Colombian government, the Cali cartel left no chance for the Medellins. Less than a year after Escobar's death, the Cali cartel was responsible for more than 90% of the cocaine shipped to the US.
The business is dying, but the business lives on
For all its power, the Cali cartel did not manage to outlive its Medellin rival for long. The Colombian government, horrified by the terror of Escobar, was determined to end all manifestations of Los Narcos. The Cali cartel was no exception. Just two years after the liquidation of the Medellin cartel, in the summer of 1995, almost all the leaders of the Cali cartel were arrested, including Gilberto and Miguel Orejuela. Chess Player's business acumen came in handy even in this case: Gilberto managed to negotiate relatively favorable terms of surrender, while retaining part of his fortune and even getting the opportunity to manage affairs from prison until his extradition to the United States in 2006.
Orejuela personally controlled the cartel until 1995.
Unfortunately for Colombia, the Cali cartel is so deeply entrenched in all areas of Colombian society that it was only a matter of time before new ruthless and formidable cartels formed on the wreckage of the two legendary giants.
