Word: calied
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...Each cell is directed by a Caleno like Leto Lopez and staffed by relatives and neighbors whose salaries are banked in Cali. Their accounts are debited when they make mistakes. The code of conduct is strict: nondescript clothing, four-door family cars, no drunkenness, no loud parties. Also no failures, no excuses, no second chances. This unforgiving system produces few defections: the penalty for dissent is death, not only for cell members but also for their kinsmen back home in Colombia...
...agents have almost no chance of infiltrating a Cali family. Calenos sell only to people they know, meaning other Colombians. A prospective wholesale buyer must establish his bona fides at an audience with top management in Cali. If he is approved, he is not required to pay cash up front. He will send the cartel payment after he resells the drugs to middlemen. The wholesale buyer must put up collateral, cash or deeds to real property as insurance if he is caught. He must also provide human collateral in the form of his family in Colombia, who will pay with...
After each meeting, both drivers alert the cell head in code from a mobile phone or beeper. He telephones a desk officer in Cali, then sends confirmation by fax. Detailed ledgers are maintained in both countries. The ledgers have proved the system's main vulnerability, providing a rich lode of data to DEA analysts when seized...
Many cells now ship the money in bulk to Cali, where some is invested, some converted into pesos and some wired back to banks in the U.S. or Europe under a relative's name. In January 1989 New York agents seized a Santacruz truck loaded with $19 million as it was departing for Mexico. Last October agents found an additional $14 million inside heavy cable spools on Long Island, along with records showing shipments of $100 million more over the previous nine months...
...immunity the Cali cartel enjoys from prosecution is a matter of intense concern to Bush Administration officials. While Henry Orjuela Caballero is in jail in New York State awaiting trial on federal drug-trafficking conspiracy charges, brother Carlos is out on bail on similar charges filed against him in Los Angeles. Another brother, Jaime, the family boss, is free in Colombia. So are Don Chepe Santacruz, the Rodriguez Orejuela brothers and such rising powers as the Urdinola brothers. "You can't destroy the organization without lopping off its head," says DEA's Bonner. "The tentacles grow back. If the Cali...