Word: cartelized
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...city's 1,200-member police force is overwhelmed by the violence. Minor offenses like a traffic violation generally receive more attention than serious crimes because they are easier and safer to deal with. "The cartel cannot be tackled in Medellin alone," Jaramillo says. "It is a worldwide problem and one that is created by demand in the U.S. Why doesn't the U.S. tackle consumption and then stop things like U.S.-made guns from reaching the cartel? Then we might get somewhere...
Sicarios, paid killers, will fulfill a contract on someone's life for as little as a few hundred dollars. The cartel uses sicarios frequently, though many murders have no apparent perpetrator or motive. Early last month, for instance, Jorge Antonio Restrepo Monslave, 29, a shop assistant with no known drug connections, was shot in the head outside his home by two attackers who took nothing from him. His murder was one of a dozen that day, none of which received more than a token investigation by police...
With all its wealth, the cartel need not stoop to violence to get its way. Up to 80% of the police force in Medellin is suspected of working for the Mafia. Last December the cartel was able to secure the release from a Bogota jail of Jorge Luis, a brother of Jorge Ochoa Vasquez's, a reputed drug billionaire whose sudden release from a Colombian prison last January infuriated the Reagan Administration...
Though their leaders are seldom seen on the streets, many of the hundreds of cartel employees -- the hit men, the chemists and the so-called mules who transport the cocaine, among others -- move about openly in Medellin. They can be spotted spending freely at the glitzy restaurants and nightclubs, some of which are said to be owned by the Mafia, on Las Palmas road. Young women in stone-washed jeans and high-heeled shoes often accompany the members of the drug-industry proletariat. On occasion the four-wheel-drive vehicles they favor cruise the streets in force. The cartel...
...leave Medellin's Macarena bullring, someone in the crowd shouted, "Hey, you, what about extradition?" It was an unfriendly, almost chilling challenge. The crowd parted to allow the stranger through and then closed ranks around the man again -- just as Medellin sometimes seems to shelter the wealthy cartel that has made the city the most dangerous in the world...