Word: colombian
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...Israel. DEA informants report that Cali is looking for sales representatives to man branch offices in Japan, where the going wholesale price for cocaine is as high as $65,000 per kg. "If the Cali cartel makes an alliance with the yakuza ((Japan's organized-crime network))," warns a Colombian presidential aide, "watch...
...succession of distribution rings. Federal narcotics trafficking and conspiracy charges, which form the basis for extradition requests, have been lodged against Cali's reputed financiers Gilberto and Miguel Rodriguez, their four Orjuela Caballero cousins and dozens of other senior figures. U.S. Attorney General Dick Thornburgh has asked the Colombian government to extradite them. Santacruz's half-brother and confidant, Luis Santacruz Echeverri, has been convicted on conspiracy charges in Miami, and his personal financial adviser, Edgar Alberto Garcia Montilla, has been jailed in Luxembourg for money laundering...
...Colombian national police officials say the Cali capos are not living at home, are not doing business as usual and will be arrested if found. Santacruz has kept out of sight since the government began its antidrug campaign after the assassination of presidential candidate Luis Carlos Galan in August 1989. But others seem to feel safe from prosecution. Gilberto Rodriguez Orejuela is very much at home, defiantly proclaiming his innocence and that of his brother Miguel. Gilberto describes himself as a "captain of industry and banker" and has the portfolio to prove it. He also has reputable friends...
Even when police do close in, the Cali bosses have escaped jail. When Gilberto was arrested in Spain in November 1984, the Colombian government went to great lengths to prevent his extradition to the U.S. According to a Rodriguez friend, Gilberto's son Jaime Fernando appealed to then President Belisario Betancur for help. Betancur declined comment. The elder Rodriguez says, "If Betancur helped in seeing I was extradited to Colombia and not the U.S., he was simply doing his duty as President, supporting an extradition order issued by a Colombian judge." Back in Cali, Rodriguez was tried on charges identical...
Critics fear the proud father is grooming his children for political office as well. "Someday their sons will rule part of this country," predicts Luis Gabriel Cano, who has succeeded his assassinated brother, Guillermo, as publisher of Bogota's crusading newspaper El Espectador. Unless the Colombian government can now break the hold of the cartel in Cali, Cano's warning may have come too late...