Word: santacruz
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Despite having bank accounts that have ranged as far afield as Hong Kong, in the past few years Josa Santacruz Londono has rarely ventured outside Cali, Colombia's cocaine capital. In recent weeks, though, word leaked that the reputed mastermind behind the world's No. 1 drug cartel had fled to Bogota, flushed from cover by an elite government strike force that had been chasing him for months. Santacruz is sometimes called "El Gordo" -- the Fat One -- and knowing he likes to eat, General Rosso Josa Serrano Cadena, chief of the Colombian National Police, ordered his men to stake...
...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 cartel is to be attacked successfully, there must be pressure in Colombia...
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...
...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 to those filed in the U.S. and was acquitted -- along with Santacruz, who was tried in absentia. The acquittal protected both men from further extradition to the U.S. on grounds of double jeopardy...
While the Rodriguez and Santacruz clans seem to enjoy considerable respect in Colombia, they are not universally admired. Some intellectuals protest that if the drug mafia's economic power is accepted, its values will eventually be countenanced as well. Critics are especially wary of the dynastic ambitions of the high-profile Rodriguez family. "They invest in the future," says a Bogota businessman. "They are thinking of the next generation, and the one after that...