CNN Presents: The rise and fall of the Cali cocaine cartel

January 6, 1995
Web posted at: 9:15 a.m. EST

From Correspondent Brian Barger

CALI, Colombia (CNN) -- The Cali Cartel was at one time the world's largest supplier of cocaine. Based in Colombia's third largest city, it was a powerful crime syndicate generating $8 billion a year, according to U.S. estimates.

The cartel moved cocaine from the jungles of the Amazon, where coca leaves are harvested and processed in outdoor labs, to the streets of cities throughout the world.

Two brothers, Gilberto and Miguel Rodriguez Orejuela, ran the cartel until last year. The brothers and a third man, Jose Santacruz Londono, eluded police through a broad network of informants and sophisticated security measures.

It would take the combined efforts of the DEA, the CIA, the Colombian navy, undercover agents and the director of the Colombian police to bring the three men in.

Agents captured the cartel leaders one by one, taking advantage of their human foibles to catch them off guard.

In the case of Gilberto Rodriguez, it was his carelessness in removing his security ear piece as police moved in on him. Female drug agents posing as joggers found the drug lord's lair by following the scent of his aide's cheap cologne to an apartment.

Gilberto's brother, Miguel, proved more elusive. When police raided his home, he hid in a secret compartment beneath the sink in a bathroom. Police drilled holes into the compartment but found nothing. Later agents found a bloody towel in the compartment, leading police to believe Rodriguez had stood silently while agents drilled a bit into his shoulder.

Navy and police intelligence teams including a CIA unit returned for Rodriguez in a raid that caught his security team off guard. Rodriguez was nabbed as he hurried to his hiding place, a compartment equipped with food and water, an oxygen tank and a copy of Colombia's penal code.

The Cali cartel's number-three man, Santacruz, also proved difficult to find. Ultimately, it was his weakness for fine food that exposed him.

Agents staked out dozens of Bogota restaurants. When Santacruz came in to dine, Colombian police director Gen. Rosso Jose Serrano called in his personal security guards to arrest Santacruz.

Now that the leadership of the Cali cartel has been dismantled, the question remains: How long will the Rodriguez brothers and Santacruz will stay out of the cocaine business? In Colombia, the penalties for drug trafficking are very low, even for drug lords as powerful as the leaders of the Cali cartel.

Six of the seven leaders of the cartel are now behind bars. But even as drug enforcement agents are chipping away at Colombia's cocaine trade, a new menace is on the horizon -- heroin.

CNN Presents: The rise and fall of the Cali cocaine cartel

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