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Wednesday, June 1, 2022

Leader Of Now-Defunct Colombian Drug Cartel Dies In US Jail

"Sol Prendido" for Borderland Beat

Colombian drug trafficker Gilberto Rodriguez Orejuela leaves the Combita maximum security prison, in Tunja, Colombia, Nov. 7, 2002. Rodriguez Orejuela, who was the leader of the powerful Cali Cartel, died in a United States prison on Tuesday, May 31, 2022, confirmed his defense attorney. 

Gilberto Rodríguez Orejuela, an elderly leader of the former Cali cartel that smuggled vast amounts of cocaine from Colombia to the United States in the 1980s and 1990s, has died in a U.S. prison, his lawyer said Wednesday.

In 2020, a judge had denied Rodríguez Orejuela, who was in his 80s, early release on compassionate grounds from a prison in Butner, North Carolina. His attorney, David O. Markus, had said at the time that the former drug kingpin was suffering a range of health problems.

“We were very sad to learn about his passing last night. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family at this time,” Markus said Wednesday.

“God has a new chess partner,” the lawyer said, referring to Rodríguez Orejuela’s reputation for outsmarting his enemies and rivals, for which he earned the nickname “the chess player.”

Rodríguez Orejuela and his brother, Miguel, built a huge criminal enterprise that succeeded the Medellin cartel once run by drug lord Pablo Escobar. Both operations used violence and killings extensively for intimidation and enforcement.

The Rodríguez Orejuela brothers were captured in 1995 and imprisoned in Colombia. At that point, Colombian law prohibited the extradition of its nationals. But under pressure from the U.S, Colombia lifted that ban in 1997.

The brothers were found to have been continuing to traffic from prison and criminal charges were filed in Miami and New York. In 2004, Gilberto was extradited; Miguel was extradited the next year.

Under a 2006 plea deal that the brothers reached with federal prosecutors in Miami, more than two dozen family members were removed from a U.S. Treasury Department list designating them as part of the Cali cartel. That spared some of them from prosecution for obstruction of justice or money laundering and also allowed legitimate family businesses in Colombia to continue operating.

Gilberto Rodriguez Orejuela’s prison release date had been scheduled for Feb. 9 2030. His younger brother, is serving his sentence at a Pennsylvania prison.

Perhaps the biggest legacy of the Rodríguez Orejuela brothers was their ability to quietly corrupt Colombian politics, delivering shoeboxes of cash to Ernesto Samper’s campaign prior to his 1994 election as president and buying off much of Congress. While painted in the popular press as less violent than Pablo Escobar and the Medellin cartel, the Rodríguez Orejuelas brothers were later accused of paying off journalists to suppress news of Cali cartel-related killings.

New ranks of narcos quickly replaced the Cali cartel leaders after their arrest and extradition. Many of those successors became leaders of far-right military bands that the U.S. placed on its international terror group list in 2001.

AP News

29 comments:

  1. It's all fun and games until the guys you nade deals with go get you (DEA)
    Just look at chapo...

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    1. 2:30 the real owners of Culombia Drug trafficking got a better chess player, better because he would stay bought, he has been accused by those very same far right military (and paramilitary, AUC, PEPES, aka paracos helping the milicos) of being their creator head point man, governor of Antioquia a d president of Culombia Alvaro Uribe Velez, "el varito" once employed by Don Pablo Emilio Escobar himself...
      Also worked with the guerrillas ELN and FARC, his defense minister was known as Santiago when he was a frequent visitor to Cuba, beard and all, juan manuel santos.

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  2. He lived a happy life in a 8x12 cell.

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  3. "Los Caballeros de Cali"

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  4. Real O.G... when All this Real drug shyt started. Not like these New Generation Fentanyl babies

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  5. As bad as he was,. Colombia was so much better off under Cali than Escobar's Medellin cartel. They weren't bombing random street corners full of families.

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  6. That's is the life he chose. I believe him and his brother agreed to turn over to the USA a vast amount of their wealth to have family members removed from the prohibited person list SOL references.
    Legend has it his brother Miguel Ángel was once surrounded in a mansion and was hidden in between some walls and law enforcement started drilling into them and actually hit him with the drill bit but since he didn't yelp or bleed he wasn't found out.

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    1. Legend has it? It’s called Netflix 🤦‍♂️

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    2. I don't watch Netflix but you tell me if an episode or season has been done about these individuals. I do remember the Cali Cartel being featured on a Time magazine cover and most likely reading about the incident I previously mentioned. Whether it really happened or was hyperbole made up by a journalist, DEA, Colombian government or a combination of them during that era who knows.

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  7. Chess lives matter

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    Replies
    1. Your so freaking annoying with shit life's matter , have some respect

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    2. @747 no disrespect. But the LIVES MATTER comments was cool when Rambo was doing it. And then you guys overused it.

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    3. Blanko what happened to your Red Panties?

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  8. Colombian drug cartel organization are fascinating and rarely covered in the narco media I started reading some old school stuff after watching el cartel de los sapos

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    1. @12:18. I've never seen the level of sadistic butchery Mexican sicarios routinely use to dispatch their rivals. Though right-wing Colombian paramilitaries like Carlos Castaño Gil's AUC did pretty much the same thing.

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    2. I wish there was blogs covering colombias current cartel wars

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  9. Real drugs lord is el mencho

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    1. Mencho is the new kid on the block (RIP for he is no more). He was an employee of the Sinaloa Cartel with his shine box, shining Chapo and Mayo’s boots. Please don’t hype Mencho up,

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    2. ¡ALL HAIL KING MENCHO👿😈!



      •OPERATIVA👿😈EMOJI•

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    3. 9:06 you should send the DEA your info so that they stop searching and offering 10 mill for mencho, cause oviously you know more than the DEA 🤣🤣🤣

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  10. You mean satan has a new chess player , dont worry Don Gilberto we will all be joining you soon .....

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  11. I've read stories about how orejuela brothers and majority of of organizations at the time either feared or highly respected oscar Orlando henao aka don h or el hombre del overol

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    Replies
    1. Actually they were at the same level but el hombre del overol was even more low key than the orejuelas, but in the drug game you cant trust no one, not even family, reason why you should never play that game

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  12. I met him in prison USP Allenwood. He worked in the law library with me. R.I.P.

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    Replies
    1. Well I met him, when I locked up, I was next to his cell.

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  13. Ala berga wey Neta?

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  14. At least he can go meet Pablo in hell.

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