Pablo Escobar and the Medellin cartel

"Although the term, drug cartel has gained widespread acceptance, it should be noted that the Cali and Medellin Cartels are not cartels in the true microeconomic sense. A viable economic cartel must be able to control prices, production, and divisions of the market. The wholesale market for illicit drugs is highly competitive and thus not lend itself to control by a cartel.

It's more accurate to think of each cartel as being comprised of several distinct and separate international drug organizations that may share certain resources, such as drug processing laboratories or transportation assets, when they perceive it to be in their mutual interest".

This is a note from a Drug Enforcement Administration november 1993 document entitled "The illicit drug situation in Colombia".

The report, as explained at the beginning, is a resume of drug trafficking situation in Colombia referred to that period.

Colombian Government was conducting "tactical" operations against both "Cali" and "Medellin" cartels, which were in that period the most powerfull and riches trafficking organizations in Colombia.

Cali cartel, created in the '70s by Gilberto Rodriguez, his brother Miguel, "Chepe" Londono and "Pacho" Herrera, used to control nearly 80% of cocaine exports from Colombia to United States.

At the beginning of the 90's Colombian law enforcements arrested the Cali cartel drug Kingpin Jairo Ivan Urdinola-Grajales.

But in spite of this successfull operation and a series of others including, cocaine refine laboratories seizures, discovering of money laundering organizations and large opium poppy eradications, Colombian situation was still getting worse.

Serious domestic problems affecting and weakening the country, such as insurgent violence, a weak and intimidated judiciary, and widespread official corruption, were supposed to be a consequence of cartels' power. Corruption, always present in Colombian society, had become a constant menace to law enforcement objectives.

"For example the escape of the infamous Pablo Escobar Gaviria tainted many of the initiatives of the Gaviria administration".

 Coca cultivation

Behind Bolivia and Peru Colombia is the third largest coca leaves producer. Coca farming takes place in the eastern lowlands or rain forest such as Guaviare, Vaupes Commissariats, Putumayo Intendency and Caqueta Department. Important coca cultivation also takes place in Bolivar Department.

Colombian territory for coca cultivation esteemed was in the 90's about 37.100 hectares.

One hectare of coca in the eastern lowlands region can yield a potential 800 kilograms of dry coca leaf per year. Colombian's coca has a relatively low alkaloid content, just 0,32%, about one half of the one in Bolivia or Peru.

In 1992 Colombian police destroyed 941 hectares of coca, which was nearly the same quantity destroyed in 1991 and 1990.

So why Colombia is so important? Because it's the leader producer of cocaine. Colombian traffickers import cocaine base from both Peru and Bolivia, and then refining and smuggling it mostly abroad, in the United States and Europe.

Illegal refining laboratories have been discovered all over the country, with  different productivity each: from the small family to the large industrial facilities employing several hundreds of workers.

A recycling-recovery system allow traffickers to reuse expansive chemicals   was discovered in January 1991 by Colombian police, hidden in the Amazonas jungle and composed of twenty different buildings.

This facility was able to clean previously used solvents and  served as the chemical storage and recycling center for a large number of others refining laboratories. From 1987 to 1992 the number of seized laboratories decline from 1.357 to 223. This was due to three factors according to Colombian authorities. Since 1992 law enforcement were committed even to opium eradication.

The second reason was their involvement in the hunt of the fugitive Pablo Escobar together with the contrast to renewed insurgent violence. The third was the more difficult activity of seizing laboratory due to their capacity to hyde deep in the Colombian jungle.   

Cocaine trafficking: the Cali cartel

Dea defines a kingpin as a specific head of an international drug trafficking organization, or as part of a drug trafficking consortium, in a source country, who is responsible for directing all phases of unlawful production, transportation, and wholesale distribution of bulk quantities of illegal drugs or who is responsible for directing the financial operations of such an organization.

From 70's to 90's the Cali and the Medellin cartel dominate the cocaine market. Their transport capacity enable them to reach United States thanks to collaboration of other trafficking groups.

The Cali cartel control cocaine traffic in major US cities such as New York, Chicago, Huston, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Las Vegas and Miami.

The cartel was also able to organize cocaine distribution in Western Europe, thanks to the transition from communism to free market economy.

Major cocaine seizures have been made in Russia, Poland and the former Czechoslovakia. In February 1993 Russian authorities seized 1,1 ton of cocaine at the Finnish-Russian border.

Tha Cali cartel was a merging of different criminal enterprises, all of them active out of the Valle del Cauca region of Colombia.

In November 1992 the Cali kingpin Gilberto Rodrico Orejuela and his younger brother Miguel were charged from the Prosecutor General of Colombia of illegal enrichment, drug trafficking and money laundering.

Another component of the Cartel was the organization lead by the drug kingping Jose Santacruz Londono, responsible for smuggling cocaine from Colombia to the US and Europe.

Helmer Herrera Buitrago, aka Pacho Herrera, was another famous kingpin from the Cali cartel who heads for them one of the most profitable money-laundering operations in New York City.

In Aprils 1992 Colombian police arrested Jairo Ivan Urdinola Grajales, who heads an independent trafficking group linked to Cali cartel's heroin operations. In December 1992 Urdinola was sentenced to 210 months in prison, but may serve no more than 55 months due to his  arrangement with the Colombian Government.

Escobar and the Medellin cartel

One of the most powerful drug kingpin in the world, from the Medellin cartel, was Pablo Escobar Gavira.

He was the first able to create an organization in the same line of a multinational corporation. Regional cocaine distribution networks, lead by local managers, was able to transport large quantities of cocaine in the US and Europe by air, land and sea. Escobar was also the first to establish a complex international financial network lo launder drug profits.

Escobar runs his empire for nearly ten years, thanks to his private army of killers (sicarios). He was involved in the assassination of many people, both in Colombia and abroad. Most of them were Colombian officials, like Justice Minister Rodrigo Lara Bonilla and presidential candidate Luis Carlos Galan. Some of them were cocaine kingpin from Cali rival cartel, or even from his own associates, like Gerardo Moncada and Fernando Galeano.

In June 1991 Escobar was arrested after Colombia adopted a law forbidding extradition to the United States for Colombian citizens.

Some journalists said ironically that Escobar detention at Envigado Prison was  a kind of "buen retiro".

On July 1992 Escobar escape from prison. Colombian authorities begin a manhunt in an attempt to bring him back to his cell. The Medellin cartel then organize a series of attacks across the country by car bomb and target assassinations. Over 50 Colombian police officers were killed in different places.

The second drug cartel associated with the Medellin, called Ochoa was the one lead by Vasquez brothers, Jorge Luis, Fabio and Juan David. In 1991 Ochoa were arrested by Colombian police,  although Ochoa members still remained free continuing to manage drug trafficking.

Weakened from arrests and seizures Escobar and Ochoa organizations continue to smuggle large quantities of cocaine in the US and Europe. The Medellin cartel continue to survive to his kingpin Pablo Escobar, who died in Medellin on december 1993. (cm)