... in response to Colombian drug kingpin extradited to U.S..., posted by wizard on Dec 4, 2004Gilberto Rodriguez was head of the Cali Cartel,the most profitable drug operation ever.They were making several BILLION dollars a year.He was caught in about 1994 hiding in the closet of his house in Cuidad Jardine.In one earlier attempt to catch him he hid in a compartment he had built under a sink cabinet in the bathroom off his bedroom. The cops actually drilled holes into the cabinet and later found a bloody towel,apparently they hit him with the drill but he made no sounds.
This was not,as I had speculated the house that is the current home of Cali Vip.Its a huge house that is on the corner of the main street that runs down fron Unicentro and the street that is the access for most of the big Cuidad Jardine houses,right accross the street from the park with the big pond.All you can see from the street is this wall about 12 ft high,the property is several acres.One Colombiano told me his brother lived in my apartment building,but I'm not sure if that is true.There are people here with money but I think they are legitimate business guys,now at least.
The Rodrigues brothers were also reffered to as gentlemen who would rather bribe than kill.But they were the money behind the " Los Pepes " the gang that started killing all of Pablo Escobar's business associates which eventually left him with no empire and led to him being caught and killed in a shoot out with the cops.This was a spin off of the Medellin-Cali drug war.
Eventually the government went after the Rodriguez brothers and brought them down also.There was alot of popular support for them in Cali because of all the money they spent here.Its a common attitude that they were a benefit to Cali and people wish the government had not gone after them.
Personally I think amnesty for the drug lords and rebel leaders would lead to a much quicker solution of them going away.Of course drug dealing will go on in Colombia or somewhere else as long as there is the huge demand for illegal drugs.Making drugs illegal does not jake them unavailable,just moreexpensive.For what its worth the price of drugs is down in the US so the cutting off the supply approach that has never worked is working worse than before.
I am much more concerned about rebel terrorists than people voluntarily killing themselves with drugs.
Pete
