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The Rise of the Cali Drug Cartel | Narco Wars


3m read
·Nov 11, 2024

[music playing]

JIM SHEDD: Gilberto Rogriuez Orejuela and Miguel Rodriguez Orejuela were the heads of a cartel that was totally different than the other cartels. They looked at it more as a business to expand, and they were involved in the cost versus profit. You have to learn who your enemy is; otherwise, you're not going to win the fight. And I studied over a long period of time, the Rodriguez Orejuelas, and they were very smart, strategic thinkers who were always one step ahead of the game.

NARRATOR: Gilberto and Miguel Rodriguez have a piece of several hotels and own Cali's largest shopping center.

NEWS ANNOUNCER: And they own Cali's main passion, the soccer team America.

JIM SHEDD: So, they were to be respected. Yes, they were dopers and traffickers, but you cannot underestimate them. You underestimate people of that caliber, you're doomed.

WILLIAM RODRIGUEZ: My name is William Rodriguez. I'm the son and nephew of the Cali cartel founders, Miguel and Gilberto Rodriguez Orejuela. There was a strategic alliance between my dad, my uncle, and Escobar. They had different ways to see how we should fight this war against authorities. Escobar wanted to do it through violence. We wanted to do it by corruption. My dad Miguel was called El Senor, the Sir. My uncle Gilberto built an economic empire. He wanted to fulfill his dream with my dad because he wanted my dad to be a lawyer. And that's why I wanted to be a lawyer. I want to be like my dad. I wanted to help my family. People think that bandits don't have values. But my dad and uncle did. They have honor. Violence was the last step to resolve the problems because dead people don't pay what they owe.

NARRATOR: Gilberto Miguel Rodriguez are forcing modern business methods on a violent trade.

NARRATOR: The cartel forced its employees to fill out this application form. Cartel hopefuls had to enter the names and addresses of their entire family.

JIM SHEDD: They had to know who your family members were, where they were, what did they own, didn't own. Cars, planes, automobiles, trains, anything. They had to know all about you before you were trusted into the system.

WILLIAM RODRIGUEZ: The moving of the cocaine, they did it by different ways. First, they did it into little planes into the Caribbean and in Central America. Then they shifted into doing it through Mexico.

NARRATOR: To handle the ever larger shipments of cocaine heading to the United States, the cartel used container ships, sometimes even loading up entire passenger jets.

NARRATOR: It is a marriage of convenience between Colombia's Cali cartel and the Italian mafia. When the Cold War ended, a new war began.

NARRATOR: The problem of cocaine in Russia began only one or two years ago. Cocaine is a new problem for us.

NARRATOR: From Moscow to Madrid, from Rome to Tokyo, the Cali cartel is creating new markets.

NARRATOR: In raw profit, it now outstrips Boeing, Texaco, and Pepsi.

WILLIAM RODRIGUEZ: They had so much power in those moments; they thought they were on the top of the world.

JIM SHEDD: They were planning to eventually become the Kennedys of Colombia.

WILLIAM RODRIGUEZ: In the narcos cassettes, you can see the power that Miguel and Gilberto had because this guy is saying you have the future of Colombia in your hands. If you give this money, you will have a President.

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