Funny Drug Bust Colombian Cocaine Cali
GANGS IN COLOMBIA FEUD OVER COCAINE
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August 23, 1988
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Colombia's two largest drug-trafficking rings are turning their guns on each other as part of a battle for control of the cocaine market in New York, Colombian Government officials say.
The officials say the war between the two groups, known as the Medellin and Cali cartels, has led to at least 80 killings in Colombia and to several dozen in New York and Miami. The cartels are named for the Colombian cities in which they are based.
The officials say there is also evidence that the two cartels, which supply about 80 percent of the cocaine entering the United States, have begun informing the police about each other's shipments. Anonymous tips have led to several large seizures this year. Large New York Seizure
Over the weekend, the police in New York seized more than two tons of cocaine and $2 million in cash at the Queens home of Hernando Grajales Rizo, who was described as the New York representative of the Cali cartel. Mr. Grajales and six other Colombians were arrested, leading to speculation here that the police were working with information from the Medellin cartel. [ In New York, Robert M. Stutman, special agent in charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration in the state, denied that the arrests resulted from information provided by rival traffickers. ''That is absolutely not true,'' Mr. Stutman said. ] The war between the cartels has not had an effect on the wholesale price of cocaine here or on the street price in New York. Experts say this is a reflection of the continuing availibility of the drug despite efforts by the police to choke off supplies.
Since violence broke out between the rival cartels with the murder of a Medellin-based drug boss last November, the conflict appears to have caused as much turbulence in the Colombian underworld as any of the anti-narcotics efforts mounted by the Government in the last five years.
Narcotics experts said the dispute was apparently casued by the Medellin cartel's effort to enter the drug market in the New York area, which has long been controlled by Cali-based traffickers. But they said the two groups were also in sharp disagreement over how they should operate in Colombia itself. Focus on Medellin
Until recently, public attention has focused principally on the Medellin cartel, which is headed by Pablo Escobar Gaviria and includes among its top leaders Jorge Luis Ochoa Vasquez and Gonzalo Rodriguez Gacha. Miami has been the group's main distribution point in the United States, but the group is also active in California and Europe.
The Medellin cartel has been held responsible for the killings of an attorney general, a justice minister, several Supreme Court justices and several prominent journalists in Colombia as part of its campaign of intimidation directed at forestalling the application of an extradition treaty between Colombia and the United States.
In contrast, the Cali cartel, which is apparently led by Gilberto Rodriguez Orejuela and Jose Santacruz Londono, developed the cocaine and crack markets in New York but has maintained a lower profile in Colombia and has concentrated on legitimate businesses.
''The Medellin cartel is violent, aggressive and commits terrorist-like actions,'' explained Gen. Jaime Ruiz Barrera, the head of the Medellin-based Fourth Army Brigade, who has involved the army in anti-drug operations for the first time. ''The Cali cartel has not traditionally been violent and has succeeded, to the extent that this is possible, in legalizing its operations.'' Past Collaborations
In the past, though, the two cartels have collaborated, notably when Mr. Ochoa and Mr. Rodriguez Orejuela went to Spain in mid-1984 to set up a cocaine-distribution network that could supply the fast-growing European market. The two men were arrested in Madrid in November 1984 and extradited to face trial in Colombia in 1986.
Their subsequent tactics reflected the different operating styles of the two cartels. Foreign narcotics experts said Mr. Ochoa bribed a judge to order his release on technical grounds and then went into hiding, but Mr. Rodriguez Orejuela preferred to face trial, rightly confident, as it turned out, that he could persuade the court to acquit him. As a result, Mr. Rodriguez Orejuela can do business openly and move freely in Cali tody without fear of arrest.
Colombian officials and foreign experts concede that they have scant information about how the war of the cartels began, but they agree that an important element is the Medellin group's effort to penetrate New York's growing market for crack, the powerful cocaine derivative, in recent years. Signs of Trouble
The first signs of trouble were a series of isolated incidents which even now are subject to conflicting interpretations. Last November, Rafael Cardona Salazar, an aide to Mr. Ochoa, was killed in Medellin. Later that month, Mr. Ochoa was arrested during a visit to Cali where, theoretically, he should have enjoyed the protection of the local cartel; he was freed 26 days later. In early February, a car bomb damaged a building in Medellin owned by Mr. Escobar, and the trafficker and his family narrowly escaped injury.
Speculation about an underworld war then mounted early in May when the police in Florida found more than four tons of pure cocaine hidden in blocks of wood that had arrived from Colombia and were being held at a warehouse in St. Petersburg. The cocaine, which was reportedly owned by the Cali cartel, was discovered with the help of an anonymous letter sent from Colombia to the American authorities.
Recently, the conflict has come out into the open. On July 12, the bodies of five former soldiers were found near Medellin, next to a handwritten sign that said ''Members of the Cali cartel executed for planning attacks on people of Medellin.'' Last week, Jose Luis Gaviria Rivero, a cousin of Mr. Escobar, was charged with the murders. Three Men Killed
This month, three men accused of being hired gunmen were arrested by the police in Manizales while on their way from Cali to Medellin. A few days later, another group of gunmen seized the three men from the police. At midnight on Aug. 12, a telephone caller to a radio station in Medellin said, ''We have captured three assassins contracted by the Cali cartel to kill us.'' Two hours later, the bodies were found. General Ruiz Barrera has estimated that of the 80 victims of gang warfare so far this year, at least 60 belonged to the Cali cartel and were murdered in and around Medellin. But he said documents captured by the army in drug raids in Medellin confirmed that Mr. Escobar had also sent gunmen to Cali.
Source: https://www.nytimes.com/1988/08/23/world/gangs-in-colombia-feud-over-cocaine.html
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