Bribes, Bullets, and Intimidation. Julie Marie Bunck
of cocaine, costing about two thousand dollars per kilo in Colombia, might be sold wholesale in the United States for fifteen thousand dollars per kilo, even small smugglers enjoyed extremely high profit margins. Thoumi, Political Economy, 150n27.
136. See “Policía confirma reunión de narcotraficantes aquí,” LN (CR), 25 December 1985, 10A, and Levine, Big White Lie, 227, 249.
137. See Duzán, Death Beat, 110.
138. See Lee, “Colombia’s Cocaine Syndicates,” 7–8, and Zabludoff, “Colombian Narcotics Organizations,” 27–37.
139. Lee, “Transnational Organized Crime,” 2.
140. For more on this mindset, see Mazur, Infiltrator, 45. The more important the cartel managerial position, the more likely is the individual to be related to a kingpin by blood or marriage or will “at least have [family] roots in the region a capo comes from.” Chepesiuk, Hard Target, 146.
141. U.S. Senate, Law Enforcement: Report, 30.
142. Shannon, Desperados, 106, 346, and Kenney, From Pablo to Osama, 88.
143. According to testimony by Carlos Lehder Rivas, after joining the Muerte a Secuestradores organization to counter the threat of left-wing hostage taking, he and nine other Medellín traffickers grew to cooperate closely: Pablo Escobar Gaviria, Jorge Luis Ochoa Vásquez, Gustavo Gaviria, José Gonzalo Rodríguez Gacha, Rafael Cardona Salazar, Pablo Correa Arroyave, Alonso Cárdenas, and Rodrigo Murillo. “Lehder confirma relación de Noriega con el cartel,” LP (PA), 20 November 1991, 1A.
144. See INCSR (1987), 91; Lee, “Transnational Organized Crime,” 18; Thoumi, Political Economy, 142, 145; Gugliotta and Leen, Kings of Cocaine, 95.
145. See Lee, “Colombia’s Cocaine Syndicates,” 5, and Clawson and Lee, Andean Cocaine Industry, 91–122. For the joint efforts by Medellín and Cali traffickers to eliminate such kidnapping, see Mermelstein, Man, 123; Gugliotta and Leen, Kings of Cocaine, 92; and Shannon, Desperados, 104–5.
146. See the Horn Statement in U.S. Senate, Drug Cartels, 37, and Castillo, Jinetes de la cocaína, 115.
147. Chepesiuk, Drug Lords, 63–64.
148. For more on Lehder, see generally Kirkpatrick, Turning the Tide, and Lee, “Colombia’s Cocaine Syndicates,” 9–10.
149. DEA officials made this point in a December 1992 interview. Thoumi, “Illegal Drug Industry,” 134, 138n30.
150. “Sicario asesina a jefe del cartel de Cali,” LP (PA), 7 November 1998, 13.
151. Bowden, Killing Pablo, 269. For allegations that Los Pepes was using U.S. government intelligence information funneled through the Colombian Army, see pages 196–98, 217, 270. For skepticism regarding the extent to which the U.S. government was knowingly involved, see “The Fugitive,” NYT (US), 17 June 2001, 18.
152. Decker and Chapman, Drug Smugglers, 34.
153. Cali kingpin Gilberto Rodríguez Orejuela once declared, “We don’t kill judges or ministers; we buy them.” Lee, “Transnational Organized Crime,” 8. See also Zaitch, Trafficking Cocaine, 54.
154. Strong, Whitewash, 225.
155. Kenney, From Pablo to Osama, 88.
156. “Target: Cali Cartel,” Tampa Tribune, 17 June 2001, 1.
157. Taylor v. United States, 1991 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 18099; Confesiones secretas, 49–60; “The Cali Connection,” SPT (US), 31 July 1995, 1A; “The Downfall of Jungle Mike,” SPT (US), 12 September 1993, 1F; “Pieces in Local Drug Puzzle Point to Cartel,” SPT (US), 8 May 1988, 1A; “Man Accused in Smuggling Once Called One-Man Peace Corps,” SPT (US), 5 May 1988, 4A; “Tsalickis Gets Twenty-Seven Years for Smuggling Cocaine,” SPT (US), 17 February 1989, 1B; Schreider and Schreider, Exploring the Amazon, 134–35, 141–43, 152–53.
158. Although Santacruz Londoño escaped from prison in January 1996, Colombian police killed him in less than two months.
159. Rempel, At the Devil’s Table, pp. 305, 315. After secret DEA negotiations, Pallomari flew to the U.S. and voluntarily surrendered for fear of being killed by Cali Kingpins for his knowledge of their operations. “Top Cali Aide Surrenders to U.S. Officials,” WP (US), 22 September 1995, A1. See also Confesiones secretas, 61–68, 188–90, and Kenney, From Pablo to Osama, 37–38.
160. See United States v. Klimavicius-Viloria, 144 F.3d 1249.
161. Farer, Transnational Crime, xiv.
162. “Latin America’s Fragmenting Narcotics Industry,” Guardian (United Kingdom), 28 November 1997, 13.
163. For Defense Intelligence Agency information, see Chepesiuk, Hard Target, 276.
164. For the statement by rear admiral Joseph Nimmich, see “Drug Suspect’s Arrest Hailed,” LAT (US), 13 September 2007, A4.
165. Castillo, Jinetes de la cocaína, quoted in Thoumi, “Illegal Drug Industry,” 119. For Cali contributions to Samper, see Crandall, Driven by Drugs, 83–88.
166. U.S. Senate, Corruption and Drugs, 7, cited in Jordan, Drug Politics, 168.
167. See the affidavit filed by FBI special agent Roderick D. Huff in United States v. Valencia-Trujillo, No. 8:02- CR-329-T-17-EAJ (hereafter cited as “Huff affidavit”), 44.
168. More than 1,300 people were killed in the first ten months of 2004 alone. Chepesiuk, Drug Lords, 264.
169. “Reputed Cocaine Boss Arrested in Colombia,” WP (US), 11 September 2007, A13. For Northern Valley cartel infighting, see Garzón, Mafia and Co., 36–41.
170. “Colombian Drug Lords Toppled,” Christian Science Monitor (US), 13 September 2007, 6.
171. See “EEUU congela bienes a capo ligado a empresas en Guatemala,” Siglo Veintiuno (Guatemala) (hereafter cited as