by Austin Galt
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My wedding went off without a hitch and was held at a beautiful estate just outside of Medellín. My parents, now separated, had travelled from Australia for the occasion. My mother, who had remarried several years earlier and was accompanied by her husband, was somewhat concerned about the security situation. It was her first trip to the country and I didn’t want to add to her apprehension by mentioning a recent kidnapping at a nearby property. ELN guerrillas had taken three people hostage on the road connecting Medellín with the municipality of El Retiro in September 2004.
Several of my friends from Bogotá attended, although Andy couldn’t make it after being involved in a bad car accident which left him with a broken back. He was lucky to walk again. Ally, wearing his Scottish kilt, proved a hit with the ladies, while Rusty took on the role of translator during my speech. (I spoke a combination of Spanish and English.) Pedro and Carolina also flew up from Cali to help make it an occasion to remember.
I had told my father about Pedro, and upon meeting him he remarked, ‘You have been a good friend to my son’. He had and I think Pedro appreciated hearing it.
As guests milled outside the chapel before the ceremony, I chatted with my father, who diverted my attention to a mean-looking, solid and stocky Colombian with a clean-shaven head who was casually wandering around. He looked like the type of guy you did not want to mess with.
‘I see you organised security,’ my father stated.
‘Yeah, I’m not sure,’ I replied as I eyed him over.
I wasn’t sure. Lily had arranged the wedding details and I thought perhaps she did, in fact, organise some security. This man certainly fitted the bill. He looked like the Colombian version of the James Bond villain, Odd Job. I honestly had no idea who he was but I would find out shortly.
It wasn’t until the first performance of the evening that it was announced this same man would sing a song. What?! This dangerous-looking fellow singing a song? As he sang acapella, I, actually everyone, was completely blown away by his sweet and silky voice. When Lily and I did the rounds and greeted all of our guests, I made a point of spending a bit of extra time with him. He was the son of a good friend of Lily’s mother, and such a softly spoken and harmless human being. Looks can be deceiving but this was unreal.
The wedding featured a couple of bands – one playing vallenato and another playing popular Latin music. There were over 100 guests, although only 20 percent were from my side. Wedding presents in Colombia come in monetary form and guests would come up to me throughout the proceedings, handing me envelopes filled with cash. Interestingly, the ‘fattest’ envelope came from Pedro and Carolina.
Later in the evening Pedro had an additional present in mind, discreetly dangling a bag of cocaine in front of me. I appreciated him bringing it all the way from Cali, but I had to decline his generous offer. I needed to be on top of my game. It was my wedding night after all!
Lily and I honeymooned in the Dominican Republic in early 2005. Upon reaching our destination, all the passengers from our flight were told to stand aside at immigration and let the passengers who had just arrived on a flight from Germany through. After they were whisked through customs, we were then all searched thoroughly for drugs. Such is life for Colombians, haunted by the ghost of Pablo Escobar.
20
NORTE DEL VALLE CARTEL
‘Worse than Escobar’ is how Cali Cartel leader Miguel Rodríguez Orejuela described the one man he feared. Only referred to as ‘Overol’ in a recorded conversation from jail with Pacho Herrera, his identity remained a mystery to the public and he became known as ‘El Hombre del Overol’ or ‘The Man in Overalls’. The conversation between the two cartel leaders took place in May 1996 and occurred just after an attempt was made on the life of Miguel’s son, William Rodríguez, at a Cali restaurant. The attack left several others dead and was part of an effort to exterminate the Rodríguez Orejuela clan.
Several months later, the Colombian press believed they had uncovered the identity of the mysterious Man in Overalls – Orlando Sánchez Cristancho. Apart from being a drug trafficker, he dealt in Paso Fino horses and diamonds. He was considered to be behind the murder of Elizabeth Montoya de Sarria after he reportedly grew indebted to her to the tune of $11 million and had let it be known she was a major liability to the Cali Cartel and likely to talk under pressure to prosecutors about her role in the Case 8000. He denied these accusations and placed the blame on Chepe Santacruz.
Sánchez Cristancho was, however, just an imposter and likely let the speculation run wild to increase his own reputation. He fled the country when authorities began suspecting him of Montoya’s murder, eventually turning himself over to the DEA in 1999.
The real Man in Overalls was present at a meeting between the top Cali Cartel capos after Pablo Escobar’s death in 1993. The cartel leaders wanted to come to an agreement with the Colombian government which involved everyone stopping their drug-trafficking activities and surrendering, in return for lenient prison sentences of five years of home detention and an amnesty which would allow them to keep their assets. The Man in Overalls said no.
Orlando Henao was the one person the Cali Cartel leaders truly feared. He headed a group of traffickers that essentially operated independently in the north of the Cauca Valley. After the disagreement with the Cali bosses, he and several others, who also weren’t ready to cease operations, broke away and formed the Norte del Valle Cartel with Henao its undisputed leader.
After an audio of the conversation was released publicly, Henao threatened to wipe out the Rodríguez Orejuela brothers along with their families unless they pinned the identity of The Man in Overalls on someone other than himself. Hence, the finger was pointed at Orlando Sánchez Cristancho.
Henao, rarely seen without a cigarette in his mouth, was a former policeman-turned-narco who became Colombia’s boss of bosses after the death of Pablo Escobar and the capture of the Rodríguez Orejuela brothers. He was one of the richest cocaine barons in the country’s history, although he maintained his fortune came from cattle ranching.
He had originally partnered up with Iván Urdinola, known as ‘El Enano’ or ‘The Dwarf’, who was one of the most powerful drug lords in Colombia at the time of his capture in 1992. He dominated the meat distribution business in Valle del Cauca before he met the Rodríguez Orejuela brothers in Cali. He hit it off with them and was invited to join the Cali Cartel, which he did, thus beginning his life of crime. While he always remained loyal to his Cali bosses, he wanted to set up his own operation in the north of the Cauca Valley where he was from. He was given their blessing and, of course, he gave them a piece of the action.
Iván Urdinola set himself apart from the Cali Cartel when he entered the much more lucrative heroin market. The police dubbed him ‘El Rey de la Amapola’ or ‘The Poppy King’. The poppy fields are located high in the mountains of the Cordillera Central which borders the Cauca Valley to the east. Opium was selling for five times the price of coca for the same weight in 1991, making it an attractive proposition for traffickers.
Urdinola funded many legal businesses and was well regarded by some people, being deemed partly responsible for the progress and development of towns such as Zarzal, Cartago and Roldanillo. He also used his power to attack left-wing guerrillas in the region and was known to be involved in the Trujillo massacre whereby hundreds of residents from the municipality of Trujillo and the surrounding area, suspected of collaborating with the ELN, were slaughtered by Urdinola and his men in conjunction with government forces in the late 1980s and early 1990s. It was also Urdinola who was thought to be the author of the 1997 prison-bombing attack against rival trafficker Leonidas Vargas.
Iván Urdinola died while in jail in 2002. He was found convulsing on the floor of his cell with foam coming out of his mouth after being poisoned. It was made to look as if the prison cook was responsible, but he was killed soon after so he couldn’t be tortured and give away the identity of the alleged real killer – U
rdinola’s wife.
Orlando Henao’s sister Lorena married Iván Urdinola, sealing a powerful mafia alliance. They lived a life of luxury owning vineyards and horse stables, and she was always escorted by a large group of bodyguards. Posing as the wife of a prosperous rancher, she was a spendthrift and would book out entire hotels to throw extravagant parties.
Lorena took over her husband’s affairs upon his death. She fled to Panama in 2004, where she was arrested and subsequently returned to Colombia. She was sentenced to home detention but after violating the terms of the sentence, having been found in a shopping mall in Armenia in the company of other drug traffickers, she was put behind bars until her release in 2011. Known as ‘La Viuda De La Mafia’ or ‘The Widow of the Mafia’, she was killed by rivals in 2012.
One of Iván and Lorena’s children, Emma Urdinola Henao, would also attain infamy after being convicted of the 2007 murder of an employee of one of her deceased father’s estates. She went from living a life of luxury and attending a prestigious university to a dirty cell in Bogotá’s El Buen Pastor prison. She still made the most of her situation, being crowned the winner of the jail’s beauty pageant in 2012.
Orlando Henao also had several brothers who were a key part of his organisation. Arcángel, known as ‘El Mocho’ or ‘The Blunt’ due to a deformed left arm, was captured with Lorena in Panama in 2004 and extradited to the United States. He cooperated with authorities and was released in 2012. He stayed to live in Miami. Fernando, known as ‘El Grillo’ or ‘The Cricket’, went to live in Miami where he was captured in 2001. He was released with his older brother in 2012 and also remained in the United States. Oscar, known as ‘El Búfalo’ or ‘The Buffalo’, was the youngest of the brood and came to prominence later on. He was captured at a farm near Pereira in 2015.
Orlando Henao eventually decided the best course of action for the cartel was to turn several of themselves in to authorities just as the Cali Cartel leaders had advised and he also eventually turned himself over in September 1997. He still had men on the outside who could continue the business and after a short prison sentence they would all be able to enjoy the good life without having to worry about being detained. If only it were that simple!
With the promise of lenient prison sentences, several members surrendered to authorities between 1995 and 1996. Those who voluntarily entered prison included Víctor Patiño Fomeque, Juan Carlos Ramírez Abadía, Henry Loaiza Ceballos and Juan Carlos Ortiz Escobar.
Víctor Patiño known as ‘El Quimico’ or ‘The Chemist’ was a policeman when he met the Rodríguez Orejuela brothers in the mid-1980s. They convinced him to come and work for them as a bodyguard, however, he soon left their employ and became a trafficker in his own right. Throughout the south-west of Colombia, he managed several cocaine processing laboratories from which he gained his nickname. He owned a fleet of boats and from his base in Buenaventura he lorded over the Pacific coast, becoming one of the country’s biggest capos.
Intelligence sources stated Patiño was a rude and unstable man who would seek refuge in liquor, cocaine and women. He liked to look good, wearing fashionable clothing, and he would frequent nightclubs in the north of Cali where he had a network of informants who would alert him to the presence of security forces. As with other capos, he liked well-bred horses and owned many ranches. It was Víctor Patiño who guided the Álvarez Meyendorff brothers as they progressed up the cartel chain during the 1990s and he even used their names as owners of property before they became known in order to hide his financial interest.
Patiño was also linked to a small and shadowy left-wing group called JEGA – Jorge Eliécer Gaitán Ayala. It announced its presence in 1987, swearing they would avenge the murdered politician’s death. The group also went by another name, Dignidad por Colombia or Dignity for Colombia. It was believed responsible for the 1996 kidnapping of Juan Carlos Gaviria, the brother of ex-president César Gaviria. With the help of Patiño, who was in prison with JEGA’s leader Hugo ‘Bochica’ Toro, the kidnappers were captured and granted safe passage to Cuba in return for Gaviria’s liberation. Patiño then allegedly financed the escape of Bochica on New Year’s Eve in 1998. He has never been seen again.
It was later revealed that the real mastermind of Juan Carlos Gaviria’s kidnapping was Patiño’s associate, the corrupt policeman Danilo González. He had intended to kill Gaviria, supposedly to destabilise the Samper government which was still reeling from the Case 8000, before backing out and had used JEGA as cover for his own criminal purposes.
Víctor Patiño was released in 2001 but after sending another cocaine shipment he was recaptured in late 2002 and extradited to the United States where he spent the next seven years in jail. He cooperated with authorities against his Colombian partners, such as Juan Carlos Ramírez, which had serious ramifications for his family and friends who remained in Colombia.
Juan Carlos Ramírez was nicknamed ‘Chupeta’ or ‘Lollipop’ due to being an only child who was spoilt by his family. He studied economics at university before beginning his criminal career with the Cali Cartel in the mid-1980s. He had cocaine laboratories in northern Valle del Cauca state and transported his product in both shipping containers and go-fast boats, eventually ending up in New York where he controlled distribution.
Chupeta loved the good life and showed off his wealth with ostentatious displays of jewellery, fine clothes and luxury cars while surrounding himself with beautiful women. He was financially astute and invested his profits in properties such as hotels and ranches. Authorities estimated his net worth to be close to $2 billion. He was also a cold and calculating killer who was quick to pull the trigger and often carried out executions himself.
Chupeta was released in 2000 and immediately returned to his business which he had maintained from prison. After Víctor Patiño was extradited and began snitching, he ordered the deaths of 35 of Patiño’s family members and associates, beginning with his half-brother Luis Ocampo Fómeque, while also appropriating many of Patiño’s properties. Revenge was another of Chupeta’s trademarks!
Henry Loaiza known as ‘El Alacrán’ or ‘The Scorpion’ was a bodyguard in the Cali Cartel before getting involved in smuggling cocaine. He was a key figure in the Trujillo massacre and his most well-known victim was the priest, Father Tiberio Fernandez who had his fingers and toes cut off before being made to eat them. The priest was then castrated and forced to eat his own genitals. This all came after he was made to watch the rape and torture of his niece who screamed in agony as her breasts were cut off. Loaiza was subsequently condemned to 30 years in prison.
Juan Carlos Ortiz Escobar, known as ‘Cuchilla’ or ‘Blade’, was Pablo Escobar’s nephew and a close associate of Chupeta. In fact, Cuchilla and Chupeta were known as yuppie narcos as they were both young, dressed smartly and considered themselves the heirs of the Cali Cartel. Cuchilla was killed in 2001, less than a year after being released from prison.
One of Colombia’s best smugglers was Jorge Eliécer Asprilla, known as ‘El Negro Asprilla’ or ‘The Black Asprilla’. He was a Buenaventura native and a close associate of Víctor Patiño, although he led his own criminal crew, Los Niches. He designed some of the best routes in the Pacific and his services were in high demand. He was captured in 1997 in the company of Maria Paredes, the ex-Miss Cauca who participated in the 1995 Miss Colombia beauty pageant.
Not only was he linked to the Norte del Valle Cartel, Asprilla also had strong connections to the FARC who supplied him with cocaine. After he was requested for extradition in 2000, his good friend Mono Jojoy offered to protect him in the demilitarised zone if he could escape. Víctor Patiño, Chupeta and Fernando Henao were worried he would snitch on them if extradited and put a $1 million bounty on his head. To extricate himself from this delicate situation, Asprilla had his men dig a tunnel under the same jail which held the Rodríguez Orejuela brothers. He asked Gilberto and Miguel if they wanted to come with him but they declined and instead betrayed him by ratting on him to
the prison guards in exchange for being transferred to another jail. Asprilla was immediately taken from his cell and extradited to the United States a month later. Despite a prison sentence of 30 years, he was freed in 2013.
The most sadistic and bloodthirsty member of the Norte del Valle Cartel was without doubt Wenceslao Caicedo, appropriately known as ‘El Señor de la Motosierra’ or ‘The Lord of the Chainsaw’. He tortured and killed at least 100 people, some of those at a luxurious mansion in Cali which he had essentially converted into a giant torture chamber. If he wasn’t killing people with a chainsaw, it was with his axe which he often carried with him.
Caicedo really came to prominence in the mid-to-late 1990s after Víctor Patiño entered prison. Aided by his fleet of over a dozen boats, Caicedo controlled many cocaine laboratories on the Pacific coast and even gained the moniker, ‘The Pablo Escobar of Buenaventura’. He was a local benefactor, investing in various enterprises such as a timber project which employed two hundred young men. He also provided homes for poor elderly people who had been evicted for not paying rent. His chainsaw and axe-wielding days ended with his capture in Ecuador in 2005, just as he was looking to purchase a couple more fishing vessels to add to his fleet. After being extradited to the United States, he cooperated with authorities and was sentenced to 14 years in jail.
The second-in-command of the cartel was another ex-policeman in Efraín ‘Don Efra’ Hernández who lived it up in the final years of his life. Apart from his fancy and expensive weddings, he also celebrated his daughter’s 15th birthday at the Intercontinental Hotel in Cali. People from all over the country gathered for the festivities where they were entertained by Carlos Vives and his band La Provincia.
