José Santacruz Londoño

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José Santacruz Londoño

José "El Chepe" Santacruz Londoño (born October 1, 1943 in Cali ; † March 5, 1996 in Medellín ) was a Colombian drug dealer who founded the Cali cartel in the 1970s together with the brothers Gilberto and Miguel Rodríguez Orejuela , which Controlled 80 percent of Colombian cocaine exports to the United States at the height of its power. He was considered the most violent head of the cartel.

Criminal career

After José Santacruz Londoño worked with the brothers Gilberto and Miguel Rodríguez Orejuela under the name Los Chemas in the areas of extortion, robbery and kidnapping, they later smuggled small amounts of undistilled cocaine paste from Peru and Bolivia together . As business began to flourish, Santacruz Londoño dropped out of engineering from the University of Cali.

In the 1970s they formed the Cali Cartel and were mainly involved in the marijuana trade. Because of the higher profit and the lower use of materials, it was later decided to export cocaine. In the mid-1970s, when the Medellin Cartel monopolized drug trafficking in Miami , Santacruz built Manhattan ; later he became a legend in the underworld of Latinos of New York City . Around this time, Hélmer "Pacho" Herrera became a partner in the cartel. The Cali cartel used the methods of modern corporate governance and was also less violent than the rival Medellín cartel. While the Medellín cartel engaged in a brutal campaign of violence against the Colombian government, the Cali cartel grew and relied on bribery rather than violence.

It is estimated that Santacruz Londoño was able to amass a fortune in the tens of millions thanks to the control he had over a significant percentage of the cocaine market. Among other things, he had bank accounts all over Western Europe and also in Israel . In 1980 he was charged with drug trafficking conspiracy by the US authorities and has henceforth been fugitive. Also in 1985 he was allegedly charged with drug smuggling by the US authorities.

In January 1989, New York agents seized a truck from Santacruz, laden with $ 19 million, as it was leaving for Mexico. In October 1990, agents found an additional $ 14 million in heavy cable reels on Long Island , along with records showing an additional $ 100 million in shipments over the past nine months. In June 1991, the Cali trio was featured in a TIME cover story.

The New York journalist Manuel de Dios Unanue , who reported extensively on the Cali cartel, was murdered in March 1992 and, according to the arrested murderer, was murdered on the orders of “El Chepe” Santacruz Londoño. Three months later, the DEA seized two cocaine laboratories in Brooklyn that had been linked to Chepe. In September 1992 his sister Cristina was kidnapped by guerrillas of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) . The perpetrators asked Chepe to pay $ 12 million. Chepe refused to pay that amount and instead decided to kidnap Amparo Torres, the sister of Pablo Catatumbo , who was a member of the FARC. In January 1993, the drug lord and the FARC agreed to exchange the hostages and Chepe's sister was released.

Arrest and death

After the end of the Medellín cartel in the early 1990s, the Colombian authorities turned to the Cali cartel. The campaign began in the spring of 1995. In April of that year, the Colombian government offered a reward of $ 625,000 for information leading to his capture. The so-called Search Bloc , a special unit of the National Police of Colombia, tried laboriously to arrest Santacruz Londoño at the time and gradually came closer to him while they confiscated his property and gathered various information about his organization. Meanwhile, in June of the same year, he was again charged by the US authorities with importing tons of cocaine into New York and sending millions of dollars back home through complicated money laundering operations. In addition, more than $ 30 million that he had deposited in European bank accounts was frozen. Around the same time, his partner Gilberto Rodríguez Orejuela was arrested. However, one month later, on July 4, 1995, he was arrested in a restaurant in Bogotá . Six months later, on January 11, 1996, he escaped from the maximum security prison La Picota in Bogotá and was henceforth the most wanted man in the country. He claimed during his escape that he would rather die than return to prison.

Santacruz had gone to Medellín with the intention of forming alliances to fully resume cocaine production, distribution and sales. To this end, he made contacts with members of the Cali cartel who still recognized his authority, members of the Medellin cartel service who had dispersed after its recent breakup, and members of armed political movements linked to the left guerrilla were.

According to the official version, the police had followed him to Medellín and received an anonymous phone call on March 5, 1996, informing them of the presence of Santacruz Londoño in a shopping center. He was followed after leaving the mall and was killed trying to escape after police stopped his car.

A second version of his death states that his killing was an operation planned by Carlos Castaño Gil (leader of the ACCU ), in collaboration with the Norte del Valle cartel and Danilo González (a colonel in the Colombian police who once fought against Pablo Escobar and later became a partner of cartel members), is said to have acted.

José Santacruz Londoño leaves behind his wife, Amparo Castro de Santacruz, and his daughter Ana Milena. He is said to have murdered his first wife.

Movie and TV

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Spiegel Online - Colombia: We are bringing the dead
  2. ↑ a b c TIME - Cover Stories: New Kings of Coke
  3. ^ Robert Grosse - Drugs and Money: Laundering Latin America's Cocaine Dollars
  4. ^ TIME Magazine - Inside the Cocaine Business
  5. ^ NY Daily News - JOURNALIST'S SLAY AVENGED BY DEATH OF CALI DRUGLORD
  6. ^ New York Times - Raid of Drug Lab Led to Arrests In Assassination of a Journalist
  7. ↑ a b c The Druglords - The Real Life of José Santacruz Londoño
  8. ^ New York Times - US Indicts A Fugitive Over Drugs
  9. ↑ El Pais - La policía mata al number 3 del 'cartel de Cali'
  10. ↑ Semana - LOS ULTIMOS DIAS DE CHEPE
  11. ↑ El Espectador - El sicario que se volvió capo
  12. ^ The Sun - 'THE CALI KGB' The true story of Narcos' Cali drug cartel, the multi-billion dollar drug gang which handled 90% of Europe's cocaine and set death squads on their own people
personal data
SURNAME Santacruz Londoño, José
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Chepe, El (nickname)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Colombian drug trafficker
DATE OF BIRTH October 1, 1943
PLACE OF BIRTH Cali
DATE OF DEATH March 5, 1996
Place of death Medellin