Oficina de Envigado

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La Oficina de Envigado
purpose Drug trafficking, extortion, murder, money laundering, terrorism, illicit trafficking and arms smuggling
founding 1980s

place Medellín and the surrounding areas of the Aburrá Valley
Organization type Division of labor as a loose group union

La Oficina de Envigado ( German  The Office of Envigado ) is a coincidental name for a drug cartel and an organization of organized crime in Colombia . It started in the 1980s in the southern Medellín suburb of Envigado following the civil war in Colombia and today sees itself as an arm for the enforcement and enforcement of the interests of the former Medellín cartel . The organization controls extortion, gambling and money laundering mainly within the Aburrá Valley , but also nationwide. It positions itself as the main mediator and debt collector in drug trafficking disputes and has important links with the paracos (Colombian drug paramilitaries ) and guerrillas .

history

Origins

The origins of this organization go back to the time when the then drug boss Pablo Escobar Gaviria tried to extend his power to politics. It was 1982 when Escobar was elected by the Movimiento de Renovación Liberal ("Movement of Liberal Renewal") to the municipal council of Envigado and won three seats. Over time, Escobar expanded his links with the mayor's office and managed to mobilize channels of corruption between the police and the judiciary.

The Departamento de Orden Ciudadano (DOC) emerged from the political administration , with police powers and its own application of law. At the same time, Escobar consolidated his main project: the fight against crime through a collection office. In other words, a sort of hub for anyone who committed a crime in the Aburrá Valley and who carried out general blackmail. The office of Envigado, as it happened to be called, also reached into the road approval points to get at number plates and driver's licenses.

Until December 1993, when Escobar was killed by the police, the 'Oficina' was one of his mainstays. Subsequently, Diego Murillo Bejarano , alias Don Berna, former deputy of the drug lord Fernando Galeano, who confronted Escobar for the murder of his boss, became the new boss of the "office". To achieve this, Don Berna made the complete walk through. First he entered into the pursuit of Pablo Escobar's Los Pepes and then joined the paramilitary forces without ever giving up the drug trade.

From 1990 to around 2010

In the second half of the 1990s and although Don Berna served as the head of the Bloque Cacique Nutibara of the AUC (United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia), the 'Office of Envigado' was a structural part of organized crime and drug trafficking. At the time it already had three key figures supporting its command: Daniel Mejía alias Danielito, former member of the DOC; Upegui Gustavo Lopez, owner of the football team Envigado FC and Carlos Mario Aguilar aka Roger, a former employee of the administration of justice.

At the national level, Don Berna and his allies presented themselves as paramilitaries, even though they were ultimately all Mafia bosses . Ramiro Vanoy, aka Cuco; Carlos Mario Jiménez, aka Macaco; Daniel Rendón Herrera, alias Don Mario; Vicente Castaño, aka El Profe; or the brothers Rodrigo and Guillermo Pérez Alzate, alias Julián Bolívar and Pablo Sevillano. In Medellín, the metro block existed under the command of Carlos Mauricio García, aka Doble Cero, but the 'Oficina' provided its own criminal dynamic.

When the Uribe era came and the peace process with the self-defense groups began to take shape, what the analysts described as "ungovernable" began to emerge. In other words, the decrease in homicides and other crimes in the Aburrá Valley. A fact that was attributed to the decision of the 'Office' and its chief to contribute to the peace negotiations, but indirectly to act as a security to the administration of Sergio Fajardo (2004 to 2007) and his government secretary, Alonso Salazar.

At that time Gustavo Villegas was the coordinator of the demobilization of the Cacique Nutibara block . He was the secretary of Sergio Fajardo's government when Alonso Salazar resigned to run for Mayor of Medellín. Even then, the peace process between Álvaro Uribe and the self-defense groups fell into a crisis because the Constitutional Court had abandoned the law of Justice and Peace ( Ley de Justicia y Paz ) in its fair proportions and the paramilitary leaders then tried to reestablish their illegal networks because they found that their transition to politics was blocked.

present

Today's 'Oficina de Envigado' is a kind of alliance of convenience consisting mainly of eight medium-sized 'Oficinas' or, as the police call them, criminal organizations connected with drug trafficking ( Organizaciones Delincuenciales Integradas al Narcotráfico , ODIN): Los Chatas, Picacho, Caicedo, La Terraza, La Union, Robledo, Los Triana and San Pablo . These 'oficinas' now control certain territories and criminal activities through alliances with gangs known as 'combos'. The 'Oficinas', which together form the 'Oficina de Envigado', control about 65 percent of the town's combos, the rest either work for independent 'Oficinas' or for allied Urabeños .

As such, it is perhaps the most complex example of the Colombian mafia today: a jumble of service providers and subcontractors who work on everything from money laundering and international cocaine trafficking to drug sales and street blackmail. 'La Oficina de Envigado' accordingly has ties to local authorities and police officers, some of whom carry out assassinations as a “sideline”, as well as alliances with Los Rastrojos and Los Zetas in Mexico .

Documentation

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Oficina de Envigado insightcrime.org, accessed on April 1, 2018 (English)
  2. ^ Renovación Liberal de Pablo Escobar. 1980 proyectopabloescobar.com, accessed April 1, 2018 (Spanish)
  3. ↑ Oficina de Envigado insightcrime.org, accessed on April 1, 2018 (English)