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After leaving highschool at 15, Gilberto took a job as a drugstore clerk. He was quickly a supervisor, and at 25 he opened his personal retailer. Alongside the way in which, he turned concerned in Cali’s legal underworld, becoming a member of a kidnapping gang and coming into the drug commerce.
Within the Seventies he and his brother helped arrange a unfastened confederation of drug gangs into what got here to be generally known as the Cali cartel. Much less authoritarian than Mr. Escobar’s Medellín cartel, the Cali confederation cooperated on processing, shipments and distribution however in any other case gave its member gangs vital autonomy.
Nonetheless, as probably the most profitable members, the Rodríguez brothers have been first amongst equals. Miguel acted as a type of chief govt for the cartel, overseeing day-to-day operations, whereas Gilberto was the strategic visionary. In addition they set the tone for the group: no flashy events, no flamboyant shows of wealth, and above all no pointless violence.
Mr. Rodríguez was likewise chargeable for working the cartel’s official enterprise pursuits. It owned a sequence of 400 drugstores, a pharmaceutical lab, ranches, a radio community and America, a soccer membership in Cali; Mr. Rodríguez sat on financial institution boards and mingled with Colombia’s monetary elite.
At first, he and Mr. Escobar acquired alongside; Jorge Ochoa Vázquez, a Medellín chief, accompanied Mr. Rodríguez n a 1984 journey to Europe, the place they sought to open new markets. (They have been arrested in Spain for trafficking and extradited to Colombia, however Mr. Rodríguez was discovered not responsible.)
Quickly, although, the connection between the 2 cartels soured. Other than rivalries over North American markets, they disagreed over battle again when, within the late Eighties, the Colombian authorities undertook a marketing campaign to stamp out the drug commerce.
Mr. Escobar most well-liked conflict, and over a five-year interval killed lots of of law enforcement officials, politicians, legal professionals and reporters. Mr. Rodríguez demurred, preferring to observe from the sidelines as his two main threats tore into one another.
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