Cali Cartel

The Cali Cartel (Spanish: Cartel de Cali) was a Colombian drug cartel based in Cali and the Valle del Cauca in southern Colombia. Its founders were the brothers Gilberto Rodríguez Orejuela, Miguel Rodríguez Orejuela and José Santacruz Londoño. They broke away from Pablo Escobar and his Medellín associates in 1988, when Hélmer Herrera joined what became a four-man executive board that ran the cartel. At the height of the Cali Cartel's reign from 1993 to 1995, they were cited as having control of over 80% of the world's cocaine market and were said to be directly responsible for the growth of the cocaine market in Europe, controlling 80% of the market there as well. By the mid-1990s, the leaders of the Cali Cartel were a criminal empire operating billions per year. The Cartel was considered by law enforcement to be the most powerful criminal organization in the world.