Pubdate: Tue, 27 Sep 2005
Source: Thunder Bay Source (CN ON)
Copyright: 2005, Thunder Bay Source
Contact:  http://www.tbsource.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/3129
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/coke.htm (Cocaine)

LOCAL AUTHOR TACKLES DRUG LORDS

Cocaine and Columbia have lived in violent wedded bliss for the better part 
of the past three decades, an adulterous relationship that sired 
billionaire drug barons and misery for anyone who crossed them.

While Pablo Escobar and his Medillon Cartel's murderous ways drew most of 
the attention in the early days of the drug war, a few hundred miles to the 
north in Cali Gilberto and Miguel Rodriguez were quietly leading a cocaine 
revolution that would change the way the lethal drug was distributed 
throughout the world.

It also changed the way U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency officials attacked the 
drug trade, which always managed to stay one step ahead of authorities as 
technology expanded from Silicon Valley to the depths of the Columbian jungles.

In the midst of the drug war, Thunder Bay author Ron Chepesiuk, who had 
long since left the city for the United States, went on a press trip to the 
South American country. Seeing the effects of the cocaine trade first hand 
fueled a fire within the accomplished freelance writer, a fire that burned 
for more than a decade before he decided to put pen to paper and detail the 
lesser known, but much more savvy syndicate from Cali.

The result was Drug Lords: The Rise and Fall of the Cali Cartel, a 
compelling, well-researched insiders look at how anti-drug forces took down 
the trafficking mafia and forced the Columbian government to turn over the 
Rodriguez brothers, who are currently awaiting trial in the United States.

A researcher by trade, Chepesiuk put those skills to great use tracking 
down informants, government officials and a host of other people with 
knowledge of the deftly run multi-national organization that flooded the 
streets of America with a blizzard of coke and forever changed the lives of 
thousands.

"I interviewed over 125 sources," said Chepesiuk, who will be signing the 
updated paperback version of his novel at Chapters on Friday at 6 p.m. 
"People started coming out of the woodwork. They were happy to see someone 
come along and do a book on the Cali Cartel."

Chepesiuk pored over reams of material, including complete transcripts from 
at least half a dozen court cases, often finding it difficult to organize. 
He didn't even have an outline for the true crime tome until he was halfway 
through the project.

"I wanted to tell the story. It was a simple story of how this gang rose 
and what it took for law enforcement to take them down. But there were a 
lot of different sidebars.I just had to weave through it," he said.

He started at the beginning, detailing the bust that shed the first rays of 
light on the scope of the Columbians entanglement in the United States.

The author compared the early American reaction the current war on 
terrorism, saying U.S. officials had plenty of warning signs about the al 
Qaeda network but failed to act, much the same as the way they handled a 
bust in Jackson Heights, N.Y. in the mid-'70s, which turned out to be the 
first piece of the Columbian connection puzzle.

It wasn't until 1985 and a bust in upstate New York that Drug Enforcement 
Agency agents realized the scope of what the Columbians were doing in their 
country, giving both the Cali and Medillon Cartels a decade-long head start.

"They had other priorties," said Chepesiuk. "It takes awhile for 
bureaucracies to readjust."

The DEA focused its attention on an increasingly violent Escobar, allowing 
the more professional Cali Cartel and its primary leaders - the Rodriguez 
brothers, Jose "Chepe" Santacruz and Pacho Herrera - to go about their 
business.

"The Cali Cartel operated in the shadows, so it took awhile. (The DEA) also 
couldn't accept the fact that such a big operation was possible," said 
Chepesiuk.

He called them pioneers in the art of big business crime. The Rodriguez 
brother, Miguel in particular, were micromanagers, running their operation 
in the States from Cali, a philosophy that eventually caused their downfall.

"It would be like Toyota trying to run their operations from Japan," he said.

By the early '90s, even a massively corrupt Columbian government could no 
longer fight the increasing pressure from the Americans to stop the flow of 
cocaine and bring the instigators to justice.

By 1995, after a lengthy manhunt, the Rodriguez brothers had both been 
arrested and were sentenced to prison terms in Columbia. The Americans, who 
had no extradition treaty with Columbia at the time, kept applying 
pressure, and after it was discovered that the billionaire brothers 
Gilberto and Miguel were still pulling the strings of the Cartel from 
behind bars, the pair were finally brought to the United States to face 
justice on American soil.

Drug Lords, updated for the paperback version now on the shelves, succeeds 
in its attention to detail. No stone is left unturned as he outlines the 
rise of the Cali Cartel, its eventual victory over their Medillon rivals 
and the cast of characters intertwined in the story on both sides of the 
law as corrupt Columbian politicians protected the lead players in the 
drama from behind the scenes, while publicly decrying the cocaine trade in 
public.

Chepesiuk said the sad thing is, the war on drugs hasn't really been worth 
the effort and money spent and that the U.S. government should have focused 
its energies.

"The bad guys have readjusted. To be too big is bad for business.In terms 
of the overall drug trade, the amount of coke being grown hasn't diminished 
much. It's cheaper today than it was 20 years ago."

Ron Chepesiuk is the author of 18 books, including three on the 
international drug trade. His articles have appeared in 400 publications, 
including the New York Daily News, U.S.A. Today and the Toronto Star.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom