Gilberto Rodriguez Orejuela, along with Miguel Rodriguez Orejuela, Helmer Herrera, and Jose Santacruz Londono, a banker and owner of the America de Cali soccer team, was a godfather of the Cali Cartel.
His cartel controlled 80% of the American cocaine trade and 90% of the European market, and he had extensive political and business connections.
He was apprehended by Colombian authorities in a raid in 1994.
Did Gilberto Rodriguez have three wives?
Rodriguez had three spouses at the same time, visiting them on different days of the week, and he owned multiple lavish residences as well as significant business links.
He joined forces with Judy Moncada in 1992 to fight the Medellin Cartel, which was defeated by the Search Bloc in 1993.
However, following the assassination of Pablo Escobar, the Search Bloc turned its attention to the Cali Cartel, which had grown to become Colombia’s largest cartel.
Rodriguez was caught by a Colombian National Police unit commanded by Hugo Martinez on June 9, 1995, while spending time with his wives at his Cali estate, and he was extradited to the United States in 2004 and sentenced to 30 years in jail, virtually a life sentence.
