José Santacruz: Difference between revisions

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Jose Santacruz-Londono, aka "Chepe," was considered the number three leader in the Cali drug mafia, a cartel said to supply 80% of the World's cocaine supply and have billions in annual income. Londono himself was said to be worth several billion dollars. He was characterized as a low-key, non-presumptuous man who commanded respect from subordinates. However, he was also one of the more violent Cali kingpins. Although his talent rested in managing international cocaine transportation networks, his organization was also involved in drug production, wholesale distribution, and money laundering. He also played a key role in the Cali cartel's intelligence collection efforts.

His major U.S. wholesale cocaine distribution and money laundering operations centered around the New York City metropolitan area. He is believed to have ordered the 1992 slaying of journalist [[Manuel de Dios]], an investigative journalist whose articles on drug trafficking for a Spanish language newspaper in New York angered the cartel. In addition, the Santacruz-Londono organization was linked to limited cocaine HCl production operations in the U.S. Northeast. In June 1992 the DEA seized two cocaine conversion laboratories in Brooklyn, New York, that were connected to Santacruz-Londono. DEA investigations also tied Londono to drug money laundering operations in various cities in Europe and the Americas.

Santacruz-Londono was arrested on July 4, 1995. Although he escaped La Picota Prison in [[Bogota]] on January 11, 1996, he was was killed in a confrontation with the CNPpolice in [[Medellin]] , Columbia on March 5, 1996.

==Sources==

*[http://www.fas.org/irp/agency/doj/dea/product/pr950705.htm DEA Press Release]

*[http://www.rjgeib.com/heroes/unanue/londono.html About Londono]