Attorney denies reported cooperation offer by Cali cartel leaders

[Judi Lynn]

Posted on Tue, Jan. 11, 2005

Attorney denies reported cooperation offer by Cali cartel leaders

CATHERINE WILSON

Associated Press


MIAMI - An attorney for a founder of Colombia's Cali drug cartel on Tuesday denied a Colombian magazine report that three cartel leaders have offered to cooperate in exchange for a 10-year limit on U.S. prison sentences.

"There is no such thing as any contemplated deal of cooperation," attorney Jose Quinon, who is representing Gilberto Rodriguez Orejuela, told The Associated Press. "They have said from Day One that they are not cooperating, they will not cooperate, and that's the bottom line."

Rodriguez Orejuela was extradited last month to face trial on charges that he and his brother Miguel, who is imprisoned in Colombia awaiting extradition, maintained control of their drug empire from behind bars and turned over day-to-day operations to Miguel's son William Rodriguez Abadia.
(snip)

The Semana article published Sunday cited an unnamed source close to the family as saying Rodriguez Abadia, who is on the run, would surrender and deliver a list compiled by the brothers of 64 Colombian politicians, lawyers, judges, journalists and military who worked with the cartel in the past 20 years.
(snip/...)

http://www.bradenton.com/mld/bradenton/10620711.htm



Gilberto Rodríguez Osrijuela and brother.

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Rodriguez Orejuela and his imprisoned brother, Miguel Rodriguez Orejuela, together once operated Colombia's largest drug trafficking business, responsible for supplying most of the world's cocaine from 1980 to 1995, and reaping some $8 billion in profits annually, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration .
(snip)

U.S. authorities in Houston, Texas filed an indictment on Wednesday against four people, accusing them of organizing the deal on behalf of the AUC, or Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia, the right-wing paramilitary force the State Department added to its international terrorist organizations list in Sept. 2001. The AUC has been blamed for hundreds of assassinations, kidnappings and massacres; the right-wing nationalist group claims its goal is to rid Colombia of left-wing subversives.
(snip)

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/updates/colombia_11-07-02.html