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208-428: The Medellín Cartel ( Spanish : Cártel de Medellín ) was a powerful and highly organized Colombian drug cartel and terrorist organization originating in the city of Medellín , Colombia, that was founded and led by Pablo Escobar . It is often considered to be the first major "drug cartel" and was referred to as such (a cartel ) due to the organization's upper echelons and overall power-structure being built on
416-492: A partnership between multiple Colombian traffickers operating alongside Escobar. Other members included Jorge Luis Ochoa Vásquez , Fabio Ochoa Vásquez , Juan David Ochoa Vásquez , José Gonzalo Rodríguez Gacha , and Carlos Lehder . Escobar's main partner in the organization was his cousin Gustavo Gaviria , who handled much of the cartel's shipping arrangements and the more general and detailed logistical aspects of
624-577: A 1993 meeting in Miami among Sergei Mikhailov and Viktor Averin ( Russian : Виктор Аверин ) of MAB International ( Russian : «МАБ Интернэшнл» ), who flew in from Vienna, Yuri Yesin ( Russian : Юрий Есин ), who flew in from Italy, and Sergei "Sylvester" Timofeev, Yuri Yesin would have exclusive control over Italy to facilitate connections between Italians and Colombians. Yesin was the head of the Vladivostok based Primorskaya organized criminal group, headed
832-619: A DEA informant, the cartel put a contract on him, having him murdered in February 1986. In March 16 the same year, during a TV national address, the president of the United States Ronald Reagan used surveillance pictures taken on Seal's undercover mission that showed Escobar, Gacha, the Nicaraguan government official Federico Vaughan and several other men loading a plane with cocaine. After Manuel Noriega arrest,
1040-490: A Russian oil joint venture Globus Trading ( Russian : «Глобус Трейдинг» ), and was very close to the vice president of Italian oil firm Eni Alberto Grotti. Yesin was supported by a KGB agent in Italy Dmitry Naumov ( Russian : Дмитрий Наумов ) who was very close to Grigory Luchansky [ ru ; uk ; de ] . It was revealed in late September 2020, that Cali/KGB cocaine was being transported through
1248-627: A Spanish-based creole language called Chavacano developed in the southern Philippines. However, it is not mutually intelligible with Spanish. The number of Chavacano-speakers was estimated at 1.2 million in 1996. The local languages of the Philippines also retain significant Spanish influence, with many words derived from Mexican Spanish , owing to the administration of the islands by Spain through New Spain until 1821, until direct governance from Madrid afterwards to 1898. Cali Cartel The Cali Cartel ( Spanish : Cartel de Cali )
1456-754: A center of US operations in New York where the DEA seized two cocaine conversion laboratories in June 1992. Next, the Urdinola brothers were possibly the most violent of the group with some estimates saying that they murdered over 100 individuals in Colombia. They also distributed cocaine throughout the United States from Los Angeles to Miami to New York City. Also, the group expanded into trafficking Colombian heroin,
1664-631: A choice: to kill or risk being killed along with his family. Salcedo then decided to retaliate and save Pallomari and himself by contacting the US Central Intelligence Agency and work as an informant. This proved to be the death blow to the Cali Cartel. For his service, Salcedo and his extended family were relocated to the US and he received rewards of about $ 1.7 million. The counter-intelligence TN Education Centre of
1872-480: A collaborative fashion so as to give the overall organization a stronger backbone and structural apparatus by allowing Gacha and the Ochoas to pair up and synergize the relative power-spheres of their own trafficking networks with Escobar's, so as to maximize and concentrate their power instead of keeping it divided. After seeing the results of Pablo and Gustavo's impressive rates of profit and success (which now surpassed
2080-416: A communications center that worked in coordination with the state telecommunications office. They had 30 pilots, and an assortment of fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters. British, Israeli, and U.S. military instructors were hired to teach at paramilitary training centers. Following this time in the mid-80s, Escobar's hold on Medellín further increased when he founded a criminal debt collection service known as
2288-603: A considerable number of words from Arabic , as well as a minor influence from the Germanic Gothic language through the period of Visigoth rule in Iberia. In addition, many more words were borrowed from Latin through the influence of written language and the liturgical language of the Church. The loanwords were taken from both Classical Latin and Renaissance Latin , the form of Latin in use at that time. According to
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#17327653289602496-469: A detailed narcotics trafficking diagram showing relationships between Russian government officials and Russian mafia and implicating Vladimir Putin and numerous others in obschak including narcotics trafficking money. Following Operation Troika which targeted the Tambov Gang , Spanish Prosecutor José Grinda concurred and added that to avoid prosecution numerous indicted persons became Deputies in
2704-522: A dramatic change in the pronunciation of its sibilant consonants , known in Spanish as the reajuste de las sibilantes , which resulted in the distinctive velar [x] pronunciation of the letter ⟨j⟩ and—in a large part of Spain—the characteristic interdental [θ] ("th-sound") for the letter ⟨z⟩ (and for ⟨c⟩ before ⟨e⟩ or ⟨i⟩ ). See History of Spanish (Modern development of
2912-447: A factor in triggering America's cultural "cocaine era"; the take-off of this cultural phenomenon noticeably coincided with the beginning of Jung and Lehder's involvement in cocaine distribution. Despite their incredibly profitable smuggling operation, it only lasted from roughly 1976 to 1978. In this short period, however, they were able to achieve a historically unprecedented drug-trafficking operation that proved invaluable to Escobar's and
3120-482: A first language by Spaniards and educated Filipinos ( Ilustrados ). Despite a public education system set up by the colonial government, by the end of Spanish rule in 1898, only about 10% of the population had knowledge of Spanish, mostly those of Spanish descent or elite standing. Spanish continued to be official and used in Philippine literature and press during the early years of American administration after
3328-431: A greater, more eased potential for logistical transportability, with less of a chance for interdiction or complications during the product's long journey across borders and to various regional markets around the globe. This further maximized the drug's profit potential, since its volume and weight relative to its final monetary value was now exponentially greater compared to trafficking the same or similar weight and volume of
3536-710: A last resort, considering it to be generally bad for business due to the practical understanding that; "dead people do not pay what they owe". The Cali Cartel leaders even required their employees to fill out "application forms"; elucidating their personal information, not necessarily for the sake of threats but rather for the purpose of thorough background checks and security. This included not just names and addresses of Cali Cartel hopefuls, but financial assets and personal possessions such as automobiles. The Orejuela brothers wanted to be seen as "the Kennedys of Colombia" while Escobar similarly dreamed of one day becoming president of
3744-492: A less valuable product such as marijuana . Also, unlike marijuana, which can be produced within close proximity to desirable North American drug markets, cocaine production was almost exclusive to South America at this time and therefore easier for regional criminal groups to control and monopolize. During this era, many of the most well-established, entrepreneurial, and capable contraband smugglers or trafficking groups were composed of Colombian nationals. But even amongst them,
3952-415: A long history in the territory of the current-day United States dating back to the 16th century. In the wake of the 1848 Guadalupe Hidalgo Treaty , hundreds of thousands of Spanish speakers became a minoritized community in the United States. The 20th century saw further massive growth of Spanish speakers in areas where they had been hitherto scarce. According to the 2020 census, over 60 million people of
4160-450: A long, drawn-out manhunt that lasted many months; on 2 December, 1993 Escobar was finally found with only one bodyguard left by his side; Limón (Alvaro de Jesús Agudelo) who was also his longtime chauffeur (driver). They were found hiding out in a house in a middle-class residential area of his hometown of Medellín (Carrera 79B No. 45D – 94, Los Olivos neighborhood) by Colombian special forces supposedly using tracking technology provided by
4368-498: A major market in the United States or a major transportation system for their product. It was Jung and Lehder who effectively provided this. Pablo Escobar and his cousin Gustavo's mid-70s newly transformed trafficking operation aimed at moving cocaine powder into America after first fully ascertaining the indispensable distribution network capabilities and other logistical elements both Carlos Lehder and George Jung could facilitate for
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#17327653289604576-506: A money launderer for Colombian drug lords. Alfa Bank subsequently filed a libel lawsuit against the Center for Public Integrity (the claim was rejected by the court, though this was essentially based on the lack of any evidence of malice on the part of the defendant; the case memorandum concedes that some of the allegations in the FSB report may have been fabricated). Gilberto Rodriguez Orejuela,
4784-528: A much more organized and violent fashion not far down the line. In 1973, there was a military coup in Chile which led to a strong crackdown on Chilean drug traffickers. This caused some drug traffickers to either flee the country and/or immediately start to use different trafficking routes. This frequently resulted in Chilean traffickers setting their eyes on Colombia to use as a trade route further north. Around
4992-416: A network of over 30 radio stations and a pharmaceutical chain named Drogas la Rebaja , which at its height amassed over 400 stores in 28 cities, employing 4,200. The pharmaceutical chain's value was estimated at $ 216 million. As a consequence of the Cali Cartel's ownership of the chain, from January 1988 to May 4, 1990, it was targeted for 85 bombings by Pablo Escobar and
5200-481: A new, but now more modestly-sized, trafficking endeavor. This was to continue to operate under Escobar's network, since the two still had a good relationship, and Escobar could directly utilize Lehder as a reliable connection for acquiring sizable amounts of South American powdered cocaine. Both Jung and Lehder made millions of dollars, not just for themselves, but for the cartel too, with their highly successful cocaine-distribution operation, that arguably may have been
5408-507: A newly formed, mutually beneficial collaborative effort between different drug traffickers now working together (hence the term cartel ), the organization was able to, at its height, move around 2,500-3,500 kilos per day. The criminal power structure already present within Pablo and Gustavo's earlier, informal organization or smuggling ring rose to prominence as a result of cocaine's unusually high profit margins; even after just brief exposure to
5616-508: A primarily Hassaniya Arabic -speaking territory, Spanish was officially spoken as the language of the colonial administration during the late 19th and 20th centuries. Today, Spanish is present in the partially-recognized Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic as its secondary official language, and in the Sahrawi refugee camps in Tindouf ( Algeria ), where the Spanish language is still taught as
5824-400: A product that most of the groups stayed away from. Finally, Raul and Luis Grajales, cousins by marriage, were a careful duo who tried to portray themselves as legitimate. Their operation took them to Western Europe where they tried to establish new routes from Colombia. They used Eastern Europe and old Soviet countries to route the cocaine into Western Europe. The five groups all coexisted under
6032-455: A ring of kidnappers known as "Las Chemas", which was led by Luis Fernando Tamayo García. Las Chemas were implicated in numerous kidnappings including those of two Swiss citizens: a diplomat, Herman Buff, and a student, Zack "Jazz Milis" Martin. The kidnappers reportedly received $ 700,000 in ransom , which is believed to have been used to fund their drug trafficking empire. The assembled group first involved itself in trafficking marijuana. Due to
6240-617: A second language features characteristics involving the variability of the vowel system. While far from its heyday during the Spanish protectorate in Morocco , the Spanish language has some presence in northern Morocco , stemming for example from the availability of certain Spanish-language media. According to a 2012 survey by Morocco's Royal Institute for Strategic Studies (IRES), penetration of Spanish in Morocco reaches 4.6% of
6448-531: A second language, largely by Cuban educators. The number of Spanish speakers is unknown. Spanish is also an official language of the African Union . Spanish was an official language of the Philippines from the beginning of Spanish administration in 1565 to a constitutional change in 1973. During Spanish colonization , it was the language of government, trade, and education, and was spoken as
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6656-492: A series of meetings in Puerto Boyacá and formed a paramilitary organization known as Muerte a Secuestradores ("Death to Kidnappers", MAS) to defend their economic interests, and to provide protection for local elites from kidnappings and extortion. By 1983, Colombian internal affairs had registered 240 political killings by MAS death squads, mostly community leaders, elected officials, and farmers. The following year,
6864-559: A working relationship with tobacco smugglers from Galicia , Spain. But in particular, the Cali cartel established a strategic alliance with the powerful Camorra criminal organization. Cali supplied the cocaine and the Camorra handled distribution across Europe. In order to launder the incoming money of the trafficking operations, the Cali cartel heavily invested its funds into legitimate business ventures as well as front companies to mask
7072-416: Is cognate to the root word of satisfacer ("to satisfy"), and hecho ("made") is similarly cognate to the root word of satisfecho ("satisfied"). Compare the examples in the following table: Some consonant clusters of Latin also produced characteristically different results in these languages, as shown in the examples in the following table: In the 15th and 16th centuries, Spanish underwent
7280-460: Is believed Los Pepes provided information to Search Bloc , a joint police and army unit specifically created to track down Medellín leaders. In exchange for information, Los Pepes received assistance from the United States counter-terrorism unit, Delta Force , through its links to Search Bloc. By the time of Escobar's capture and eventual death in December 1993, Los Pepes had been responsible for
7488-493: Is believed the cartel would often kill junior members who made gross errors. In his book End of Millennium , Manuel Castells states the Cali Cartel had participated in social cleansing of hundreds of desechables ("discardables"). The desechables included prostitutes, street children , petty thieves, homosexuals and the homeless . Along with some of the locals, the Cali Cartel formed parties self-named grupos de limpieza social ("social cleansing groups") who murdered
7696-548: Is broadly believed that Los Pepes have been instrumental in the assassination of the cartel's members over the last 21 years, it is still in dispute whether the mantle is just a screen designed to deflect political repercussions from both the Colombian and United States governments' involvement in these assassinations. The Carlos Lehder's Norman's Cay strategy was shut down in 1982 after the Bahamian government started chasing
7904-468: Is coming from the 15th to the 17th. This will give him something to work with. This is what we'll keep. They want to shove the whole affair under the carpet. Later in the conversation Derkach states that "they've bought up all these documents throughout Europe and only the rest are in our hands". According to the Center for Public Integrity , Alfa-Bank was noted in a 1997 FSB report as having served as
8112-454: Is estimated that about 486 million people speak Spanish as a native language , making it the second most spoken language by number of native speakers . An additional 75 million speak Spanish as a second or foreign language , making it the fourth most spoken language in the world overall after English, Mandarin Chinese, and Hindi with a total number of 538 million speakers. Spanish is also
8320-761: Is heavily influenced by Venezuelan Spanish. In addition to sharing most of its borders with Spanish-speaking countries, the creation of Mercosur in the early 1990s induced a favorable situation for the promotion of Spanish language teaching in Brazil . In 2005, the National Congress of Brazil approved a bill, signed into law by the President , making it mandatory for schools to offer Spanish as an alternative foreign language course in both public and private secondary schools in Brazil. In September 2016 this law
8528-732: Is related to Castile ( Castilla or archaically Castiella ), the kingdom where the language was originally spoken. The name Castile , in turn, is usually assumed to be derived from castillo ('castle'). In the Middle Ages , the language spoken in Castile was generically referred to as Romance and later also as Lengua vulgar . Later in the period, it gained geographical specification as Romance castellano ( romanz castellano , romanz de Castiella ), lenguaje de Castiella , and ultimately simply as castellano (noun). Different etymologies have been suggested for
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8736-432: Is reported by Time magazine, in 1991, DEA and U.S. Customs Service (now ICE) agents were monitoring a shipment being offloaded in Miami, only to find out later that the DEA agents were the target of Cali surveillance at the same time. Jorge Salcedo, a member of Colombia's military, was put in charge of the cartel's intelligence and later provided security to Miguel. He would later, ironically, be crucial in helping destroy
8944-844: Is spoken by very small communities in Angola due to Cuban influence from the Cold War and in South Sudan among South Sudanese natives that relocated to Cuba during the Sudanese wars and returned for their country's independence. Spanish is also spoken in the integral territories of Spain in Africa, namely the cities of Ceuta and Melilla and the Canary Islands , located in the Atlantic Ocean some 100 km (62 mi) off
9152-813: Is the de facto national language of the country, Spanish is often used in public services and notices at the federal and state levels. Spanish is also used in administration in the state of New Mexico . The language has a strong influence in major metropolitan areas such as those of Los Angeles , Miami , San Antonio , New York , San Francisco , Dallas , Tucson and Phoenix of the Arizona Sun Corridor , as well as more recently, Chicago , Las Vegas , Boston , Denver , Houston , Indianapolis , Philadelphia , Cleveland , Salt Lake City , Atlanta , Nashville , Orlando , Tampa , Raleigh and Baltimore-Washington, D.C. due to 20th- and 21st-century immigration. Although Spanish has no official recognition in
9360-517: The Asociación Campesina de Ganaderos y Agricultores del Magdalena Medio ("Association of Middle Magdalena Ranchers and Farmers", ACDEGAM ) was created to handle both the logistics and the public relations of the organization, and to provide a legal front for various paramilitary groups. ACDEGAM worked to promote anti-labor policies, and threatened anyone involved with organizing for labor or peasants' rights. The threats were backed up by
9568-732: The Colombian National Police trained and assisted by specialized military units and the CIA . The last of Escobar's lieutenants to be assassinated was Juan Diego Arcila Henao, who had been released from a Colombian prison in 2002 and hidden in Venezuela to avoid the vengeance of " Los Pepes ". However he was shot and killed in his Jeep Cherokee as he exited the parking area of his home in Cumaná , Venezuela, in April 2007. While it
9776-698: The Colombian Supreme Court in Bogotá, leading to the Palace of Justice siege . Some claimed at the time that the cartel's influence was behind the M-19's raid, because of its interest in intimidating the Supreme Court. Others state that the alleged cartel-guerrilla relationship was unlikely to occur at the time because the two organizations had been having several standoffs and confrontations, like
9984-636: The Federal Correctional Institution, Danbury where Jung was incarcerated at the same time as Lehder on charges of marijuana trafficking. Prior to this, Escobar's initial smuggling ring consisted of small gangs of hired gunmen on his payroll was just a precursor to the final and fully-fledged massive criminal organization that came to be known as the Medellín Cartel. Once these aforementioned drug lords stepped in to combine their trafficking power and capabilities, and after
10192-568: The Spanish as a First Foreign Language (SAFFL) initiative in March 2005. Spanish has historically had a significant presence on the Dutch Caribbean islands of Aruba , Bonaire and Curaçao ( ABC Islands ) throughout the centuries and in present times. The majority of the populations of each island (especially Aruba) speaking Spanish at varying although often high degrees of fluency. The local language Papiamentu (Papiamento on Aruba)
10400-508: The Spanish–American War but was eventually replaced by English as the primary language of administration and education by the 1920s. Nevertheless, despite a significant decrease in influence and speakers, Spanish remained an official language of the Philippines upon independence in 1946, alongside English and Filipino , a standardized version of Tagalog . Spanish was briefly removed from official status in 1973 but reimplemented under
10608-517: The United States Congress , "Cali would be the dominant group in trafficking South American heroin due to their access to the opium-growing areas of Colombia." Debate over the cartel's participation in heroin trafficking remains. It is believed the cartel's leaders were not involved in heroin trading, but that close associates to them, such as Ivan Urdinola-Grajales, were, and that they cooperated with heroin distribution centers. At
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#173276532896010816-696: The Vulgar Latin spoken on the Iberian Peninsula of Europe . Today, it is a global language with about 500 million native speakers, mainly in the Americas and Spain , and about 600 million when including second language speakers. Spanish is the official language of 20 countries , as well as one of the six official languages of the United Nations . Spanish is the world's second-most spoken native language after Mandarin Chinese ;
11024-608: The collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century. The oldest Latin texts with traces of Spanish come from mid-northern Iberia in the 9th century, and the first systematic written use of the language happened in Toledo , a prominent city of the Kingdom of Castile , in the 13th century. Spanish colonialism in the early modern period spurred the introduction of the language to overseas locations, most notably to
11232-532: The desechables , often leaving them with signs on them stating: " Cali limpia, Cali linda " ("clean Cali, beautiful Cali"). The bodies of those murdered were often tossed into the Cauca River , which later became known as the "River of Death". The municipality of Marsella in Risaralda was eventually bankrupted by the cost of recovering corpses and conducting autopsies . In the 1980s and early 1990s,
11440-657: The entertainment industry in Hollywood before quickly spreading to other major hotspots such as Miami . Because of cocaine's socially prestigious reputation as a cultural symbol of high status, especially as it related to wealth and glamour among Americans during the late 1970s (mainly due to its high cost), Colombian criminals who were already accomplished smugglers of various goods through black market trade networks began to see cocaine as an irresistibly lucrative item for smuggling. A product like cocaine, which " packs tighter " than other types of drugs or contraband, indicated
11648-431: The ghettos of Los Angeles (see: Freeway Ricky Ross ). Therefore, by the turn of the decade it was no longer just a drug of the sybaritic and wealthy despite still being a cultural status symbol of class and wealth in the early 80s. The United States' "cocaine boom" era enriched the Colombian smugglers and catapulted them into massive levels of profit and wealth that now was in the billions of dollars, essentially all in
11856-479: The gramaje money that the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia or FARC) attempted to steal. At the end of 1981 and the beginning of 1982, members of the Medellín Cartel, Cali Cartel, the Colombian military, the U.S.-based corporation Texas Petroleum , the Colombian legislature, small industrialists, and wealthy cattle ranchers came together in
12064-417: The " Oficina de Envigado " (The Office), which was considered their first "oficina de cobro" ( collections service ). This was an actual physical office located in the town hall of Envigado , a small municipality next to Medellín where Escobar grew up. Escobar used the municipal office to collect debts owed to him by other drug traffickers and set the " sicarios " or hired killers on those who refused. Escobar
12272-404: The 2021–2022 school year alone. The local business process outsourcing industry has also helped boost the language's economic prospects. Today, while the actual number of proficient Spanish speakers is around 400,000, or under 0.5% of the population, a new generation of Spanish speakers in the Philippines has likewise emerged, though speaker estimates vary widely. Aside from standard Spanish,
12480-595: The 20th century, Spanish was introduced to Equatorial Guinea and the Western Sahara , and to areas of the United States that had not been part of the Spanish Empire, such as Spanish Harlem in New York City . For details on borrowed words and other external influences upon Spanish, see Influences on the Spanish language . Spanish is the primary language in 20 countries worldwide. As of 2023, it
12688-465: The Americas. As a Romance language, Spanish is a descendant of Latin. Around 75% of modern Spanish vocabulary is Latin in origin, including Latin borrowings from Ancient Greek. Alongside English and French , it is also one of the most taught foreign languages throughout the world. Spanish is well represented in the humanities and social sciences . Spanish is also the third most used language on
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#173276532896012896-709: The Bank of New York was a participant. In the early 2000s, the company's co-founder Rudolf Ritter was arrested in Liechtenstein for laundering cocaine cash for the Cali cartel. Robert Walner was the chief prosecutor in Liechtenstein's capital Vaduz . Former Ukrainian presidential bodyguard Nikolai Melnichenko bugged the following conversation between Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma and his security chief Leonid Derkach about SPAG: Leonid Derkach: Leonid Danilovich. We've got some interesting material here from
13104-484: The Cali Cartel often surprised the DEA and Colombian officials. It was discovered, in a 1995 raid of Cali Cartel offices, that the cartel had been monitoring all phone calls made in and out of Bogotá and Cali, including the U.S. Embassy in Bogotá and the Ministry of Defense . The laptop allowed Londoño to eavesdrop on phone calls being made as well as analyze phone lines for wiretaps. While officials were able to discover
13312-532: The Cali Cartel. In total, the US Customs Service (USCS) alone had spent 91,855 case hours and 13 years in investigations against the Cali Cartel, seizing 50 tons of cocaine and $ 15 million in assets. In 1991, a shipment of cocaine hidden inside of concrete posts was intercepted with the aid of a drug-sniffing dog at the Miami seaport. It led to the seizure of 12,000 kilograms (26,455 lb) of cocaine and several arrests, beginning what
13520-595: The Cali KGB Cartel in Spain. Each leader of the Cali Cartel had their own operation to run as they saw fit. There were 5 major Cali trafficking groups that were separate but also worked together when their interests aligned. This included, but was not limited to, transporting drugs to the United States and money laundering. According to a report by the DEA in 1994, the Rodriguez brothers, Miguel and Gilberto, were
13728-417: The Cali KGB cartel. Robert Eringer , head of Monaco 's Security Service, confirmed Litvinenko's file about Vladimir Putin's involvement in Europe's narcotics trade. The Ismailovskaya mafia is closely associated with Oleg Deripaska , Andrei Bokarev , Michael Cherney , and Iskander Makhmudov through their Switzerland-based Blond Investment Corporation's MIB bank account. Rudolf Ritter in Liechtenstein
13936-420: The Cali cartel, as well as Pablo Escobar's Medellín Cartel. Cartel members were permitted, through their affiliation with Gilberto, to overdraft accounts and take out loans without repayment. Allegedly, Semion Mogilevich instructed Natasha Kagalovsky to wire transfer Cali cartel funds from Bank of New York accounts though Brazilian banks to offshore shell companies. Capitalizing on this basis, Gilberto
14144-405: The Cartel ensured that Panama could be a hideout for the group leadership and that the government would ignore their money laundering operations in the country. The CIA turned a blind eye to the link between Medellin Cartel and Noriega, as he had an aggressive anticommunist policy. However, the agency stopped supporting Noriega after his ties with the Cartel came to public. During the 1980 decade,
14352-443: The Chess Player, worked closely through Petr Aven , Alfa-Bank, and Alfa-Eco to offshore locations such as Gibraltar, the Bahamas, and other places to launder funds for capitalization with Russian state firms such as Alfa Bank, Alfa-Estate, RAO Gazprom, and numerous other firms involved in transport, non-ferrous metals, oil refineries, oil production, and power generation which were undergoing privatization. Within days after this report
14560-424: The Colombian government, the government began to strike back in ever escalating battles. As the Medellín Cartel weakened due to the fighting and constant pressure, the Cali Cartel grew in strength, eventually founding Los Pepes, or Perseguidos por Pablo Escobar ("People Persecuted by Pablo Escobar"). Los Pepes was specifically formed to target the Medellín Cartel and bring about the downfall of Pablo Escobar. It
14768-408: The DEA and FBI got several tips linking the former dictator to the Medellin Cartel. The Nicaraguan and Colombian conflicts in remote areas could make both countries unsafe to operate, and the cartel was searching for new places to use as a stopover. Manuel Noriega, in exchange of bribes and share on profits, agreed using Panama as another stopover for the cartel logistics. Also, the links between him and
14976-654: The Equatoguinean education system and is the primary language used in government and business. Whereas it is not the mother tongue of virtually any of its speakers, the vast majority of the population is proficient in Spanish. The Instituto Cervantes estimates that 87.7% of the population is fluent in Spanish. The proportion of proficient Spanish speakers in Equatorial Guinea exceeds the proportion of proficient speakers in other West and Central African nations of their respective colonial languages. Spanish
15184-537: The Germans. One of them has been arrested. Leonid Kuchma (reading aloud): Ritter, Rudolf Ritter. Leonid Derkach: Yes, and about that affair, the drug smuggling. Here are the documents. They gave them all out. Here's Vova Putin , too. Leonid Kuchma: There's something about Putin there? Leonid Derkach: The Russians have already been buying everything up. Here are all the documents. We're the only ones that still have them now. I think that [FSB chief] Nikolai Patrushev
15392-705: The Iberian Peninsula. These languages included Proto-Basque , Iberian , Lusitanian , Celtiberian and Gallaecian . The first documents to show traces of what is today regarded as the precursor of modern Spanish are from the 9th century. Throughout the Middle Ages and into the modern era , the most important influences on the Spanish lexicon came from neighboring Romance languages — Mozarabic ( Andalusi Romance ), Navarro-Aragonese , Leonese , Catalan/Valencian , Portuguese , Galician , Occitan , and later, French and Italian . Spanish also borrowed
15600-451: The MAS, which would attack or assassinate anyone who was suspected of being a "subversive". ACDEGAM also built schools whose stated purpose was the creation of a "patriotic and anti-Communist" educational environment, and built roads, bridges, and health clinics. Paramilitary recruiting, weapons storage, communications, propaganda, and medical services were all run out of ACDEGAM headquarters. By
15808-543: The Medellín Cartel's overall initial rise to being the preeminent cocaine enterprise. Both Jung and Lehder were in the unique position of not only having been around during the very earliest days of the Medellín trafficking conglomerate which later birthed the cartel, but were also both in many ways directly responsible for the accelerated growth during its beginnings. Although Escobar and the others were highly capable and ingenious smugglers, they technically still did not have
16016-687: The Medellín Cartel, leaving a total of 27 people dead. According to Felipe Turover Chudínov, who was a senior intelligence officer with the foreign-intelligence directorate of the KGB, Russian prime minister Viktor Chernomyrdin secretly decreed in the early 1990s that Russia would become an international hub through which narcotics are trafficked including cocaine and heroin from South America and heroin from Central Asia and Southeast Asia. Yuri Skuratov supported Turover's statements and began numerous investigations into corruption with high ranking Russian government officials. Alexander Litvinenko provided
16224-485: The Medellín crew also garnered a unique reputation, even in their earlier days for murdering not only those who crossed them, but oftentimes their immediate family members or other relatives as well, unless otherwise stipulated such as when Pablo's enemies "turned themselves in" instead of fleeing the region or pleading for protection from the authorities (many of whom were already compromised). This method of "webbed" violence resulting from one person's mistakes against Escobar
16432-498: The Medellíns' centralised structure under leader Pablo Escobar . The Cali Cartel eventually became "the most powerful criminal organization in the world. No drug organization rivals them today or perhaps any time in history." according to then DEA administrator Robert C. Bonner . and was called "the biggest, most powerful crime syndicate we've ever known", by Thomas Constantine respectively. Juan Carlos Saavedra represented
16640-568: The Monaco Apartment bombing) the Medellín and Cali organizations became perpetual enemies, a feud which continued until Medellín's eventual demise in 1993. A demise which was largely due to the rise of the anti-Escobar "vigilante" group known as Los Pepes , which was officially formed in January 1993. "Los Pepes" was a diminutive form of the phrase " Perseguidos por Pablo Escobar " (meaning: "[Those] Persecuted by Pablo Escobar"). The group
16848-468: The North American market and its respective distribution channels, the organization's influence over the global cocaine business increased dramatically, which was naturally followed by unprecedented amounts of wealth. The then "cartel-style" model for Pablo and Gustavo's criminal organization began to reach fruition between 1976 and 1979, when it also incorporated the contraband smuggling networks of
17056-466: The Ochoas ( Jorge Luis Ochoa Vásquez , Fabio Ochoa Vásquez and Juan David Ochoa Vásquez ), as well as the trafficking enterprise and muscle (armed men) working under José Gonzalo Rodríguez Gacha ; nicknamed "the Mexican", and the eccentric German Colombian figure Carlos Lehder , who initially partnered up with American smuggler George Jung or "Boston George", with whom he was bunkmates in prison at
17264-498: The Ochoas), they all soon began to prioritize the smuggling of cocaine over virtually all other forms of 'goods' and contraband, such as the items of commerce that had already served to profit them in years past. This lucrative and newfound, expansive network of traffickers began to creatively utilize many novel methods of getting their cocaine product into the U.S. at that point; implementing increased ingenuity and novel strategies into
17472-540: The Old Spanish sibilants) for details. The Gramática de la lengua castellana , written in Salamanca in 1492 by Elio Antonio de Nebrija , was the first grammar written for a modern European language. According to a popular anecdote, when Nebrija presented it to Queen Isabella I , she asked him what was the use of such a work, and he answered that language is the instrument of empire. In his introduction to
17680-547: The Russian Duma, especially with Vladimir Zhirinovsky 's Liberal Democratic Party and gained parliamentary immunity from prosecution. St. Petersburg Immobilien und Beteiligungs AG or SPAG is a real estate company registered in Germany under Putin's control in 1992 and suspected by German police of facilitating Saint Petersburg mobsters, Colombian drug lords, and transcontinental money laundering. Kumarin-Barsukov , of
17888-699: The Russian embassy in Argentina to Russia for many years. Political violence was largely discounted by the Cali Cartel, as the threat of violence often sufficed. The organization of the cartel was structured so that only people who had family in Colombia would handle operations that involved both Cali and U.S. sites, keeping the family within reach of the cartel. Family members became the cartel's insurance that its members would not assist government officials, nor would they refuse payment for products received. The threat of death also hung over those who made mistakes. It
18096-491: The Spanish-speaking world, Spanish is called not only español but also castellano (Castilian), the language from the Kingdom of Castile , contrasting it with other languages spoken in Spain such as Galician , Basque , Asturian , Catalan/Valencian , Aragonese , Occitan and other minor languages. The Spanish Constitution of 1978 uses the term castellano to define the official language of
18304-603: The Supreme Court Judges, asking them to denounce the Extradition Treaty. The warnings were ignored. This led Escobar and the group he called Los Extraditables (" The Extraditables ") to start a violent campaign to pressure the Colombian government by committing a series of kidnappings, murders, and narco-terrorist actions. In November 1985, 35 heavily armed members of the M-19 guerrilla group stormed
18512-609: The Tambov Russian mafia was a partner in Znamenskaya, a subsidiary of SPAG. Vladimir Smirnov was the general director of Znamenskaya and Kumarin-Barsukov was his deputy. Through his 200 shares or 20% control, Vladimir Smirnov was Putin's voting proxy in SPAG. Jalol Khaidarov ( Russian : Джалол Хайдаров ) stated that the final destination of the funds was to the "Operator Trade Center" in Liechtenstein but also said that
18720-568: The U.S. Meanwhile, Pablo Escobar's brother Roberto Escobar acted as the organization's accountant. The cartel operated from 1976 to 1993 in Colombia ( Antioquia ), Bolivia , Panama , Central America , Peru , the Bahamas , and the United States (namely in cities such as Los Angeles , New York and Miami ), as well as in Canada . Although Escobar started profitably smuggling contraband by
18928-502: The U.S. population were of Hispanic or Hispanic American by origin. In turn, 41.8 million people in the United States aged five or older speak Spanish at home, or about 13% of the population. Spanish predominates in the unincorporated territory of Puerto Rico , where it is also an official language along with English. Spanish is by far the most common second language in the country, with over 50 million total speakers if non-native or second-language speakers are included. While English
19136-434: The U.S. put an end to the bank's use as a money laundering front. In a Time magazine interview, Gilberto Rodriguez admitted to laundering money through the bank but noted that the process broke no Panamanian laws. The two cartels participated in other joint ventures in later years, such as the founding of Muerte a Secuestradores (MAS), who successfully returned Ochoa's kidnapped sister, Marta Nieves Ochoa. Expanding on
19344-420: The U.S.) as demonstrated by their societally straining and volatile asymmetric war against the Colombian state itself, primarily in the form of bombings, kidnappings, indiscriminate murder of law enforcement and political assassinations. Many of the victims included non-combatants or random citizens as attempts to negotiate with the government using fear through unambiguous acts of terror. At its height during
19552-492: The US Customs Service would dub Operation Cornerstone, which lasted 14 years. In another seizure the following year, a USCS wiretap on Harold Ackerman, whose affiliation was derived from the 1991 seizure, enabled the arrest of seven individuals and 6,000 kilograms (13,228 lb) of cocaine hidden in a load of broccoli. Accounting ledgers were seized in related arrests, which allowed the identification of another shipment being sent to Panama hidden in tiles. This information
19760-406: The US Customs Service. Three maritime ships were intercepted in 1993, with a total of 17,000 kilograms (37,479 lb). Between June and July 1995, the remaining six of the seven heads of the cartel were arrested. Gilberto was arrested in his home, and Henry Loaiza-Ceballos , Victor Patiño-Fomeque and Phanor Arizabaleta-Arzayus surrendered to authorities. Jose Santa Cruz Londoño was captured in
19968-491: The United States. However, very few Colombian cartel leaders were actually taken into custody as a result of these operations. Mostly, non-Colombians conspiring with the cartel were the "fruits" of these indictments in the United States. Most Colombians targeted, as well as those named in such indictments, lived and stayed in Colombia, or fled before indictments were unsealed. However, by 1993 most, if not all, cartel fugitives had been either imprisoned, or located and shot dead, by
20176-412: The United States. This was a direct consequence of Escobar the day before; on his 44th birthday (Wednesday) making a call from the hideout location to his family who were being protected by the government in a luxury hotel in the nation's capital of Bogota . This was also just after the family had returned from an unsuccessful attempt to travel by plane and take refuge in Germany. The authorities, going off
20384-605: The United Workers Union, and the sister of Pablo Catatumbo, a representative of the Simón Bolívar Guerrilla Coordinating Board . Eventually, after talks, Christina and the sister of Catatumbo were released. It is unknown what happened to the other hostages taken by the cartel. During the narco-terror war waged by Pablo Escobar on the Colombian government, it is believed a hired assassin attempted to kill Herrera while he
20592-549: The Venezuelan National Guard unit that was to interdict cocaine shipments and was the CIA's most trusted narcotics asset in Venezuela. He worked with Mark McFarlin and Jim Campbell, and was charged by United States authorities with smuggling 22 tons of Cali Cartel cocaine from 1987 to 1991 known as Operation North ( Spanish : Operación Norte ). According to reports and testimony of Thomas Constantine to
20800-488: The absence of a hardline policy from the DEA on cocaine, the trade flourished. The group developed and organized itself into multiple "cells" that appeared to operate independently yet reported to a celeno ("manager"). The independent clandestine cell system is what set the Cali Cartel apart from the Medellín Cartel . The Cali Cartel operated as a tight group of independent criminal organizations, as opposed to
21008-457: The administration of Ferdinand Marcos two months later. It remained an official language until the ratification of the present constitution in 1987, in which it was re-designated as a voluntary and optional auxiliary language. Additionally, the constitution, in its Article XIV, stipulates that the Government shall provide the people of the Philippines with a Spanish-language translation of
21216-493: The air bombing plot. There was no turning back for Salcedo. The Colombian government labeled him a criminal now working for the Cali Cartel, and his employers would not let him go anyway. Salcedo then settled into managing security for the Orejuela family, but then he was forced to witness an execution of four Panamanians, and tasked with organizing the murder of Guillermo Pallomari, their own cartel accountant. Salcedo faced
21424-411: The apparent smuggling and illegal trade of cigarettes. There are several claims that he was allegedly a noteworthy figure in the region's supposed " Marlboro wars"; a seemingly violent set of scrimmages or conflicts over the control of Colombia's illicit cigarette smuggling market. This implying that he was priming his sensibilities in street crime and violent black market schemes in what would come out in
21632-664: The assassination of Juan Diego Arcila Henao in 2007, most if not all of Escobar's lieutenants who were not in prison had been killed by the Colombian National Police Search Bloc (trained and assisted by U.S. Delta Force and CIA operatives), or by the Los Pepes vigilantes. Spanish language Spanish ( español ) or Castilian ( castellano ) is a Romance language of the Indo-European language family that evolved from
21840-453: The bullet's entry wound behind his ear where he says his father would've apparently aimed for if he was going to attempt to kill himself. Escobar's primary objective in an end scenario such as this was simply to not allow himself to be captured alive and suffer for the rest of his life in the U.S. prison system via extradition or to be captured and tortured like he did to so many others. Escobar's legacy remains controversial; while many denounce
22048-487: The business and began setting up his own major cocaine transshipment operation for Escobar and the Medellín organization on an island in the Bahamas called Norman's Cay . Here, Lehder would take up an unconventional, hedonistic, drug-fueled lifestyle after getting the island's residents to leave, either by force or by bribery. Jung from that point on just attempted to steer clear of Lehder, so he simply went back to Colombia to meet with Escobar directly, in order to establish
22256-486: The cartel and pinpointing where Miguel was hiding. He designed and set up a large hidden radio network across the city allowing members to communicate wherever they were. They also had many people inside law enforcement working for them, including a high-ranking member of the Bloque de Búsqueda (search block) who were looking for the Cali Cartel's top leaders. When law enforcement had finally cornered Miguel inside an apartment,
22464-420: The cartel applied a "bend or break" strategy towards several of these supporters, using bribery, extortion, or violence. Nevertheless, when police efforts began to cause major losses, some of the major drug lords themselves were temporarily pushed out of Colombia, forcing them into hiding from which they ordered cartel members to take out key supporters of the extradition treaty. The cartel issued death threats to
22672-411: The cartel conducted thousands of assassinations throughout the country. Escobar and his associates made it clear that whoever stood against them would risk being killed along with their families. Some estimates put the total around 3,500 killed during the height of the cartel's activities, including over 500 police officers in Medellín, but the entire list is impossible to assemble, due to the limitation of
22880-410: The cartel, the Rodriguez brothers were involved in all aspects from production to transportation to wholesale distribution to money laundering. One of the more violent of the kingpins, Jose "Chepe" Santacruz-Londono had his talent in international cocaine transportation, creating a vast network for the cocaine to get from Colombia to its final destination, most often the United States. Specifically, he had
23088-591: The chief Colombian export (see: Coffee production in Colombia ). Around this time in the early 1980s, kidnappings made by guerrilla groups led the State to collaborate with criminal groups like those formed by Escobar and the Ochoas. The abduction of Carlos Lehder as well as the 1981 kidnapping of the sister of the Ochoas; Martha Ochoa which led to the creation of cartel-funded private armies that were created to fight off guerrillas who were trying to either redistribute their lands to local peasants, kidnap them, or extort
23296-536: The city's popular 15th Avenue neighborhood. In the 1960s, Colombia was not yet viewed or stereotyped as being a conventional geophysical , narcotrafficking corridor for the world's cocaine trade like it seems to have been for marijuana trafficking at this time . By the late 1960s, Colombia's marijuana trade resulted from booming production in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta and the Urabá peninsula where it
23504-684: The classic hispanus or hispanicus took the suffix -one from Vulgar Latin , as happened with other words such as bretón (Breton) or sajón (Saxon). Like the other Romance languages , the Spanish language evolved from Vulgar Latin , which was brought to the Iberian Peninsula by the Romans during the Second Punic War , beginning in 210 BC. Several pre-Roman languages (also called Paleohispanic languages )—some distantly related to Latin as Indo-European languages , and some that are not related at all—were previously spoken in
23712-460: The cocaine trade in Los Angeles, Cali controlling New York City, while both of them agreed to share Miami and Houston. Eventually however, a personal dispute between Escobar and one of the Cali Cartel leaders named Pacho Herrera surfaced over a disagreement on territory in one or more of these distribution hubs. Although the two organizations had skirmishes beforehand; by 1988 (supposedly after
23920-603: The cocaine trafficking routes and international smuggling networks, which were supplying at least 80% of the world's cocaine during its peak. Gustavo, also known as León seems to have also had a strong hand in the cartel's unprecedented acts of narcoterrorism , right alongside his cousin Pablo and was considered to be second in command of the cartel and therefore one of Colombia's most wanted men, with both him and Escobar having arrest warrants pending from other nations where their criminal activity had spread to, such as in Spain and
24128-443: The communist guerrillas struck at the drug cartels. In 1981, the guerrilla group, Movimiento 19 de Abril (M-19; "19th of April Movement"), kidnapped Marta Nieves Ochoa, the sister of the Medellín Cartel's Ochoa brothers, Jorge , Fabio and Juan David. M-19 demanded a ransom of $ 15 million for Marta's safe release, but were rejected. In response to the kidnapping, the Medellín and Cali cartels, as well as associated traffickers, formed
24336-500: The consonant written b (a bilabial with plosive and fricative allophones). In modern Spanish, there is no difference between the pronunciation of orthographic b and v . Typical of Spanish (as also of neighboring Gascon extending as far north as the Gironde estuary , and found in a small area of Calabria ), attributed by some scholars to a Basque substratum was the mutation of Latin initial f into h- whenever it
24544-508: The cooperation forged by the formation of MAS no longer existed. Contributing to the demise was the Medellín Cartel's Rodríguez Gacha , who attempted to move in on the New York City market, previously ceded to the Cali Cartel, and the 1986 arrest of Jorge Ochoa at a police roadblock, which the Medellín Cartel deemed suspicious and attributed partly to the Cali Cartel. In later years, as Pablo Escobar's narco-terror war escalated against
24752-404: The country's constitution. In recent years changing attitudes among non-Spanish speaking Filipinos have helped spur a revival of the language, and starting in 2009 Spanish was reintroduced as part of the basic education curriculum in a number of public high schools, becoming the largest foreign language program offered by the public school system, with over 7,000 students studying the language in
24960-449: The criminal occupation known as contraband smuggling which characterized a large swath and subcultural domain of Colombia's criminal underworld at this time. This is presumably around when his gang -like organizational abilities and his criminal racketeering predilections seems to have come together in what was now the early 1970s in Medellín, Colombia. Escobar took advantage of Colombia's fertile and expanding marijuana trade as well as
25168-501: The deaths or executions of over 60 associates or members of the Medellín Cartel. The death of Pablo Escobar led to the dismantling of the Medellín Cartel and the rise of the Cali Cartel. While the Cali Cartel operated with a degree of immunity early on, owing to its ties to the government and the Medellín Cartel's narco-terrorism war on the Colombian government, they were still subjected to drug seizures. In 1991 alone, law enforcement agencies seized 67 tons of cocaine, 75% originating from
25376-514: The decrease and later end of Soviet Union subsidies almost wiped out the Cuban economy. During Manuel Noriega judgement, Carlos Lehder, the cartel member responsible for ensuring that the cocaine would reach Florida, testified that, as the drug smuggling to the USA was doing billions of dollars, Cuban intelligence helped manage Nicaraguan operations and the island's government agreed to using Cuba as one of
25584-409: The double agent was there (along with other law enforcement including two DEA agents) trying to find the secret compartment in which Miguel was hiding. Law enforcement failed to find him on time and were forced to leave the apartment. They maintained a perimeter around the building to prevent his escape. The double agent was crucial in helping Miguel escape, as he hid Miguel in his car and drove away from
25792-791: The drug traffic. Hence, Central America was the path chosen by the Cartel to reach the US. In 1985, the DEA, knowing about Barry Seal ties with both the Medellin Cartel, made the pilot take pictures of the cartel's landing strips in Nicaragua. The DEA prior investigation appointed that the cartel had the protection from the FSLN , the Sandinist party, to use Nicaragua as a "warehouse" for Matta-Ballesteros' logistic operation for either Medellin and Guadalajara cartels. Knowing Seal's activity as
26000-427: The early 1970s, the true beginnings of what would eventually become the mafia -like organization itself officially turned to trafficking cocaine as their main contraband product by 1976, (largely through the assistance of Carlos Lehder and George Jung ) which greatly influenced the infamous sociocultural cocaine boom phenomenon of late 70s and early 80s in the United States. This boom was noticeably demonstrated by
26208-565: The early 1980s, the Medellín Cartel was recognized as being the largest drug-trafficking syndicate in the world, estimated to have been smuggling three times as much cocaine as their main competitor, the Cali Cartel , an international drug-trafficking organization based in the Valle del Cauca department of Colombia; however, some experts and U.S. government officials have claimed the opposite, or said that most data compiled during this period
26416-526: The early morning. They painted the helicopters to look like police helicopters to further confuse them. They took off and headed towards the compound but one of the helicopters ended up crashing onto a mountainside, minutes away from the compound. The pilot was killed during the crash. The plan was aborted and they had to conduct a rescue mission up the dense mountainside. Finally, Escobar went to prison, where he continued to run his Medellin Cartel and menace rivals from his cell. The second plot to kill Escobar
26624-517: The ever-growing demand for their product in the North American market started to be recognized, the term cartel came into play, even if they did not originally refer to themselves as such. The term cartel, in reference to the mercantile nature of this now ever-expanding Colombian drug trafficking oligopoly, seems to have been first coined by the US State Department in order to distinguish these higher-level criminal organizations from
26832-683: The following table: Spanish is marked by palatalization of the Latin double consonants ( geminates ) nn and ll (thus Latin annum > Spanish año , and Latin anellum > Spanish anillo ). The consonant written u or v in Latin and pronounced [w] in Classical Latin had probably " fortified " to a bilabial fricative /β/ in Vulgar Latin. In early Spanish (but not in Catalan or Portuguese) it merged with
27040-411: The form of cash . During the cartel's peak, Escobar oversaw the import of large shipments of coca paste from Andean nations such as Peru and Bolivia into Colombia, where it was then processed into powdered cocaine in jungle labs such as in the case of Tranquilandia , before being flown into the United States in amounts of up to 15 tons per day at some points. By 1982, cocaine surpassed coffee as
27248-466: The former British colony of Belize (known until 1973 as British Honduras ) where English is the sole official language, according to the 2022 census, 54% of the total population are able to speak the language. Due to its proximity to Spanish-speaking countries and small existing native Spanish speaking minority, Trinidad and Tobago has implemented Spanish language teaching into its education system. The Trinidadian and Tobagonian government launched
27456-423: The fourth bomb and went back to his hotel. The morning after, the activities of the night before were all over the news. Salcedo barely escaped El Salvador and arrest before the botched pickup was exposed. Law enforcement had discovered the bomb and some of the people involved in the operation were arrested, and they told authorities about the plot to kill Escobar with the bombs. The Cali Cartel then decided to abort
27664-468: The future, when later he and Lehder had a falling out and were no longer in business together. Around 1976, both men were out of prison (Jung being released slightly after Lehder). Lehder's behavior became increasingly erratic, supposedly "crazed" and " megalomaniacal " in the last two or three years of the 1970s, spiraling even further during the early 1980s. By decade's end (around 1978), Lehder had betrayed Jung. Lehder did this by trying to push Jung out of
27872-604: The grammar, dated 18 August 1492, Nebrija wrote that "... language was always the companion of empire." From the 16th century onwards, the language was taken to the Spanish-discovered America and the Spanish East Indies via Spanish colonization of America . Miguel de Cervantes , author of Don Quixote , is such a well-known reference in the world that Spanish is often called la lengua de Cervantes ("the language of Cervantes"). In
28080-473: The group Muerte a Secuestradores (MAS; "Death to Kidnappers"). Traffickers contributed funds, rewards, equipment and manpower for MAS operations. Leaflets soon after were dropped in a football pitch in Cali announcing the formation of the group. MAS began to capture and torture M-19 members in retaliation. Within three days, Marta Nieves was released. The group MAS, however, would continue to operate, with hundreds of killings attributed to them. In 1992,
28288-487: The guerrilla faction Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC; "Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia") kidnapped Christina Santa Cruz, the daughter of Cali Cartel leader José Santacruz Londoño. FARC demanded in exchange for the safe return of Christina a ransom of $ 10 million. In response, the Cali Cartel kidnapped 20 or more members of the Colombian Communist Party , Patriotic Union ,
28496-474: 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
28704-417: The height of the Cali Cartel's reign, they were cited as having control over 80% of the world's cocaine market and for being directly responsible for the growth of the cocaine market in Europe. By the mid-1990s, the trafficking empire of the Cali Cartel was a multibillion-dollar enterprise. After Gilberto took a trip to Spain in the mid-1980s, the cartel began to expand its activities in Europe and developed
28912-462: The heinous nature of his crimes and terrorism, he was still seen as a " Robin Hood -like" figure for many in Colombia, as he provided many amenities such as the funding of infrastructure and residencies for the poor, especially in barrios throughout the areas surrounding Medellín. His death was mourned and his funeral attended by over 25,000 people. Additionally, his private estate, Hacienda Nápoles
29120-476: The impact of the violent street crimes which characterized the Miami drug war due to the cartel's trafficking operations significantly increasing the drug's overall availability and access through these newly enhanced markets as well as the further complexified and proliferated distribution networks. At the height of its operations, the Medellín Cartel smuggled multiple tons of cocaine each week into countries around
29328-517: The initial days of their mutual alliance however, before these intense conflicts; the Cali and Medellín groups each showcased differing philosophies over how to "ameliorate" their situations with the authorities. While the more 'businesslike' Orejuela brothers of Cali wanted to solve such legal issues through corruption , Escobar instead sought to do so mostly through violence and intimidation. Particularly when his (often minimal) attempts to bribe officials were not immediately accepted. Notably, Escobar and
29536-506: The internet by number of users after English and Chinese and the second most used language by number of websites after English. Spanish is used as an official language by many international organizations , including the United Nations , European Union , Organization of American States , Union of South American Nations , Community of Latin American and Caribbean States , African Union , among others. In Spain and some other parts of
29744-404: The jet landed at the airfield they found that it was a small executive jet. They attempted to load the four bombs, and what was planned to be a few minutes, it took them over 20 minutes. By this time there was a crowd of civilians that had gathered at the airfield curious about what was happening. Only three bombs fit, stacked in the small passenger cabin. The jet took off and Salcedo abandoned
29952-523: The judiciary power in Colombia. The following is a brief list of the most notorious assassinations conducted by the cartel: Miguel Maza Márquez was targeted in the DAS Building Bombing , resulting in the death of 52 civilians caught in the blast. Miguel escaped unharmed. In 1993, shortly before Escobar's death, the cartel lieutenants were also targeted by the vigilante group Los Pepes (or PEPES, People Persecuted by Pablo Escobar). With
30160-478: The kidnappings by M-19 of drug lord Carlos Lehder and of Marta Nieves Ochoa, the sister of Juan David Ochoa . These kidnappings led to the creation of the MAS/ Muerte a Secuestradores ("Death to Kidnappers") paramilitary group by Pablo Escobar . Former guerrilla members have also denied that the cartel had any part in this event. The issue continues to be debated inside Colombia. As a means of intimidation,
30368-549: The language's hegemony in an intensely centralising Spanish state were established from the 18th century onward. Other European territories in which it is also widely spoken include Gibraltar and Andorra . Spanish is also spoken by immigrant communities in other European countries, such as the United Kingdom , France , Italy , and Germany . Spanish is an official language of the European Union . Today,
30576-439: The legality and requesting the warrant if one was produced. Included in the list of government officials and officers on the Cali Cartel payroll were a reported 5,000 taxi drivers. The taxi drivers would allow the cartel to know who was arriving in the city and when, as well as where they were staying. By having numerous taxi drivers on the payroll, the cartel was able to monitor the movements of officials and dignitaries. It
30784-694: The majority of the Spanish speakers live in Hispanic America . Nationally, Spanish is the official language—either de facto or de jure —of Argentina , Bolivia (co-official with 36 indigenous languages), Chile , Colombia , Costa Rica , Cuba , Dominican Republic , Ecuador , El Salvador , Guatemala , Honduras , Mexico (co-official with 63 indigenous languages), Nicaragua , Panama , Paraguay (co-official with Guaraní ), Peru (co-official with Quechua , Aymara , and "the other indigenous languages"), Puerto Rico (co-official with English), Uruguay , and Venezuela . Spanish language has
30992-515: The mid-1980s, ACDEGAM and MAS had undergone significant growth. In 1985, Pablo Escobar began funneling large amounts of cash into the organization to pay for equipment, training, and weaponry. Money for social projects was cut off and redirected towards strengthening the MAS. Modern battle rifles, such as the AKM , FN FAL , IMI Galil , and HK G3 , were purchased from the military, INDUMIL, and drug-funded private sales. The organization had computers and ran
31200-475: The money. In 1994, it was believed the Cartel was grossing $ 5 billion in annual revenue from the US alone. With the influx of cash comes the need to launder the funds. One of the first instances of the Cali Cartel's laundering operations came when Gilberto Rodriguez Orejuela was able to secure the position of Chairman of the Board of Banco de Trabajadores. The bank was believed to have been used to launder funds for
31408-475: The most powerful criminal organization in the world. The Cali Cartel was formed by the Rodriguez Orejuela brothers and Santacruz, all coming from what is described as a higher social background than most other traffickers of the time. The recognition of this social background was displayed in the group's nickname as "Los Caballeros de Cali" ("Gentlemen of Cali"). The group originally assembled as
31616-404: The most successful and powerful of the cartel's members. As such, they were also in charge of the Cali Cartel operations on a grand scale. Gilberto, known as the "Chess Player" for his ability to think strategically, oversaw the cartel's long-term plans while his younger brother handled the day-to-day operations; micromanaging every detail. While certain groups were only handling certain aspects for
31824-432: The name of the Cali Cartel. The Cali Cartel would become known for its innovations in trafficking and production, by moving its refining operations out of Colombia to Peru and Bolivia , as well as for pioneering new trafficking routes through Panama . The Cartel also diversified into opium and was reported to have brought in a Japanese chemist to help its refining operation. Venezuelan General Ramon Guillen Davila ran
32032-421: The nation. When this failed however due to scandals over his criminal reputation, Escobar thereafter began a brutal; nearly decade-long terroristic campaign against the government from April of 1984 starting with the assassination of Rodrigo Lara Bonilla (Colombia's Minister of Justice who favored extradition), to April of 1993 with the massive 440 pound bomb detonation in Bogotá's busy Center 93 shopping mall on
32240-438: The next day. Police tried to arrest Escobar upon arrival, but the situation quickly escalated to an exchange of gunfire. By the time Pablo and Limón escaped the inside of the building and tried to outrun the authorities on a tiled terracotta rooftop , Limón was soon shot and killed. Moments later Escobar himself was then shot and killed as he continued to try and make his way from the pursuing officers whilst still running across
32448-734: The northwest of the African mainland. The Spanish spoken in the Canary Islands traces its origins back to the Castilian conquest in the 15th century , and, in addition to a resemblance to Western Andalusian speech patterns, it also features strong influence from the Spanish varieties spoken in the Americas, which in turn have also been influenced historically by Canarian Spanish. The Spanish spoken in North Africa by native bilingual speakers of Arabic or Berber who also speak Spanish as
32656-510: The operation to kill Pablo Escobar. The group of British ex-soldiers accepted the offer. The cartel provided food, housing, and weapons to the mercenaries. The plan was to attack Escobar at his Hacienda Nápoles compound. They trained for a few months until they heard Escobar was going to be staying at the compound, celebrating the fact that his football team had won a tournament. They were going to be inserted by use of two heavily armed Hughes 500 helicopters and surprise-attack Escobar during
32864-654: The other hand, currently uses the term español in its publications. However, from 1713 to 1923, it called the language castellano . The Diccionario panhispánico de dudas (a language guide published by the Royal Spanish Academy) states that, although the Royal Spanish Academy prefers to use the term español in its publications when referring to the Spanish language, both terms— español and castellano —are regarded as synonymous and equally valid. The term castellano
33072-480: The past, befriended and hired a group of mercenaries to wage war against the left-wing guerrilla forces in an operation sanctioned by Colombia's military. The mercenary group was made up of 12 former special operations soldiers, including the British Special Air Service . Salcedo felt it was his patriotic duty and accepted the deal to bring the mercenaries back to Colombia and help plan
33280-533: The population. Many northern Moroccans have rudimentary knowledge of Spanish, with Spanish being particularly significant in areas adjacent to Ceuta and Melilla. Spanish also has a presence in the education system of the country (through either selected education centers implementing Spain's education system, primarily located in the North, or the availability of Spanish as foreign language subject in secondary education). In Western Sahara , formerly Spanish Sahara ,
33488-479: The price of cocaine dropping by 1980 and becoming yet even more popular and now among a much wider demographic instead of mostly just the affluent as it was in the late 70s. This would inevitably result in the manifestation of widespread cocaine use and cultural normalization, simultaneous crime waves in almost all major US cities, as well as small "drug wars" within the evermore relevant transshipment point areas or cities like Miami (see: Miami drug war ) as well as in
33696-414: The prior success of MAS, the cartels and independent traffickers would meet again. The second meeting is believed to have been the start of an organization trafficking between the primary participants, the Medellín Cartel and Cali Cartel. The two cartels divided up the major United States distribution points: the Cali Cartel took New York City and the Medellín Cartel took South Florida and Miami; Los Angeles
33904-531: The process. Jung described the Danbury prison facility located in Connecticut as a "medium-low security prison" that was "full of mob guys". He goes on to point out the "irony" (likely due to his marijuana charges) of him being assigned Colombian Carlos Lehder as a bunkmate who was serving a sentence for stealing cars and shipping them to South America. They casually discussed their charges, Jung mentioning he
34112-814: The product's low profit rate and large amounts required to traffic to cover resources, the fledgling group decided to shift their focus to a more lucrative drug, cocaine. In the early 1980s, the cartel sent Hélmer Herrera to New York City to establish a distribution center, during a time when the United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) viewed cocaine as less important than heroin . The Cali Cartel leadership comprised members Gilberto Rodríguez Orejuela , Miguel Rodríguez Orejuela , José Santacruz Londoño and Hélmer Herrera. Some top associates were Victor Patiño Fomeque , Henry Loaiza Ceballos , ex-guerrilla member José Fedor Rey , and Phanor Arizabaleta-Arzayus . In
34320-488: The right-wing paramilitaries groups and dictatorships, mostly backed by CIA, made the Cartel search for new allies while it was forced to be involved in corruption outside Colombia for political protection. Once U.S. authorities were made aware of "questionable activities", the group was put under Federal Drug Task Force surveillance. Evidence was gathered, compiled, and presented to a grand jury , resulting in indictments , arrests, and prison sentences for those convicted in
34528-452: The sale of their product in the now major emerging markets was about to undergo another type of expansion. After carrying out their new cocaine operations with this augmented distribution system, this soon led the two cousins (Pablo and Gustavo) to amass a staggering amount of wealth in such a short timeframe (primarily due to Jung and Lehder), that their other fellow Colombian criminal acquaintances who were already noteworthy regional figures in
34736-423: The same time, the prevalence and social acceptance of contraband in Colombia was at an all-time high. In the mid to late 1970s, specifically around 1975 and 1976, the illegal cocaine trade started to become a growing and significant problem for American law enforcement as the drug's prevalence began to quickly takeoff in unanticipated ways. Initially, its first phase of substantial growth in popularity started out in
34944-530: The scene untroubled. Jorge Ochoa, a high ranking Medellín financier had been childhood friends and years later co-owned the Panamanian First InterAmericas Bank. The institution was later cited by United States officials as a money laundering operation, which allowed both the Cali Cartel and the Medellín Cartel to move and launder large amounts of funds. Only through diplomatic pressure on Panamanian Dictator Manuel Noriega could
35152-1036: The smuggling logistics. This ranged from cocaine-stuffed hollow pellets , multilayered condoms, or balloons which are then swallowed by mules to make it through customs or international borders (especially in commercial flight transportation) without detection, to hefty amounts loaded onto Cessnas ; these now being recognized as a favorite method for smugglers throughout the years because of their ability to fly slowly which permit more accurate deliveries to drop zones. Some smuggling strategies also purportedly included diverting law-enforcement's attention away from one smuggled load of cocaine in order to smuggle in an even larger amount when authorities' attention and related interdiction resources were distracted or compromised. These rapid and clever innovations in illegal drug trafficking techniques by increasingly and well-funded organized criminal groups; such as Escobar and his Medellín associates proved to be too much for American law enforcement to effectively catch up with or curtail, especially with
35360-457: The smuggling world, such as José Rodriguez Gacha and the Ochoas who were not yet part of the organization but began to more seriously consider getting involved with the two cousins and the cocaine business eventually came into the fold. At this point, Pablo and Gustavo converged the increasing power and wealth of their single "independent" smuggling-ring towards a conglomerate made up of the multiple aforementioned smuggling rings coupled together in
35568-497: The soon-to-be-massively-wealthy drug lord Pablo Escobar stood out from the rest. Escobar became characterized by his strategy of providing protection to other smugglers who partnered with him and helped further distribute the organization's cocaine into markets of high demand such as New York City and eventually Miami . Thus after forming a larger and more formidable web of suppliers and combined trade networks that continually empowered Escobar and his cousin's operations, enabled by
35776-496: The stopovers for the cartel. This was made with knowledge of the Castro brothers, having the younger, Raúl Castro , met with Lehder. Perhaps the greatest threat posed to the Medellín Cartel and the other traffickers was the implementation of an extradition treaty between the United States and Colombia. It allowed Colombia to extradite to the US any Colombian suspected of drug trafficking and to be tried there for their crimes. This
35984-537: The term español (Spanish). According to the Royal Spanish Academy, español derives from the Occitan word espaignol and that, in turn, derives from the Vulgar Latin * hispaniolus ('of Hispania'). Hispania was the Roman name for the entire Iberian Peninsula . There are other hypotheses apart from the one suggested by the Royal Spanish Academy. Spanish philologist Ramón Menéndez Pidal suggested that
36192-444: The theories of Ramón Menéndez Pidal , local sociolects of Vulgar Latin evolved into Spanish, in the north of Iberia, in an area centered in the city of Burgos , and this dialect was later brought to the city of Toledo , where the written standard of Spanish was first developed, in the 13th century. In this formative stage, Spanish developed a strongly differing variant from its close cousin, Leonese , and, according to some authors,
36400-640: The third most used language on the Internet , after English and Chinese. Spanish is the official language of Spain . Upon the emergence of the Castilian Crown as the dominant power in the Iberian Peninsula by the end of the Middle Ages, the Romance vernacular associated with this polity became increasingly used in instances of prestige and influence, and the distinction between "Castilian" and "Spanish" started to become blurred. Hard policies imposing
36608-410: The top of the roof to escape. He was hit by bullets in the torso and feet, and a bullet which struck him in the ear, killing him. This has sparked debate however about whether he killed himself or whether he was actually shot dead by the Colombian authorities, with his son Sebastián Marroquín (formerly named; Juan Pablo Escobar) still believing to this day that he shot himself due to the positioning of
36816-419: The traceable data from the hotel which received Escobar's call began to utilize an electronic tracking system in order to pinpoint the geographical positioning that the call had originated from. At this time, Escobar who now had a long beard according to witnesses had apparently been hiding out there for almost six weeks. First after some initial troubleshooting, both the drug lord and Limón were eventually located
37024-509: The traditional, mid-sized gangs commonly associated with the drug trade. Eventually, with the cartel label becoming a household name, it was later embraced by the organization during its later years. This economic control, resulting from the unification of power structures of once separate groups, gave way to a sort of financial positive feedback loop , where further profits after the Medellín Cartel's initial expansion led to an even greater level of power and growth, leading to even more profits in
37232-420: The use of the laptop, it is reported they were unable to decrypt many of the files due to sophisticated encryption techniques . Londoño was also believed to have a person within the phone company itself, which the officials realized when he was able to recognize a phone tap, one that had been placed directly at the phone company, instead of at his residence. Londoño's lawyer soon sent an official notice requesting
37440-533: The whole of Spain, in contrast to las demás lenguas españolas (lit. "the other Spanish languages "). Article III reads as follows: El castellano es la lengua española oficial del Estado. ... Las demás lenguas españolas serán también oficiales en las respectivas Comunidades Autónomas... Castilian is the official Spanish language of the State. ... The other Spanish languages shall also be official in their respective Autonomous Communities... The Royal Spanish Academy ( Real Academia Española ), on
37648-436: The world and brought in an upwards of US$ 200 million daily in drug profits, and thus billions per year. Additionally, despite being well-known for once dominating the international illicit cocaine trade (along with expanding it) throughout the late 1970s and early 1980s, the organization, particularly in its later years, was also noted for its use of violence for political aims (mainly in protest of judicial extradition to
37856-506: The world's fourth-most spoken language overall after English , Mandarin Chinese, and Hindustani ( Hindi - Urdu ); and the world's most widely spoken Romance language. The country with the largest population of native speakers is Mexico . Spanish is part of the Ibero-Romance language group , in which the language is also known as Castilian ( castellano ). The group evolved from several dialects of Vulgar Latin in Iberia after
38064-919: Was Deputy Mayor for Economic Affairs of St Petersburg in the early 1990s, organized an Afghanistan originated heroin supply ring using ethnic Uzbek criminals and corrupt KGB and later FSB officers including the Moscow-based KGB Colonel Evgeny G. Khokholkov, the Oleg Ivanov created Izmaylovskaya Russian mafia and led by Anton Malevsky including mafia leaders Gafur Rakhimov , Vyacheslav Ivanov ("Yaponchik" (Япончик) or Little Japonese), who governed Uzbek networks in America, and Alimzhan Tokhtakhunov ( Russian : Алик Тахтахунов ) ("Taiwanchik" (Тайванчик) or Little Taiwan), who governed Uzbek networks in Europe, and Salim Abdulaev . These networks also supplied Europe and America with cocaine from
38272-399: Was a drug cartel based in southern Colombia , around the city of Cali and the Valle del Cauca . 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 "Pacho" Herrera joined what became a four-man executive board that ran the cartel. At
38480-436: Was a major problem for the cartel, since the drug traffickers had little access to their local power and influence in the US, and a trial there would most likely lead to imprisonment. Among the staunch supporters of the extradition treaty were Colombian Justice Minister Rodrigo Lara (who was pushing for more action against the drug cartels), Police Officer Jaime Ramírez , and numerous Colombian Supreme Court judges. However,
38688-414: Was able to found the First InterAmericas Bank operating out of Panama. In an interview with Time , Gilberto admitted to money being laundered through the bank; however, he attributed the process to only legal actions. The laundering, which Gilberto states was "in accordance with Panamanian law", is what led to the US authorities' pursuing him. Gilberto later started, in 1979, the Grupo Radial Colombiano ,
38896-555: Was attending a sports event. The gunman opened fire using a machine gun on the crowd where Herrera was sitting, killing 19. However, he did not hit Herrera. Herrera is believed to have been a founding member of Los Pepes , a group which operated alongside authorities with the intention of killing or capturing Pablo Escobar. The Cali cartel then hired a member of Colombia's military, a civil engineer named Jorge Salcedo . They wanted him to help them plot an assassination of Pablo Escobar. They hired him because they heard that Salcedo had in
39104-527: Was caught flying marijuana out of Mexico; Lehder responded by asking him if he "knew anything about cocaine". He did not at the time, but became immediately entranced when Lehder went on to say; "you know it costs $ 60,000 a kilo". A proclamation that functioned as a compelling sales pitch for Jung; they both waited until getting out before attempting to get involved in the cocaine business. While incarcerated together, Jung benefited Lehder by giving him valuable input and tips on how to smuggle drugs effectively. Jung
39312-415: Was commonly used as an intermediary transshipment point north. Then it would go to locations like Panama City in Florida or Barcelona in Spain which both regularly functioned as final points of destination for the international transporting of cocaine or other related contraband from South America. Cartagena , in Colombia and Miami , Florida still seemed to play a modest role however. However, marijuana
39520-433: Was considered to be at an all-time low and was essentially considered by many to mostly be "a problem of the past". In contrast to his law-abiding parents, Escobar began a life of crime early on; stealing tombstones from cemeteries , sanding down the headstones to make them appear unused, reselling them, stealing cars, kidnapping people for ransom ; including a wealthy businessman at one point before eventually settling into
39728-581: Was developed in the cities of Toledo , in the 13th to 16th centuries, and Madrid , from the 1570s. The development of the Spanish sound system from that of Vulgar Latin exhibits most of the changes that are typical of Western Romance languages , including lenition of intervocalic consonants (thus Latin vīta > Spanish vida ). The diphthongization of Latin stressed short e and o —which occurred in open syllables in French and Italian, but not at all in Catalan or Portuguese—is found in both open and closed syllables in Spanish, as shown in
39936-446: Was distinguished by a heavy Basque influence (see Iberian Romance languages ). This distinctive dialect spread to southern Spain with the advance of the Reconquista , and meanwhile gathered a sizable lexical influence from the Arabic of Al-Andalus , much of it indirectly, through the Romance Mozarabic dialects (some 4,000 Arabic -derived words, make up around 8% of the language today). The written standard for this new language
40144-713: Was followed by a vowel that did not diphthongize. The h- , still preserved in spelling, is now silent in most varieties of the language, although in some Andalusian and Caribbean dialects, it is still aspirated in some words. Because of borrowings from Latin and neighboring Romance languages, there are many f -/ h - doublets in modern Spanish: Fernando and Hernando (both Spanish for "Ferdinand"), ferrero and herrero (both Spanish for "smith"), fierro and hierro (both Spanish for "iron"), and fondo and hondo (both words pertaining to depth in Spanish, though fondo means "bottom", while hondo means "deep"); additionally, hacer ("to make")
40352-471: Was further accentuated by Pablo's accumulation of enemies within his own organization (helping to characterize the formation of Los Pepes), as well as Pablo's ongoing and relentless war against the Colombian government and American law-enforcement agencies; a combination of factors which cornered Escobar during the last year of his life, along with his quickly diminishing sphere of power as the now final and last-standing leader of his once dominant cartel. During
40560-399: Was knowledgeable in this area due to his past experience flying shipments of marijuana across international borders—from Mexico into the US, and within the US, from California to New England . Lehder, however, would also be of benefit to Jung, once they were both released from prison, by introducing him to Colombia's most powerful drug smuggler: Pablo Escobar. This would prove useful to Jung in
40768-508: Was known to flaunt his wealth and went on to make Forbes ' Billionaires list for seven years straight, between 1987 and 1993. His luxurious multimillion-dollar " Hacienda Nápoles " estate had its own zoo, and he reportedly ate from solid gold dinner sets. Escobar was known for investing profits from the drug trade in luxury goods, property, and works of art. He is also reported to have stashed his cash in "hidden coves", allegedly burying it on his farms and under floors in many of his houses. After
40976-402: Was largely financed by the Cali Cartel and led by brothers Carlos and Fidel Castaño whom were right-wing paramilitary leading commanders that were actually once part of the Medellín Cartel. Los Pepe's tactics, which were stylized to reflect Escobar's own violent methods now turned against him, and which proved ultimately instrumental to the progressive defeat of the Medellín Cartel reign,
41184-535: Was left up for grabs. Through their affiliation in MAS, it is also believed the cartels decided to work together to stabilize prices, production, and shipments of the cocaine market. However, the strategic alliance formed with the foundation of MAS in 1981 began to crumble by 1983–1984, due to the ease of competition. As the cartels set up infrastructure, routes, transport methods, and bribes, it became easier for competitors to either establish similar deals or make use of those already put in place by other cartels. By 1987,
41392-418: Was passed to Panamanian authorities and led to the seizure of 5,100 kilograms (11,244 lb). In 1993, the US Customs Service struck again at the Cali cartel, this time seizing 5,600 kilograms (12,346 lb) while pursuing Raul Marti, the only remaining member of the defunct Miami cell. It is believed these successive raids forced the cartel to funnel its shipments through Mexico; however, that did not stop
41600-477: Was potentially skewed since most of the national security-based focus was mostly centered on the Medellín organization specifically due to its more ostentatious acts of violence and vindictive nature. Traditionally, Pablo and the Medellín Cartel originally had a strategic alliance and specific smuggling arrangement with the Cali Cartel "godfathers" Gilberto Rodríguez Orejuela and Miguel Rodríguez Orejuela early on. This arrangement resulted in Medellín controlling
41808-521: Was released in 1997, Russia's Ministry of Internal Affairs (MVD) raided Alfa-Eco 's buildings and found many compromising documents. Using Israel as its base, Russian mafia moved heroin and Colombian cocaine, sometimes through Venezuela , through Israel, where money laundering would occur of the narcotics profits, to Saint Petersburg while the Russian Kurgan mafia ( Russian : Курганская организованная преступная группировка ) provided security. According to Alexander Litvinenko, Putin, while he
42016-502: Was reportedly explained directly to American smuggler George Jung when he first met Pablo in 1978 moments after witnessing a man get shot in the chest after he "voluntarily" gave himself up to Escobar upon the knowledge that the man's entire family would be killed if he did not. While Pablo Escobar seemingly viewed fear through violence and extortion (threats) as an effective motivator and more straightforward measure, Cali leader Gilberto in particular thought violence should only be used as
42224-462: Was revoked by Michel Temer after the impeachment of Dilma Rousseff . In many border towns and villages along Paraguay and Uruguay, a mixed language known as Portuñol is spoken. Equatorial Guinea is the only Spanish-speaking country located entirely in Africa, with the language introduced during the Spanish colonial period . Enshrined in the constitution as an official language (alongside French and Portuguese), Spanish features prominently in
42432-413: Was still said to dominate the loads of shipments which traveled through these routes at the time. Therefore, cocaine's prevalence by then still went largely under the radar due to how in the United States, even though cocaine use was steadily rising by the 1960s , it was still only marginally - moderately more popular when compared to its relative scope of prevalence during the 1950s when the use of cocaine
42640-502: Was the financial manager for both SPAG and the Ismailovskaya mafia. Alexander Afanasyev ("Afonya") was connected to both SPAG and the Ismailovskaya mafia through his Panama registered Earl Holding AG which Ritter had also a signature as well as Berger International Holding, Repas Trading SA and Fox Consulting. Juan Carlos Saavedra represented the Cali Cartel in Spain. In October 2015, Spanish Prosecutor Jose Grinda stated that any part of "the case could be recalled back to Spain." During
42848-452: Was then smuggled within hidden northbound shipments of bananas. Reportedly when it came to the international cocaine trade during the 60s; Argentina , Brazil and Chile were the countries with the biggest hand in the international transferring of cocaine. Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), Buenos Aires (Argentina) and Valparaiso (Chile) acted as some of the most common starting points for the 1960s maritime trafficking routes while Havana, Cuba
43056-476: Was thereafter eventually transformed into a theme park. His life as a major cocaine trafficker and incredibly wealthy criminal ( bandido ) has been dramatized widely in film and has served as inspiration for pop cultural references and the retelling of his gripping story as a prominent drug lord in both television, books and music. During the later years of the Cold War , the number of left-wing guerrillas in Latin America skyrocketed. The conflicts between them and
43264-465: Was to bomb the prison by using an A-37 Dragonfly surplus ground-attack jet bomber in private ownership. The Cali Cartel had a connection in El Salvador , a general of El Salvador's military who illegally sold them four 500-pound bombs for about half a million dollars. Salcedo flew over to El Salvador to oversee the plan to pick up the bombs and take them to an airfield where a civilian jet would land to pick them up and take them to Colombia. But when
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