CALI CARTEL INSIDER HELPED BRING DOWN COCAINE EMPIRE

Behind The Fall Of $7 Billion Cocaine Operation Is Tale Of Daring And Betrayal

MIAMI -- The official end of the Cali cocaine cartel came in 2006
here with little more than the rap of a judge's gavel.

Colombian drug lords Miguel Rodriguez Orejuela, 63, and Gilberto
Rodriguez Orejuela, 67, entered guilty pleas and were ushered to
federal prison for the next 30 years -- no Miami Vice dramatics, no
bodies riddled with gunfire.

But behind the fall of the ruthless Orejuela brothers and collapse of
their $7 billion-a-year empire lies a story of daring and betrayal.

Aiding U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agents unexpectedly and
at great risk was a senior Cali cartel official, the head of security
for the cocaine syndicate.

For years he had protected the bosses, their wives and children.
Then, he double-crossed them.

"It was very risky, but I was trapped in a nightmare, in a totally
corrupt environment. I had to escape," the former cartel official explained.

Federal prosecutor Edward Ryan called the defection "a very personal
betrayal" to the Cali bosses, leaving the man marked for death. He is
still "No. 1 to be killed," Ryan said.

The official has lost his home, his country, his past, even his name.

From deep inside the U.S. witness-protection program, the official
has shared his story in conversations with the Los Angeles Times.

"Obviously, I'm not looking for celebrity -- it would jeopardize our
safety," he said. "But people should know what I know now. My story
should start by saying, if you are invited into such an organization,
stop -- stop and run away."

Mandatory attendanceThe soft-spoken, family man once known as Jorge
Salcedo was an unlikely drug-gang recruit.

He held degrees in mechanical engineering and industrial economics.
He started his career designing forklifts and other machinery.

His father was a retired Colombian army general and diplomatic
figure. The son was an officer in the army reserves, but he regarded
himself more an engineer than a soldier. He became proficient in
electronic surveillance, which drew him counterterrorism assignments.

Salcedo's military service in the late 1980s coincided with one of
Colombia's bloodiest periods. Anti-government guerrilla groups
unleashed waves of kidnappings that terrorized the nation. Some
targeted rich drug lords.

At the same time, rival cocaine cartels were warring, killing police,
judges, politicians and bystanders. Military leaders grew restless
with the impotent and corrupt government and tried to fill the
vacuum, taking military actions without approval from Bogota.

Enter Salcedo.

He was secretly dispatched to Europe by military leaders to assemble
a team of mercenaries. Financed by Medellin cartel bosses, he was to
organize a paramilitary operation for an assault on a guerrilla
mountain fortress called Casa Verde.

It was aborted at the last minute. However, word of Salcedo's role
reached Cali, 185 miles southwest of Bogota.

Word of Salcedo's service reached Cali, 185 miles southwest of
Bogota. The drug bosses, engaged in a feud with drug lord Pablo
Escobar and the Medellin cartel, summoned the 41-year-old engineer.

"Some people in Cali want a word with you," Salcedo was told in 1989.
"I had to go. It was not an invitation I could refuse."

The compound of drug lord Miguel Rodriguez Orejuela filled a city
block and contained a swimming pool, tennis court and half a soccer field.

Salcedo was escorted to Miguel's offices and four cartel dons. They
got right to the point.

Pablo Escobar of Medellin was "a bandit ... a criminal ... a crazy
guy" who was threatening their wives and children.

Miguel, the younger of the two Orejuela brothers, was more direct: He
wanted Escobar dead.

Thus was Salcedo drafted into the Cali cartel.

Police On Payroll

"I did not feel I was a criminal," Salcedo recalled. "I had been
fighting against the guerrillas. Now I was against Pablo Escobar."

Salcedo immediately helped devise a helicopter assault on Escobar's
Medellin compound. But with one chopper crashing, the attack was abandoned.

A second assault was planned from Panama, but was later called off.

Meanwhile, he beefed up security for the Orejuela brothers and their families.

Local police helped. Some were on the cartel payroll. "Miguel and
Gilberto were able to corrupt anyone," he said.

There was no turning back for Salcedo. The Colombian government now
knew he worked for the Cali cartel. The Medellin gangs knew he was
plotting to kill Escobar.

In Cali, Salcedo found personal safety managing security for the
Orejuela family.

"I had nothing to do with drugs," he said. "I told myself I was not
one of them."

The early 1990s were the golden years for the cartel. Escobar had
escaped from prison, only to be tracked down by national police 15
months later and gunned down.

The Orejuela brothers promptly absorbed the Medellin cartel and
ultimately controlled 80 percent of the international cocaine market.

Then came the crackdown.

The Turning Point

In Bogota, the Clinton administration pressed Colombian political
leaders to arrest major traffickers.

"Miguel was getting paranoid," Salcedo said. "He saw traitors everywhere."

Desperate for protection from what they feared most -- extradition to
the U.S. -- the cartel bosses poured millions into the bank accounts
of Colombian politicians. The new constitution included a
no-extradition provision for native Colombians.

Then, said U.S. prosecutor Ryan, "the bodies began to show up."

The global cartel was directed by Cali-based Colombians, but its
operatives included many non-Colombians susceptible to extradition.
The "extraditables" were seen as security risks.

In 1994, Salcedo was dispatched with the cartel's chief enforcer to a
farmhouse outside Cali. The Orejuela brothers wanted four Panamanian
operatives questioned.

The four were held in different rooms, each tied to a chair.

Salcedo realized it was more than interrogation. He made an excuse
and tried to leave. "I had to watch him strangle them," Salcedo said.

That was a turning point.

Treated Like 'Crackpot'

Salcedo waited for the chance to use a public phone at a Cali
telecommunications building. He dialed the CIA in Langley, Va.

"They treated him like a crackpot -- I confirmed that," DEA agent
Edward Kacerosky testified later.

No one took up Salcedo's offer of assistance. Cartel bosses targeted
other extraditables.

Meanwhile, U.S. pressure on the Bogota government was forcing
Colombian authorities to crack down on the cartels.

Threatened with arrest, the billionaire brothers fled their palatial
homes and managed the syndicate while moving from one safe house to another.

One of the few who knew where to find them was Salcedo. He also knew
who was marked for assassination.

In 1995, some hits were Salcedo's responsibility. He grew desperate.
This time he contacted a Miami lawyer.

Within days, Salcedo and Kacerosky were on the phone and the DEA
agent landed one of the most remarkable confidential informants in
international crime.