CALI DRUG CHIEFS GIVEN 30-YEAR PRISON TERMS

WASHINGTON -- The surviving leaders of the Cali drug cartel, which
federal law enforcement agencies say once supplied up to 80% of the
cocaine in the USA, pleaded guilty Tuesday to trafficking charges as
the government took steps to seize an estimated $2.1 billion in cartel assets.

As part of the plea agreement, U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales
said, brothers Miguel and Gilberto Rodriguez Orejuela were sentenced
to 30 years in prison, effectively ending a 20-year period in which
they were key players in Colombia's violent drug trade.

While Miguel, 62, and Gilberto, 67, were sentenced in Miami, 28 other
family members reached a separate pact with the government to
surrender their worldwide assets, which court papers say include
luxury homes, boats, investment accounts and businesses obtained with
drug money.

Although the assets represent the largest drug-related forfeiture in
U.S. history, there are no firm estimates of how much the brothers
accumulated during their reign of the cartel. None of the relatives
was named in the criminal charges.

"It doesn't get any bigger than today," said Drug Enforcement
Administrator Karen Tandy. She said the guilty pleas represented the
"last nail in the coffin of the Cali cartel."

Tandy said the brothers "defined the word 'kingpins' " with their
ruthless oversight of a drug empire. Carolina Barco, Colombia's
ambassador to the United States, said the cartel wars claimed
hundreds of lives -- including those of prosecutors, police and
judges -- in the South American nation.

Barco, reading a statement from Colombia's attorney general,
described the cartel's reign as "one of the most painful chapters in
our history."

Since the demise of the Cali group in recent years, there have been
signs that the cocaine supply on U.S. streets has declined, said John
Walters, director of the White House's Office of National Drug
Control Policy. However, he said, smaller groups have taken over many
drug-running operations.

Gonzales said the brothers imported more than 200 tons of cocaine
into the USA over 20 years. He said the family's assets would go to
the countries where they are seized, primarily Colombia.