COLOMBIA'S CALI CARTEL KINGPINS PLEAD GUILTY TO COCAINE SMUGGLING

Wearing business suits and ankle cuffs, the two brothers who once ran
the world's largest drug trafficking organization said the words
Tuesday U.S. prosecutors had waited more than a decade to hear.

The aging drug kingpins pleaded guilty in Miami federal court to
smuggling more than 200 tons of cocaine into the United States. They
agreed to turn over companies, bank accounts and other assets
connected to the drug trade worth more than $2 billion.

Now, Gilberto and Miguel Rodriguez-Orejuela, who turned cocaine
running into a sophisticated, multibillion-dollar business as leaders
of the notorious Cali Cartel, will spend 30 years in prison.

To reach the plea agreement -- which closes the book on the last of
Colombia's mega-cocaine trafficking organizations -- government
lawyers entered an unusual deal to protect 28 family members in
Colombia from being permanently labeled as drug traffickers.

In exchange, Gilberto and Miguel Rodriguez-Orejuela admitted to
smuggling massive amounts of cocaine into U.S. ports throughout the
1990s, including shipments hidden inside concrete posts, frozen
vegetables, coffee, ceramic tiles, chlorine gas tanks and crates of pumpkins.

They also agreed to plead guilty to money laundering charges in a
criminal case pending in New York.

"I have admitted all the charges, and I will submit myself to
American justice," said Gilberto Rodriguez-Orejuela, 67, known as
"the Chess Player".

Miguel Rodriguez-Orejuela, 63 -- known as "El Senor" -- apologized to
his family, the people of the United States and to U.S. law enforcement.

"I'm doing this fully convinced this is to bring something better," he said.

After the proceeding, federal law enforcement officials declared
victory over the Cali organization.

"The brothers' guilty pleas effectively signal the final fatal blow
to the powerful Cali Cartel," said Attorney General Alberto Gonzales
at a news conference in Washington, D.C.

Drug policy experts say any victory for law enforcement is largely symbolic.

The demise of the cartel did little to reduce the flow of cocaine
into the United States, said Adam Isacson, head of the Colombia
project at the Center of International Policy in Washington, D.C.
Instead, it cleared the path for a new generation of mini-cartels,
more fragmented and often more dangerous than their predecessors, he said.

"Instead of Al Capone, you've got a bunch of little guys," Isacson
said. "They stay local. They keep their heads down. It's much harder
to pin down."

The Rodriguez-Orejuela brothers created the Cali Cartel in the 1980s
with a third man named Jose Santacruz Londono. After a bloody war
with the Medellin Cartel run by Pablo Escobar, the group took control
of the cocaine trade in the early 1990s.

The organization ran every step of the drug trafficking business,
including production, transportation, distribution and money laundering.

Unlike the flashy Escobar, who was gunned down in 1993, the Cali
leaders operated their crime syndicate like businessmen. They cloaked
themselves in respectability by funneling millions of dollars in drug
proceeds through a worldwide network of legitimate companies,
including major retail pharmacy and pharmaceutical laboratory chains
in Colombia.

The cartel allegedly bought security with payments to Colombian
politicians, including a donation of nearly $6 million to the
campaign of former President Ernesto Samper.

Samper turned on the cartel under increasing pressure from the U.S.
government. In 1995, Colombian authorities arrested Gilberto and
Miguel Rodriguez-Orejuela in Cali. Both were serving sentences in a
Bogota prison when a 2003 federal grand jury in Miami indicted them.

The U.S. indictment alleged conspiracies to import and distribute
cocaine, launder money and obstruct justice through bribes and
murder. According to prosecutors, Gilberto and Miguel
Rodriguez-Orejuela continued to run the family business from prison,
turning over day-to- day operations to Miguel's eldest son, William
Rodriguez-Abadia.

In March, Rodriguez-Abadia, 40, pleaded guilty and agreed to testify
for the government against his father and uncle.

Miami attorneys Roy Kahn and David O. Markus, who represent the
brothers, argued that under the terms of their extradition they could
not be prosecuted for criminal activity prior to Dec. 17, 1997 -- the
date the Colombian constitution was amended to permit foreign extraditions.

Tuesday's plea deal ended that debate. U.S. District Judge Federico
Moreno made it clear he was imposing 30-year sentences on the men for
their illegal activities after 1997.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew Axelrod said his office would
recommend the men serve their sentences in a Florida medium-security prison.

As part of their contract with the 28 family members, prosecutors
agreed not to charge six of the men's grown children in Colombia with
obstruction of justice and money laundering for past conduct.

The agreement also permits those family members to retain modest
assets. If they refrain from illegal conduct, the U.S. Treasury
Department would remove the 28 relatives from a list of suspected
drug traffickers subject to economic sanctions. Illegal activity
would invalidate the deal.

Marc Seitles, who represented the relatives, praised the deal.

"Their only crime is being sons and daughters of the founders of the
Cali Cartel," he said.

The U.S. investigation into Gilberto and Miguel Rodriguez-Orejuela
began in 1991 with the detection of 12,000 kilograms of cocaine at
the Port of Miami. The discovery spawned a massive investigation
known as Operation Cornerstone that would lead to the convictions of
more than 100 people.

The investigation drove Colombian drug traffickers to change their
operations and find new smuggling routes.

Today, cocaine shipments are generally smaller and come into the
United States across the southwest border with Mexico, instead of
into South Florida ports, said John McKenna, a special agent with the
federal Drug Enforcement Administration.

"When the Cali Cartel was operating you might see shipments of 2,500
kilograms at a time," McKenna said. "You don't see that anymore."