CLOSING IN ON THE CALI CARTEL

  • Share
  • Read Later
U.S. and Colombian drug enforcement officials said the arrest late Tuesday of a leader ofthe Cali cartel,supplier of 80 percent of the world's cocaine, demonstrated that South American drug lords are no longer invincible. Jose Santacruz Londono, believed to be the No. 3 figure in the cartel, was spotted by a bodyguard for the national police chief, who coincidentally had gone to the same restaurant Tuesday night. "I guess he didn't think he would ever get caught," said a police spokesman. "He was wrong." Just three weeks before, policecaptured one of Cali's two leaders,and two lesser kingpins two weeks before that. 'They're on a roll," says TIME'sLaura Lopez."Londono was one of the architects of the cartel. But no one knows whether others are trained well enough to keep up the business with him gone. More likely, rival gangs will fill the gap."