Colombia's Cali drug cartel was the biggest and richest crime syndicate in the history of crime, generating annual revenues exceeding $7 billion and monopolizing global cocaine markets through much of the 1990s. None of today's warring Mexican cartels match Cali's international domination of the illicit trade.
A CEO collective of four Cali billionaires ran the organization like a multi-national corporation, vertically integrated from jungle coca production to foreign street sales. The bosses practiced an unorthodox mix of remarkably sound business strategies and markedly unsavory specialties like bribery, blackmail and murder.
The trafficking giant's inner-workings were obscured over the years by strict secrecy enforced at gunpoint. But a former high-level Cali figure now under U.S. witness protection has dispelled some of the mysteries. He describes the cartel business model as a unique blend of Big Business and Big Crime.
This list was culled from years of exclusive interviews with the man, a former chief of Cali cartel security. With apologies to Stephen Covey, I call it the seven secrets of a highly efficient criminal organization.
Luis Alberto Moreno: The View Is Different Down Here
How in the world do the Sarbanes Oxley rules NOT apply to government accounting? Worried about what we will find?
How many good men died that this organization is no more will never ever really be known...I salute them all, and their women and children, and other family members, who made sacrifices as these men went off to do their duty.
What about all the good men, women, and children who died because of the activities of the CIA, DEA etc. What about the birth defects that have affected entire communities because of the US backed policy of dropping tons of poison on coca plantations.
Also, there is always going to be organized crime in the world as long as certain goods are deemed illicit.
I ask you, would you rather have these old school gangsters who reinvested in their communities, forbid contract killings within the community, etc. or the new breed who behead, torture, and mass execute and could give a hoot about their own people and communities?
However, I think some of what YOU just said, seeing beyond mere black and white, is necessary when you consider that as far as enforcing the LAW in the United States, many of the men and women who put their lives on the line to end the drug cartels were doing their duty. And for that, they should be commended, and saluted. Now THAT, is seeing beyond, not just black and white--but looking at the WHOLE picture.
The law is not just enforced in what we want--but in what it happens to BE.
My advise is Teddy Roosevelt's; speak softly and carry a big stick.