THE MEDELLIN CARTEL

     Jorge          Fabio        Juan

             The Ochoa Brothers

            Lehder

CONCEPT OF CARTEL...

        The first concept that someone who is learning about the "cartels" of Colombia needs to understand is that they are not really cartels in the sense that most people have come to understand the word. The Colombian cartels are really just a group of drug dealers that come from the same city and who made a name for themselves early and rose to prominence in the drug trafficking industry. All the drug dealers from the same area knew who each other were because they must know what is going on in their industry. The media is the one who classified the individuals and or groups working in the industry as a cartel. When talking about these drug syndicates I will refer to them as cartels because it is easy to discuss them this way.

COLLABORATION OF THE SO CALLED MEDELLIN CARTEL...

       The Medellin cartel as the media first called it is supposed to have been formed in 1978 when Carlos Lehder's purchased a large portion of Normans Cay, a small island off the coast of the Bahamas. This is where the association between the 6 kingpins of the cartel are said to have originated. Those that attended were Pablo Escobar, Jorge, Fabio, Juan Ochoa, Jose Gonzalo Rodriguez Gacha (also know as "The Mexican"), as well as Carlos. These 6 men soon after the meeting started using Carlos's island as a launching point for the exportation of their many exports.

BRUTAL TACTICS...

       Much more information is able to be found concerning the Medellin cartel because of the fact that they were so brutal in their strategies. They were known to use violence and strong arm tactics to get their cocaine where they wanted and needed it to be. They actually waged a war against the Colombian government in the late 1980's, after one of their major cocaine producing factories was raided and burned by a combined force of US and Colombia. Atrocities that can be laid at the feet of the Medellin members range from killing a presidential candidate to blowing up a commercial airplane.        

  --interview with Jorge Ochoa:

                www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/drugs/interviews/ochoajorge.html

  --transcript of Escobar's life:

                 www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/drugs/archive/godfathercocaine.html

  --interview with Juan David Ochoa:

                 www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/drugs/interviews/ochoajdo.html

REFERENCES:

Thoumi, Francisco E. (1995).  Political Economy & Illegal Drugs in Colombia.  Colorado: Lynne Rienner

George, Susan (1992).  The Debt Boomerang.  San Francisco: Westview Press

Scott, Peter D. & Marshall, Johnathan  (1991).  Cocaine Politics.  Los Angeles: University of California Press

Gootenberg, Paul  (1999).  Cocaine; Global Histories.  New York: Routledge