U.S. Sees Inmate as Key to Nabbing 2 Drug Lords

BOGOTA, Colombia — The best, and probably the last, hope for bringing the heads of the Cali drug cartel to trial in the United States languishes in Colombia’s notorious Modelo prison.

This prisoner’s lawyers insist that he is a Colombian named Jose Luis Caicedo. U.S. and Colombian authorities are convinced that he is really Fernando Flores, a Venezuelan who may be the key to proving that Miguel and Gilberto Rodriguez Orejuela continued to run their narcotics empire from a Colombian prison.

Such evidence would make the brothers eligible for extradition to the United States under a Colombian law limited to crimes committed after Dec. 17, 1997. Law enforcement officials believe that coded ledgers and telephone direc-tories that were in Caicedo/Flores’ possession when he was arrested could provide that evidence.

Efforts to extradite the man to the United States are like an intricately carved spear designed to pierce the shield that keeps the Rodriguez Orejuela brothers in Colombia and out of U.S. reach.

Drug enforcement officers fear that the spear is rusting as Caicedo/Flores spends his 13th week in a Colombian prison.

“The information he could provide is monumental,” one U.S. law enforcement officer said. “Initially, we were told he would be here [in Miami] within a week. . . . The delay is detrimental to us in obtaining his cooperation.”

The delay has been caused by the prisoner’s insistence that he is really Caicedo.

As a result, Colombian authorities must prosecute him on charges of using forged documents--and win--before they can determine that he is not Colombian and turn him over to U.S. authorities.

U.S. Customs Agent Edward Kacerosky and Guillermo Pallomari, formerly chief accountant for Miguel Rodriguez Orejuela and now a Drug Enforcement Administration witness, have identified Caicedo as Flores, according to U.S. federal court documents filed in Florida.

Flores, nicknamed “El Gordo,” or “Fatso,” is wanted in the United States for his alleged role in an operation that smuggled 55 tons of cocaine into Florida through Venezuela in 1990 and 1991. The illegal drugs were shipped inside concrete posts made by a Venezuelan company known as Tranca, according to court documents.

Flores ran Tranca as a front company for the Rodriguez Orejuela brothers, the documents state.

The charges against Flores are part of a 203-page indictment, originally filed in 1993 and expanded since, against 73 alleged members of the Cali drug cartel.

The indictment outlines an elaborate organization that smuggled cocaine into Miami not only in concrete posts but also in Honduran lumber, Guatemalan frozen vegetables (“the broccoli route,” court papers call it) and coffee shipped through Panama. From there, the cocaine was distributed to Los Angeles as well as to Russia and other parts of Europe.

Alleged members included the usual hit men, lawyers and weapons dealers, but the indictment also lists intelligence gatherers, political campaign donors and money launderers.

“Their corporation flowed better than a lot of Fortune 500 companies,” the U.S. law enforcement officer said. At the top of the pyramid--and the indictment--are the Rodriguez Orejuela brothers.

Brothers Protected by Constitutional Ban

Until recently, the indictment made for fascinating reading but not much of a court case--not as long as the Rodriguez Orejuela brothers were protected by a 1991 Colombian constitutional ban on extraditing Colombian nationals.

That prohibition was lifted by a hard-fought December 1997 vote in the Colombian Congress.

However, the change applied only to crimes committed after Dec. 17 that year. The most recent crime listed in the U.S. indictment is an alleged contract murder committed in November 1995, a few months after Miguel Rodriguez Orejuela’s arrest by Colombian authorities.

Last summer, when the Colombian high court upheld the restriction on extradition, the chances of making the Rodriguez Orejuelas answer to charges in the U.S. indictment appeared to evaporate.

Then, the Colombian police pulled an ace out of their collective sleeve: Caicedo/Flores.

When the Tranca operation was busted in Florida in late 1991, the Cali cartel brought Flores to Colombia and gave him an identification card, called a cedula, according to court documents that cite former chief accountant Pallomari.

“The cedula obtained for Flores was in the name of Jose Luis Caicedo,” the court documents state.

Flores was put in charge of finding new smuggling routes, Pallomari stated. Pallomari’s version was confirmed by Jorge Salcedo, a former high-ranking member of the Cali cartel security force who is now a DEA witness, according to the court documents.

A Contact for Imprisoned Capos

In May, Colombian police found the man who claims to be named Caicedo living in Colombia’s coffee country, not far from the headquarters of the Norte del Valle cartel, among the most powerful successors to the Cali operation.

Through surveillance, the police learned that he was in telephone contact with the new cartel, according to Colombian authorities. They also found that he had visited La Picota prison, where the Rodriguez Orejuela brothers are held, 17 times in three months.

The man always asked to see different prisoners in the same cellblock as the drug barons. In a tapped telephone conversation, another man referred to him as “especially recommended” by the Rodriguez Orejuelas, according to authorities.

For those reasons, law enforcement officials believe that he was a contact who helped the Cali capos continue their illegal trade from behind bars, as U.S. authorities for years have maintained the Rodriguez Orejuela brothers were doing.

He was arrested Aug. 20 for the purpose of extradition and is being held at the overcrowded Modelo prison, the scene of several riots in recent years.

If Colombian prosecutors can prove that Caicedo is really Flores, then as a Venezuelan national he can be extradited for the crimes alleged in the earlier U.S. indictment. U.S. authorities then will have the opportunity to enlist his help in building a post-1997 case against his alleged former bosses, just as they enlisted Pallomari and Salcedo in the earlier case.

“If he decides to cooperate, he will be able to provide a solid base of information that can be used for the extradition of Miguel Rodriguez Orejuela,” the U.S. law enforcement officer said. He may also have information about other Cali chiefs, she said.

His testimony could be especially valuable because of the papers seized when he was arrested, she said.

The prospect of his testimony has drug-busters excited but trying not to build their expectations too high. “People are saying he is going to help us,” the law enforcement officer said. “I sure hope so. . . . The longer it takes, the less optimistic I am.”