A historic battle against drug trafficking

The book The Cocaine Riders, by the journalist Fabio Castilloa true gem that showed how the drug trade was cooked across the country in the 80s, gave the first details of the so-called Costa cartel.

The lyrics sold like hot cakes, in the sense that according to legend, the drug traffickers and the friends of the then drug traffickers They had to check whether their name appeared in that ‘crime bible’. Back then it was a way to know if you were on the authorities’ radar.

“From the organization they set up for the marijuana trade, mainly the Guajiro and Barranquilla clans, They started to gravitate towards cocaine“, reads the document by journalist Castillo, in relation to the beginning of the terrifying cartel that emerged after the unexpected fall of the so-called bosses ‘Marimbera Bonanza’.

According to authorities, the cartel operated between 1980 and 1998. And coincidentally, at the beginning it was headed by a man who, a few days ago, was again detained by authorities in Santa Marta, in accordance with a process that was different from or unrelated to drug trafficking: José Rafael Abello Silva, known as ‘Mono Abello’.

Historical data from the authorities and these media show that at the time he was the man who controlled the drug trade in the Caribbean and managed routes to other Caribbean and Central American countries. This had the approval of the legendary Pablo Escobar and the Medellín Cartel to transport the coca.

But Abello was captured and extradited to the United States in 1987 on the orders of Colombian President Virgilio Barco. That’s where the name came from. Alberto Orlando Gamboaknown as El Caracol, as its successor.

After the fall of Pablo Escobar in Medellín, Orlando Gamboa He began negotiating with the Cali Cartel, led by the Rodríguez Orejuela brothers, until he found himself in a police operation and met the same fate as Abello: the United States.

But in the midst of the “Caracol” strategy within the drug trade, all of Barranquilla witnessed the rise of the Nasser Arana clan, which managed to amass a fortune so large that it remained for a long time in the Hotel de El Prado, among other things other places, emblematic of the city.

also appeared José Reinaldo Fiallo Jácome, aka Nano, the man accused by justice of ordering the murder of Binomio de Oro singer Rafael Orozco. Another name linked to this network was that of Jairo ‘el Mico’ Durán, who was responsible for corrupting the 1990 National Beauty Pageant in favor of what would later become his wife. At the time it was said that ‘el Caracol’ had ordered the death of ‘el Mico’.

Libardo Parra, alias el Flaco or ‘el Guajiro’an alleged confidante of ‘Caracol’, was murdered in February 2021 in an Olympic superstore in the north of Barranquilla.

The great Samuel Alarcón, who is mentioned many times in the songs of Diomedes Díaz, was also associated with the Coastal poster. He was murdered in 1995 while serving a sentence in the Modelo National Prison in Bogotá.

On the other hand, selective crimes, score-settling and massacres are not new to the city. Between the 80s and 90s there were bloody episodes due to the clashes between the Costa Cartel and the Medellín Cartel.

One of those cases was de Víctor Anichiárico Santrich and Emilio Abudinemvictims of a crime that was planned and committed as if it were a movie script, after arriving at Ernesto Cortissoz Airport.

At the time, EL HERALDO reported on June 20, 1987 that the night before a Ford Bronco truck crashed the Mercedez Benz in which Anichiárico and Abudinem were riding, on 30th Street near the entrance to the airport terminal, at the Barranquilla exit. interior of the country. After the crash, Anichiárico and Santrich were injured and defenseless. The occupants of the truck that hit them and other men lying on the boulevard pretending to be homeless They finished them off with pistols and machine guns. The crime was blamed by authorities on the Medellín Cartel led by Pablo Emilio Escobar Gaviria. Víctor Anichiárico was the brother of Julio César Anichiárico Santrich, who was considered by the US police and DEA to be one of the men close to the Orlandez Gamboa circle.

Then, about ten years later, the famous Champagne Vallenato massacre took place, which left 7 dead and 5 injured. On Saturday, November 14, 1998, at 2:48 a.m., several hitmen arrived with R-15 rifles and shot several people outside the establishment. The fatalities were Crusi Antonio González Peña, a merchant from La Guajira; Rangel Antonio Navarro Pérez, owner of the nightclub, and his sister Natalí Margarita González Pérez; Sigifredo Jesús Caballo, company security guard, Oscar Martín Polo Niño, Hernán García Escorcia and Freddy Padilla Fontalvo. Five other people were injured. Police blamed paramilitaries from Santa Marta, whose main target was 37-year-old González, nicknamed Crusito, a reported subordinate of the then head of the coastal drug cartel, alias El Caracol.