(27 Jul 1995) Spanish/Nat
Colombia's General Jose Serrano Cadena on Thursday declared victory over his country's drug cartels.
Speaking at the Washington National Press Club, the police chief said recent arrests of the Cali drug cartel leadership had effectively ended "the most important drug operation in the world".
For years, the Cali cartel's power has gone effectively unchallenged.
But, on Thursday, the man most responsible for bringing these criminals to justice told the world that the cartels were as good as finished.
SOUNDBITE: (Spanish)
"I must say that in my opinion the Cali Cartel is for all purposes dead"
SUPER CAPTION: Colombian Police Chief General Jose Serrano Cadena
Squads of armed anti-narcotics police have been relentlessly involved in bringing some of the top drug names to justice.
Cadena told of some of the arrests.
SOUNDBITE: (Spanish)
"He had a pistol under his belt, but he put up his hands and said 'Don't
kill me. You have won.'"
SUPER CAPTION: Colombian Police Chief General Jose Serrano Cadena
Ironically, one of the most fearsome of the cartel leadership - Jose Santacruz London - was arrested, not by squads of armed anti-narcotics police, but two unarmed intelligence agents.
SOUNDBITE: (Spanish)
"The cartel's strongest man fell like a docile pigeon. Surely he must be sitting in jail right now asking himself how he could be captured by only two intelligence agents."
SUPER CAPTION: Colombian Police Chief General Jose Serrano Cadena
For Cali's residents, now the prospect is of a depressed economy, one without the fuel of cocaine's immense profits.
Despite that, General Cadena said that the population welcomes the peace that may finally comes without the presence of armed and dangerous drug traffickers.
SOUNDBITE: (Spanish)
"Without a doubt there are sectors (in the Cali economy) that are paralysed, such as the construction industry where the narcotics traffickers hid a lot of their money and the sale of cars. These captures have been very good for Colombia and for the world."
SUPER CAPTION: Colombian Police Chief General Jose Serrano Cadena
But, although the cartel's power may have waned, less sophisticated and smaller gangs of cocaine traffickers may be waiting in the wings to fill the void left by the now nearly defunct Cali Cartel.
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