Cali Cartel

The Cali Cartel is a large Colombian cartel based in the Colombian city Cali. It rivalled the Medellin Cartel. It also formed Los Pepes together with Cartel de la Sierra and Autodefensas. Los Pepes was later also funded by the Potosino Cartel, which led to an improvement of relations between the Cali Cartel and Potosino Cartel. It was formed by four businessmen, Gilberto Orejuela, Miguel Orejuela, Chepe Santacruz and Pacho Herrera.

History

The Maldeira Cartel has influence in most of Middle America and South America. Giovanni Maldeira sent Arnold Rothstein and Vito Changretta to administer drug production in Colombia. This led to severe distrust and disliking by the local drug lords. Gilberto Orejuela was a capo serving the Maldeira Cartel. He deemed himself worthy of controlling Colombia. He started plotting against Giovanni Maldeira together with his brother Miguel Orejuela. They also started collaborating with Chepe Santacruz and Pacho Herrera. They started targetting Arnold Rothstein and Vito Changretta. Chepe Santacruz followed Rothstein and threatened him. Santacruz told Rothstein to leave Colombia. Rothstein feared for his life and went to the airport to leave to the Germanic Zone of America.

However, Jose Gacha, a rising local drug lord, sent two hitmen to kill Rothstein out of anger for him being in control of Colombia. Rothstein was attacked outside of the airport. His three bodyguards were killed. Arnold Rothstein survived by fleeing the scene. Regardless, the assassination attempt was a shock to the newly forming Cali Cartel as they thought they were going to receive the blame. The attempt prompted Vito Changretta to strike back against local gangs to no avail of killing the two hitmen. The attempt on Rothstein caused a lot of confusion amongst the members of the collapsing Maldeira Cartel.

In the meantime, the Sinaloa Cartel had broken off from the Maldeira Cartel. The Potosino Cartel quickly followed after. The Maldeira Cartel was collapsing which prompted a group of drug lords and businessmen to commence working together in Medellin. It's main drug lord was Pablo Escobar. He, together with his cousin Gustavo Gaviria wanted to form a Medellin Cartel. Jose Gacha and Carlos Lehder also became co-founders. The Ochoa brothers, Jorge Ochoa and Juan Ochoa also co-founded the cartel, whilst their other brother Fabio Ochoa joined the cartel later.

The news of an exponentially growing amount of separate cartels and criminal organizations forming caused severe unrest in the Maldeira Cartel leadership. Vito Changretta was visited by Bonito Changretta in Colombia. Bonito Changretta took over operations. Vito Changretta warned Bonito it was dangerous and that they should leave the area. Bonito Changretta was not experienced in the drug business in Colombia. Vito Changretta attempted leaving Colombia by going to a different airport but was attacked by hitmen. Vito's guards fought back fiercely, causing numerous civilians deaths. The hitmen were killed and Vito Changretta quickly fled the country and went to the Germanic Zone of America. Arnold Rothstein also left the country swiftly.

The failed attempts on both Arnold Rothstein and Vito Changretta coupled with Maldeira's failure of management of his cartel prompted Bonito Changretta to start thinking of leaving Colombia with his men. He urged Luca Changretta to seize control of the Maldeira Cartel. Luca Changretta did so and started a coup against Maldeira. This caused Maldeira to no longer be in charge of the cartel and the Maldeira Cartel commenced collapsing. Various cartels such as the Milenio Cartel, Eladio Cartel and Tijuana Cartel also declared independence. Maldeira's grip on Middle America fell and his grip on South America was very loose. Bonito Changretta was happy with the coup but decided to start leaving Colombia.

With the lack of Maldeira's presence in Colombia, Colombia started becoming more democratic and less corrupt. Though the Medellin Cartel was formed, violence rates and deaths remained low. Pablo Escobar was making a name for himself in the country, hoping to become president. He gained a lot of public support. This prompted Gilberto Orejuela to also start thinking of officially forming the Cali Cartel. Gilberto Orejuela appointed himself as the first Don, Miguel Orejuela the second Don, Chepe Santacruz the third Don and Pacho Herrera the fourth Don. However, Miguel, Chepe and Pacho had similar ranks whilst Gilberto publicly outranked the others.

Though the dons wanted it, Gilberto Orejuela delayed the official formation of the Cali Cartel. This ended up in their favour, as Bonito Changretta commenced one last crackdown on opposing gangs. Pablo Escobar's Medellin Cartel was one of the gangs on Bonito's list.

Pablo Escobar met up with the other dons of the Medellin Cartel at a hotel. They did this to officially form the Medellin Cartel and start really working together. Bonito Changretta, together with an army of about 50 men walked into the hotel and held everyone at gunpoint. Bonito Changretta taunted every don present and hit some people. He also shot a few sicarios. The Medellin dons insulted Bonito as he was leaving. This caused Bonito to become severely angry. He shouted back at them angrily and left. That same day during the evening, Bonito Changretta gathered about 250 mafiosi and shot up several labs and hotels belonging to the Medellin Cartel. None of the dons were harmed. However, high amounts of casualties were still made, many of whom were sicarios, wives and children of sicarios or dons and numerous civilians. Bonito's mafiosi and he himself left the country. This was considered a big hit to the Medellin Cartel.

Cali Cartel Members

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