The Arrest of Diego Montoya and the Power of Drug Cartels
By Douglas Farah
This week brought the welcome news of the arrest of Diego Montoya, one of the world's largest drug traffickers and most wanted criminals. His organization worked both with right-wing paramilitary squads and the Marxist FARC rebels to move tons of cocaine to the United States and Europe.
Montoya, before he had a $5 million bounty on his head, was an old nemesis of mine, along with his co-founders of the Valle del Norte cartel, operating out of the lush valleys north of Cali. I was the first journalist to write about him, in 1992, and was then cordially invited to visit with him on the farm of one of his best friend and fellow cartel leader, Ivan Urdinola. They offered to provide hospitality for me and my family, or, if I preferred, to provide any entertainment I might desire should I choose to go alone.
For some reason, the thought of breaking bread with men best know for using chainsaws to hack their enemies to pieces did not appeal to me. Authorities say Montoya's organization killed some 1,500 people. He penchant for gratuitous, vicious killing was well-known, and anyone suspected of betraying him or his organization could look forward not only to an unbelievably cruel death, but also to the same fate for his or her entire extended family.
Montoya, like Pablo Escobar and the Rodriguez Orejuela brothers before him in the Medellin and Cali cartels, is a serious player not only in funneling cocaine to the streets of the United States and Europe, but a major cause of instability in Latin America. My full blog is here.
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