Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, August 7, 1995 TAG: 9508070076
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: BOGOTA, COLOMBIA LENGTH: Medium
Miguel Rodriguez Orejuela, alleged leader of the Cali cartel, was arrested before dawn along with his ex-wife, a bodyguard, a chauffeur and a maid.
Agents broke down the front door, pushed past the bodyguard and found Rodriguez trying to hide in a secret closet in a bedroom, said Gen. Jose Serrano, the national police chief. Police said they seized two suitcases of documents.
Rodriguez immediately denied that traffickers contributed to President Ernesto Samper's 1994 campaign. He called the president's former campaign treasurer a liar for saying they did.
Appearing relaxed in a goatee and a blue sports jacket as police with automatic rifles showed him off to reporters in Bogota, Rodriguez said, ``the president is an honest man.''
Serrano wouldn't say what led police to the apartment, but said they tracked Rodriguez down after the arrest Friday of a top aide described as his communications chief.
According to police, Rodriguez congratulated officers on the arrest, and said their intelligence service was excellent.
Rodriguez is the sixth leader of the Cali cartel to put in jail in two months. The gang is believed to control 80 percent of the world's cocaine market and an increasing amount of the heroin trade.
Asked why Rodriguez' ex-wife was with him, Serrano suggested that Rodriguez and his fourth and current wife, a former Miss Colombia, weren't getting along.
At the White House, drug policy director Lee Brown hailed the arrest of the man he called ``possibly the world's most wanted criminal.''
``With four of their five top leaders now in custody, clearly the Cartel is crumbling,'' Brown said in a statement.
U.S. Drug Enforcement Administrator Thomas Constantine said the arrests of Rodriguez and the earlier capture of two other cartel leaders ``strike a mortal blow against the unholy trinity who lead the Cali mafia.''
Rodriguez's arrest came in the midst of Colombia's highest-level drug corruption scandal. Samper's former campaign treasurer, Santiago Medina, testified he obtained $6.1 million from the cartel during the campaign with Samper's approval.
Rodriguez was given a receipt for $4.9 million signed by campaign director Fernando Botero, Medina testified. Botero resigned as defense minister last week after Medina's testimony.
A pastor, Bernardo Hoyos, also testified that Rodriguez had shown him documents and played him audiotapes linking Samper's campaign to the cartel.
Samper went on television Sunday night to proclaim his innocence. He said his government should be judged by its actions, and that Rodriguez's arrest was ``the beginning of the end of the problem of drug trafficking in Colombia.''
Rodriguez's denial that the cartel made campaign contributions immediately raised speculation that he could be seeking a lenient sentence in exchange for his silence on possible campaign contributions.
Under Colombian law, Rodriguez could get a big reduction in any prison sentence he receives by cooperating with prosecutors.
by CNB