Colombian mother faces true cost of cocaine business as family turns into a criminal organization

miami – Federal agents from the Drug Enforcement Administration were waiting for guests arriving for a baby shower at a restaurant in Little Havana, Miami. When police entered the scene to arrest the woman, two men nearby fled with what appeared to be a violin and a guitar case.

DEA agents searched the woman and found her in possession of $1,200 in cash. They suspected the men to be bodyguards and announced they had arrested the top fugitive, Martha Revere Cardona, but it was not her. An embarrassing mistake occurred in 1983.

Special Agent Brent Eaton, who was DEA spokesman at the time, had to explain the error to reporters. Her suspect Lilia Reyes’ fingerprints did not match those of Cardona, who fled Miami on $1 million bail after her 1980 arrest. The information was obtained from two witnesses.

“It’s not clear whether she specifically said she was Martha Cardona, but they both drew that conclusion independently,” Eaton told reporters, referring to Reyes, 38, in 1980. He spoke of a witness who believed it was Cardona, 36, who was arrested in Miami in 2017. .

When extradition from Colombia to the United States was rare, paying bail after an arrest in the United States was part of the cost of doing business. There was retribution for corrupt officials and those who paid the price with their lives. The risk was higher for families who became part of the Medellin cartel’s criminal organization.

In 1982, former Local 10 News reporter Mark Potter interviewed U.S. smugglers for a five-part investigative series, “The Colombian Drug War.” The American pilot, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation, said he paid police officers, senators, colonels and generals while serving in Colombia.

“We can arrange to land at an international airport like Barranquilla or at a military base off the coast of Guajira and have the military load the plane,” he said. “They use forklifts and converter belts to load planes and protect fields from bandits.”

Cardona, a mother of four, was left a widow in 1977 when her husband, Luis Carlos Gaviria, was murdered during a 400 kilogram cocaine deal in New York. DEA agents believed that was the time she had to step up as matriarch of her family business.

Cardona’s Medellin cartel associate Griselda Blanco, a powerful crime boss who wanted to be known as “The Godmother” because she was a fan of the 1972 epic crime film “The Godfather,” I was well aware of the cost. According to the DEA, only one of her four sons survived. He was named after Michael Corleone in the movie.

The murder of Ms. Blanco’s 27-year-old son, Osvaldo “Ozzy” Trujillo Blanco, also known as John Owaldo Trujillo Blanco, made the most headlines. He had been in Colombia for four months after being released from a US prison. In 1992, he was the target of a mass shooting at La Baviera, a trendy tavern in Medellin.

Blanco was already in prison when he learned of the murder. The US judiciary was already catching up with Cardona. Colombian law enforcement arrested her in 1991, and a judge ordered her extradition in federal court in Miami to face drug trafficking charges.

Colombian authorities told Potter they lacked the resources to destroy coca factories and eradicate remote “kitchens” used to produce cocaine for industrial-scale trafficking. Told. Medellin Chief Justice Flor Palacio was among those to hold the United States accountable for demands that fueled corruption.

“I have great faith in the integrity of the officers who lead our security services,” Palacio told Potter. “At the same time, I think the vast majority of agents are corrupt.”

In 2000, the United States launched Plan Columbia. As of 2022, it cost U.S. taxpayers about $14 billion, according to the Congressional Research Service. In its 2024 budget request, President Joe Biden’s administration requested $444 million to address Colombia’s counternarcotics and immigration controls.

“Production is driven by demand. If there is no demand, there is no production,” Colombia’s former drug enforcement chief Rodolfo Garcia told Potter in 1982 about the role played by North Americans.

That hasn’t changed, but the players have. According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, criminal groups in Mexico and the Balkans are moving closer to coca production in South America to gain access to wholesale quantities and make supply lines more efficient.

“If Americans didn’t buy drugs and didn’t consume drugs, we wouldn’t have this problem,” Palacio told Potter in 1982. “We are simply suffering the consequences of attitudes caused by the American people.”

Garcia and Palacio also told Potter that they both feared for their lives. The Colombian diaspora continues. The population of Colombian immigrants to the United States has been increasing since 1980. In 2021, Miami-Dade and Broward counties had the highest populations.

visit Local10.com On Thursday, February 15th, the fourth part of the five-part series “Colombia Drug War” will air.