On season 3 of Netflix's Narcos, it doesn't take long to realize that one man is at the center of all the action: Jorge Salcedo. And, then, Mexican leaders need to sweep out officials at all levels who have sold their souls to organized crime. These guys are too bad. From deep inside the U.S. witness-protection program, the official has shared his story in conversations with the Los Angeles Times. In Miami, DEA agents targeted the Cali cartels distribution organizations. The next morning, he caught the first Avianca flight to Cali. He was secretly dispatched to Europe by military leaders to assemble a team of mercenaries. That was attempt number one [to arrest Miguel]. He was relocated to the U.S. along with his wife and children in 1995 and taken into the federal witness protection program. As Colombian citizens, the Orejuela brothers could not be extradited to the United States. I did not go near it. [3][pageneeded] In the aftermath, Salcedo was demoted. I will say, though it's horrendous, it's not far from the [actual] happenings. So all of a sudden the scene became violent. He used to be Jorge Salcedo. I had no option. It was aborted at the last minute. [3][pageneeded]. The soft-spoken family man once known as Jorge Salcedo was an unlikely drug-gang recruit. His information on the cartelOperation Cornerstoneled to its eventual disbandment, as a result of which Salcedo and his family have entered the United States Federal Witness Protection Program. According to court papers, in 2016, Salcedo agreed with William Rick Singer the college counselor mastermindof the $25 million cheating scheme to get Davina and Bruce Isacksons daughter on the womens soccer roster for a fee of $100,000. Jorge Salcedo fue la pieza clave para detener a todos los lderes del cartel de Cali, entre ellos los hermanos Rodrguez Orejuela, que siguen en prisin. [3][pageneeded] He entered the Federal Witness Protection Program, where he remains to this day. He found the four held in different rooms of the house, each bound and tied to a chair -- three men and a woman. Your effort and contribution in providing this feedback is much I told them it was unlikely to succeed. I always got to appointments first, to check the security around and make sure there wasn't an ambush or anything. And at that point, he gave me the chance to speak to him, and I said, "William, the advice I can give you is: Don't inherit that throne. The soft-spoken family man once known as Jorge Salcedo was an unlikely drug-gang recruit. No. For a . The two factions agreed, and Jorge worked with the commandos to develop a plan of attack. The Medellin gangs knew he was plotting to kill Escobar. For years he had protected the bosses, their wives and children. They were having a meeting, and they were excluding me of everything. All contacts were by phone and were initiated by Salcedo. Fue criado en Sdermalm, al sur de Estocolmo. Today I am in the late 60s. He dialed the main switchboard of the CIA in Langley, Va. Listen, this may sound unusual, he said he told the duty officer who answered. Thus was Salcedo drafted into the Cali cartel. He saw traitors everywhere.. "I had to go. Four drug traffickers and members of the now-defunct Cali Cartel cover faces on January 15, 2009, in Bogota. I wanted to be questioned. Why are we still having these debates? Operatives were arrested. He traveled to El Salvador and, through a military contact, purchased four 500-pound bombs for about half a million dollars. In the wrong hands, his extensive records of bribes and business dealings posed a greater threat to operations than the inconvenience of the brothers spending a few years of lavish confinement in a Colombian jail. Pablo Escobar of Medellin was a bandit a criminal a crazy guy who was threatening their wives and children. I got to know I was excluded when I got a call saying I had to get there. Jorge Salcedo Cabrera was a counter-surveillance expert employed by the Cali cartel . Local police helped. The Colombian drug lords Miguel Rodriguez Orejuela, 63, and Gilberto Rodriguez Orejuela, 67, entered guilty pleas and were ushered off to federal prison for the next 30 years -- no Miami Vice-like dramatics, no bodies riddled with gunfire in the manner of Medellin rival Pablo Escobar. For years he had protected the bosses, their wives and children. Luckily for us, the good people at Netflix were able to connect us to Salcedo for an exclusive interview. The MCUs tiniest heroes are kicking off its biggest phase yet, setting up the next several years of storytelling. For his service, the relocated Colombian received rewards of about $1.7 million. Meanwhile, the cartel bosses launched an internal blood bath targeting other extraditables. The early 1990s were, he said, the golden years for the cartel. One of the few who knew where to find them was Salcedo. My role was to be on the outside, make sure the road was clear. The raiding party that hit Miguels door about dawn the next morning included two DEA agents and an elite search team under Gen. Jose Serrano, chief of the Colombian national police. [3][pageneeded] Working under the pretense of casing Pallomari for assassination, Salcedo forwarded his location to the DEA. He became proficient in electronic surveillance, which increasingly drew him into counter-terrorism assignments. Salcedo said they got bored and rowdy. They treated him like a crackpot -- I confirmed that, drug enforcement agent Edward J. Kacerosky testified years later. In exchange, Salcedo accepted a $100,000 bribe from Singer. Oh yes, that was a very tense moment. The ploy seemed to deflect suspicion. Many safe houses conceal vaults in the walls for escapes. However, they present some happenings so that it was me that did them when that was not really the case. My logic is fantastic: How could you think that I would be going to the streets? Jorge Salcedo worked for Cali drug cartel in Colombia as security for a godfather, Salcedo paid off police, military, politicians, justices, prosecutors with millions in drug money, One military official got $20,000 a month for info, he says, Salcedo: Mexico must stop the bribery and intimidation that keep cartels in business. When UCLA compliance officers questioned how the applicant had been discovered and whether she actually played soccer, Salcedo created a fake backstory, resulting in her subsequent admission as a recruited walk-on for the womens soccer team. I had to go. Jorge Salcedo told the judge that he joined in the college admissions bribery scheme because he was desperate for cash after buying a house his family couldn't afford. In January 2021, Salcedo agreed to plead guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit federal programs bribery. But Salcedo refused, knowing that more time was needed to evacuate his extended family from Colombia. [2] After being ordered to kill Pallomari, Salcedo began to believe that he had no choice for leaving the operation other than its dismantling. But people should know what I know now. Jorge Salcedo Cabrera (born November 25, 1947) is a Colombian civil engineer, countersurveillance specialist, and former head of security for Miguel Rodrguez Orejuela and the Cali Cartel who turned confidential informant for the Drug Enforcement Administration. For Jorge Salcedo, who made vengeful enemies of the most notorious crime bosses in the drug world, hiding has been a way of life for nearly two decades. FROM mid-July into August 1995, Salcedo continued to play a dual role -- the man in charge of security for Miguel Rodriguez Orejuela, and his secret betrayer. [3][pageneeded] In 1992, Salcedo coordinated the purchase and retrieval of several Salvadorian bombs in another plot to kill Escobar. It was a mess. He told Pallomari he would be arrested and die in jail. I spent more than six years in the biggest, richest syndicate in the history of crime the Cali cartel. In an unusual move largely financed by Medellin cartel bosses, he was to organize an off-the-books, paramilitary operation -- an armed assault on a guerrilla mountain fortress called Casa Verde. Jose Santacruz Londono got right to the point. Salcedo said he takes complete responsibility for his actions that have destroyed the life he knew. Now I was against Pablo Escobar., ALMOST immediately, Salcedo helped devise an assault on. (AP Photo/Gerry Broome, File) UCLA men's soccer coach Jorge Salcedo was indicted by . Now that Pablo was dead, not everybody wanted to make peace with Cali. The raiding party that hit Miguels door the next morning included two DEA agents and a search team under Gen. Jose Serrano, chief of the Colombian national police. Will you tell everyone what was done here? Varela en 2013. William C. Rempel does a remarkable job in telling this story. Operation Varsity Blues: The College Admissions Scandal. Let it pass.". It was a bonus for the captains help getting the boss away from a police raid. And at that time, there were other things going onthey were reorganizing narco-trafficking and all that. But in Cali, Salcedo found personal safety as he settled in to managing security for the Orejuela family. Within days, Salcedo and Kacerosky were on the phone and Kacerosky landed one of the most remarkable confidential informants in international crime. But I knew too much already. And I told them [Cali], with these guys, you better give up. And they had all read the book, but I was interested that they knew me personally. I had been fighting against the guerrillas. I had to escape, the former cartel official explained. The new constitution included a no-extradition provision for native Colombians. In the days that followed, the entire Cali cartel infrastructure was exposed. Lauren Isackson was listed as a midfielder on the teams roster for the 2017 season but had zero soccer experienceand never set foot on the field during a game, prosecutors said. A federal judge in Boston on Friday sentenced former UCLA soccer coach Jorge Salcedo to eight months in prison followed by a year of supervised release for taking $200,000 in bribes to help secure the admission of two students as part of the nationwide scheme prosecutors dubbed "Varsity Blues." While the scheme was initially designed to be a surprise, bureaucracy led to a prolonged siege of the apartment which ended without an arrest. Today, the brothers are serving what probably will be life terms in U.S. federal prison. On a cartel radiophone he overheard a call between Miguel and his son, William. He made an excuse and tried to leave the house. Obviously, Im not looking for celebrity -- it would jeopardize our safety, he told The Times. And I was there when Cali cartel lawyers were allowed to rewrite our national constitution to outlaw extraditions of Colombian traffickers to the United States. But those guys look like Boy Scouts compared toPablo. Acting United States Attorney Nathaniel R. Mendell; Joseph R. Bonavolonta, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Boston Field Division; Ramsey E. Covington, Special Agent in Charge of the Internal Revenue Services Criminal Investigations in Boston; and Mark Deckett, Resident Agent in Charge of the Department of Education, Office of Inspector General made the announcement today. Calling on a secure phone line from an undisclosed location, Salcedo, now in his late 60s, spoke at length about his time with the cartel, his life since then in the federal witness protection program, and all the things the show gets rightincluding some of the most harrowing scenes. Warmer storms could cause problems, Dramatic before and after photos from space show epic snow blanketing SoCal mountains, Jaguars, narcos, illegal loggers: One mans battle to save a jungle and Maya ruins, No, theres still no link between video games and violence, Prosecution presents closing arguments in Alex Murdaugh murder trial, Intelligence agencies say theres no sign U.S. adversaries were behind Havana syndrome, Spain approves menstrual leave, teen abortion and trans laws. The official end of the notorious Cali cocaine cartel came in 2006 in Miami with little more than the rap of a judge's gavel. AT dawn on a Sunday in August, four weeks after the failed raid that left Miguel Rodriguez Orejuela wounded, another police strike team arrived outside an apartment building in Cali. The extraditables came to be seen as security risks. The drug boss had just been rescued from an escape vault with the help of a local police captain. What are you doing in the middle of a cane field? one officer inquired. In those days, hundreds of high-ranking and lower level police were on the cartels secret payroll tens of thousands of dollars paid every month for inside tips or for looking the other way. Only three fit, stacked in the passenger cabin. He held degrees in mechanical engineering and industrial economics. Offers may be subject to change without notice. He was arrested as he scurried for a vault in the wall. So even though I am an engineer and I have a degree and all that, it was in my namemy old name. That day I didn't do that. The policemen took the 500 pesos and drove off. Jorge Salcedo, whose story is the basis for Narcos season 3 "Because at that point, they were suspecting about me. Have a question about Government Services? Salcedo has demonstrated that he is a perpetual cheat, Assistant U.S. Attorney Kristen Kearney said. I get there, and the cars arrive there, and all of a sudden these people were just taken by force by people who work at Pacho Herrera's farmwell, it was a luxury ranch, not a farm. Jorge Salcedo has big brass balls. Salcedo waited for the chance to use a public phone at a Cali telecommunications building. Eventually, a total of $6 million in secret donations made Ernesto Samper our president. My primary job in the Cali cartel was security for one of four godfathers, Miguel Rodriguez Orejuela, the daily operations boss. Faced with orders to kill a colleague and friend, Salcedo grew desperate. Salcedo accepted $200,000 in bribes as part of the college admissions bribery scheme across the country. In May1989, the attack was set to occur, but heavy cloud cover resulted in a helicopter crash, with most of the commandos failing to make it to Escobar's hideout, Hacienda Npoles. He cost $20,000 a month. Salcedo is the third . Eran mediados de 1995 cuando un grupo del. As U.S. prosecutor Ryan later would note, then the bodies began to show up., THE far-flung cartel was directed by Cali-based Colombians, but its operatives included many non-. The compound of drug lord Miguel Rodriguez Orejuela filled a city block and contained a swimming pool, tennis court and half a soccer field. I had to advise him to be [more] careful.. A second assault was planned from Panama. Lleg un acuerdo con la DEA para proteger. The Orejuela brothers promptly absorbed the Medellin cartel and ultimately controlled 80 percent of the international cocaine market. Because when I arrived here, I was already in my late 40s. The families were huge. All six of them. Salcedo feigned progress toward setting up an assassination. As Colombian citizens, the Orejuela brothers could not be extradited to the United States. In addition to living quarters, it contained a large swimming pool, a tennis court and half of a soccer field. The global cartel was directed by Cali-based Colombians, but its operatives included many non-Colombians susceptible to extradition. A former men's soccer coach at the University of California, Los Angeles was sentenced on Friday to eight months in prison after admitting he accepted $200,000 in bribes to facilitate the admission of two students as fake athletic recruits. It seemed sometimes that they all had their hands out. But the British mercenaries, waiting months for orders to attack, got bored and rowdy. But more than a decade after betraying his bosses, Salcedos life remains in jeopardy. Military leaders grew restless because of the security failings of an impotent and corrupt government and tried to fill the vacuum, sometimes taking military actions without approval from officials in Bogota, the capital. Mr. We had about 150 persons dedicated to caring for the safety of these people, Salcedo recalled. 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