With Guilty Pleas, Cali Cartel Finished, U.S. Says

Two brothers who headed Colombia's powerful Cali cocaine cartel pleaded guilty yesterday to drug trafficking charges in Miami and agreed to turn over billions in assets.

As part of a plea agreement with federal prosecutors, Gilberto Rodríguez Orejuela, 67, and Miguel Rodríguez Orejuela, 62, were each sentenced to 30 years in prison and agreed to forfeit $2.1 billion worth of assets linked to the drug trade, officials said. The pair also agreed to plead guilty later to separate money-laundering charges filed against them in New York.

In exchange, half a dozen of the brothers' relatives will not face prosecution. In addition, U.S. officials said, 28 people with ties to the pair will have a chance to be removed from a Treasury Department list that freezes the assets of "specially designated narcotics traffickers" if they relinquish property tainted by drug money, officials said.

Government officials said the agreements bring an end to the Cali cartel, which by the early 1990s had eclipsed its archrival, the Medellín cartel, as the world's leading cocaine-distribution ring. The family was once estimated to be responsible for up to 80 percent of the cocaine smuggled into the United States, and it invested its proceeds in scores of legitimate businesses in Colombia and worldwide.

"The brothers' guilty pleas effectively signal the final, fatal blow to the powerful Cali cartel," Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales said at a Washington news conference. "There are always other traffickers and thus continuing challenges for law enforcement, but this is a day of pride for the people of Colombia and for international law enforcement."

But drug trafficking experts and U.S. law enforcement officials say the cartel's defeat began at least a decade ago -- after the Rodríguez brothers were imprisoned in Colombia -- and the group has been little more than a shadow of its former self in recent years. The Colombian cocaine trade is now controlled by a more fractured constellation of criminal organizations that work with, and sometimes for, the Mexican cartels that control smuggling operations into the United States, experts say.

"We're moving into a whole new phase of the drug war, because they are decentralizing, smaller and harder to catch than their predecessors," said Ron Chepesiuk, who wrote "Drug Lords: The Rise and Fall of the Cali Cartel."

Gilberto Rodríguez was known as "the Chess Player" for his role in planning the cartel's strategy, while his younger brother was dubbed "the Master" for inventing new ways to hide drugs. Techniques by the Cali cartel included smuggling cocaine in shipments of coffee, frozen vegetables, concrete posts, and ceramic tiles and lumber, among other things, usually using Mexico as a transit point.

Gonzales -- joined in Washington by U.S. law enforcement officials and the Colombian ambassador -- said the Rodríguez brothers "were responsible for the importation of over 200,000 kilograms of cocaine" to the United States from 1990 to 2002, including years when they ran the organization from a Colombian prison.

Miguel Rodríguez's son, William, was sentenced to more than 21 years in prison earlier this year in Miami for his role in helping to run the cartel while his father and uncle were behind bars.

Chepesiuk noted that the assets to be turned over by the Rodríguez brothers amount to a small fraction of the money that was earned by the Cali cartel, which in its heyday was estimated to bring in $5 billion to $7 billion a year. The family's investments included a credit card company, a pharmaceutical firm and a chain of 350 drugstores.

Staff researcher Julie Tate contributed to this report.