Gilberto José Rodríguez Orejuela (30 January 1939 – 31 May 2022) was a Colombian drug lord and one of the leaders of the Cali Cartel. Cali Cartel Gilberto Rodríguez Orejuela, along with his brother Miguel Rodríguez Orejuela and José Santacruz Londoño, formed the Cali Cartel in 1975. They were initially primarily involved in marijuana trafficking. In the 1980s, they branched out into cocaine trafficking. For a time, the Cali Cartel supplied 80 percent of the United States through Rodriguez's son, Jorge Alberto Rodriguez, and 90 percent of the European cocaine market. On 15 November 1984, Gilberto was captured in Spain. At the time of his arrest, he was accompanied by Jorge Luis Ochoa Vásquez. Gilberto would be in Spain to hold meetings with the aim of expanding the cartel business on the European continent. From that moment on, the cartel began to work with traffickers in Galicia, but mainly established strategic alliances with the powerful Camorra, which would be in charge of the distribution of Cali cocaine throughout Europe. The Cali Cartel was less violent than its rival, the Medellín Cartel. While the Medellín Cartel was involved in a brutal campaign of violence against the Colombian government, the Cali Cartel grew. After the demise of Pablo Escobar, the Colombian authorities turned their attention to the Cali Cartel. The police campaign against the cartel began in the summer of 1995. President Ernesto Samper dispatched a "joint task force" code named "Search Bloc", formed by top police and elite commandos headed by Police General Rosso José Serrano, declaring an all-out war against the drug cartels. Capture On 9 June 1995, Rodríguez Orejuela was arrested by the Colombian National Police (PNC) during a house raid in Cali. When the police had searched the home several days earlier, he had escaped detection by hiding in a hollowed-out bathroom cabinet with an oxygen tank. He was sentenced to 15 years in prison but was temporarily freed in early November 2002, due to a controversial judicial order issued by deputy judge Pedro José Suárez. In March 2003, Rodríguez Orejuela was recaptured by Colombian authorities in Cali. Extradition to the United States Gilberto Rodríguez Orejuela was extradited to the United States on 3 December 2004. His brother Miguel was also arrested. On 26 September 2006, both Gilberto and Miguel were sentenced to 30 years in prison, after pleading guilty to charges of conspiring to import cocaine to