Title: Kings of Cocaine: The Colombian Drug Cartels
Headings: Kings of Cocaine: The Colombian Drug Cartels
Kings of Cocaine: The Colombian Drug Cartels
The Rise of Colombian Cartels
The Medellin Cartel
The Cali Cartel
The Norte del Valle Cartel
The Future of Colombian Cartels
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Content: Kings of Cocaine: The Colombian Drug Cartels
Kings of Cocaine: The Colombian Drug Cartels
Though it was originally used as the active ingredient in health tonics and elixirs, it was not until the 1950s that cocaine became an illicit drug in the United States. Due to the dramatic influx of cocaine during that period as well as the consistent decline in street price, the market for cocaine in the United States increased tremendously throughout the 1970s and 1980s. The substance’s criminalization ignited the explosion of the Colombian drug cartels of the 1980s. The Rise of Colombian Cartels
Since the 1970s, Colombia has harbored some of the most violent and sophisticated drug trafficking organizations in the world. What started as a small-scale operation of exporting slight amounts in suitcases eventually flourished into a multi-national empire with an estimated 22 million users in the US by the mid-80s. In 1982, the drug made up 30 percent of all Colombian exports, surpassing coffee . With growing success in smuggling, many Colombian drug lords began buying up vast quantities of land in order to launder drug money and gain social status amongst the country’s elite. By the late 1980s, drug traffickers became the largest landholders in Colombia and wielded tremendous political clout as profits grew immensely.