Colombia seizes dealers' assets - and all that comes with it

[SilverFeniks]

A Colombian judge has ruled that about $38m worth of property belonging to the former heads of the Cali drug cartel can be seized and sold by the state.
The 230 assets, including houses, cars, boats and companies, belonged to Gilberto and Miguel Rodriguez Orejuela.

The government has speeded up procedures for seizing properties that come from money earned from drugs.

It is now using the funds to try to plug gaping holes in Colombia's national budget.

The move is just the latest blow to the brothers, once the world's most powerful drug dealers.

Before their capture in 1995, their Cali drug cartel was one of the most powerful crime syndicates in the world.

Fortunately for them when they were captured, extradition was banned in Colombia. It has since been re-introduced.

The United States, which has long had the pair in its sights, is seeking to extradite the brothers.

It says that they continue to run their criminal empire while in prison.

Last November, a judge ordered Gilberto Rodriguez Orejuela's early release for good behaviour, despite protests by President Alvaro Uribe and the US.

He was re-arrested in March.

source

 

[SilverFeniks]

PUERTO SALGAR, Colombia - Impoverished Colombians scraping a living from a gold mine once owned by a violent drug kingpin may have to look for new jobs.

As the Colombian government confiscates millions of dollars worth of property from drug traffickers under tough new seizure laws, it is saddled not only with disposing of the property — but in many cases also regulating its use.

Such is the case for senior Colombian officials who on Tuesday visited the gold mine, located on a sprawling ranch once owned by Gonzalo Rodriguez Gacha, a Medellin cocaine cartel leader who was gunned down by police in 1989.

The government confiscated the 3,000-acre Hope Ranch last year after hardline President Alvaro Uribe strengthened a law allowing such seizures soon after taking office in 2002.

The picturesque ranch is located near the banks of Colombia's main river, the Magdalena, 70 miles northwest of Bogota. This verdant, hot region was a prime spot where drug traffickers, flush with money in the 1980s, could develop their fancies, building sometimes bizarre ranches and opulent homes.

Nearby is a farm, called Napoles, once owned by Pablo Escobar, another leader of the Medellin cartel. Before he was killed by police in 1993, Escobar imported exotic animals into his 15,000-acre ranch, which now has also fallen into decay but where a few hippos still live.

The tastes of Rodriguez Gacha, who was known as "The Mexican," ran to the nautical.

Sitting atop a hill, as if stranded there by receding tides, is a house built to resemble a ship, complete with a round windows, arched steel doors and even a moveable deckhouse steering wheel. On the grounds are a lake with a twin-level pontoon boat and a 200-foot waterslide.

Hundreds of visitors come each weekend, paying the $0.90 entrance fee to hang out at the lake. The fee helps the government defray the costs of maintaining the property.

But, to the annoyance of government officials, some 300 peasant farmers have flocked to a gold mine on the property, which Rodriguez Gacha never really developed since he was already rich with money made from smuggling cocaine to the United States.

"We began coming once we were sure it was no longer owned by the drug traffickers, just hoping to make a decent wage so we can eat," said Jhon Freddy Rangel, a 35-year-old miner, who was holding gold shavings he just found that he said will fetch about $3.

Col. Luis Alfonso Plazas, director of Colombia's National Drug Directorate, which oversees the drug property seizures, said as he visited the ranch on Tuesday that he would put a stop to what he called dangerous, unregulated mining practices.

"Tomorrow I will give the order to end the amateur mining," he said.

But the rights to the gold are held by Jose Antonio Lozano, a local businessman who simply declared the mine his shortly after the property became public land. Colombian law allows any citizen to declare subsoil rights to public land so long as they work the land and follow strict mining and environmental regulations.

Once Lozano shores up the mine and meets other regulations, he stands to make a killing if the mine contains a lot of gold, as authorities expect. He would receive 96 percent of what's extracted, with the remainder going to the government once the mine is certified, Plazas said.

But Plazas also has other ideas for generating revenue for the government from some of the 1,000 properties — worth some $186 million — that the government has seized from drug traffickers under the tougher new laws.

He hopes tourists, paying entrance fees, will flock to places like the Hope Ranch.

"I'd like to see Colombia become a type of museum of crime," said Plazas. "People are attracted by the drug trade, and they enjoy coming to places like this."

By DAN MOLINSKI, Associated Press Writer
source

 

[goldenbrown]

These fucking bastards, they are just jealous that drug lords make so much money, so now they've seized the properties and are going to make their own profit from illegal activity. That is such crap, though I would like to visit.

 

[JoeBloggs]

Hahahahaha they released him for good behaviour. How naive of them. "yer im sure he's learnt his lesson" hahaha.

 

[davesoviet]

These fucking bastards, they are just jealous that drug lords make so much money, so now they've seized the properties and are going to make their own profit from illegal activity. That is such crap, though I would like to visit.

How is the Columbian government going to profit from illegal activities?

The cartel leaders are nothing but a bunch of anti-social murderers, polluters and criminal scum and the government is spending more to get rid of them than it is in seizing and selling assets.

Before you run your mouth stating an opinion based on nothing more than your thoughts about the legality of drugs, you should think about what you're talking about first.

 

[Billy Orange]

^ i agree, drug lords deserve nothing but prison, my family was slaughtered by a gang of nigerian drug pushers.

 

[on_the_rise_5]

So now the corrupt officials are arresting and taking properties off the opposition... fantastic ultimately this is not going to effect anything at all...

 

[Kastr0]

"Released on good behaviour" yah right..

More like they cut some strings and got paid off..

 

[sfc420]

Were not saying its ok for Drug lords to run the streets, but they should be shutting down the drug cartels for good, not putting it back through the streets with their crooked ass system of cops and government officials. They better leave that gold mine in the hands of that man, because if they take it away its just another example of how bad it is out there.