MIAMI - One of the world’s major cocaine kingpins, a co-founder of Colombia’s Cali Cartel that smuggled some $2 billion in drugs to the U.S., is seeking compassionate early release from a federal prison because of ill health. Gilberto Rodriguez-Orejuela, 81, is asking a Miami federal judge to let him return to his family in Colombia because he suffers from prostate and colon cancer. Under the brothers’ 2006 plea deal, more than two dozen family members were removed from a Treasury Department list designating them as part of the Cali cartel. Overall, the U.S. prosecuted about 100 Cali cartel members. Miguel Rodriguez-Orejuela, 76, the co-founder of the cartel along with his brother, is serving his sentence at a federal prison in Pennsylvania, records show.

Source: thestar February 06, 2020 16:07 UTC