"The criminal underworld in Colombia has become very much like traditional organized crime under, like, Carlo Gambino, where they try to be invisible," Vigil told Business Insider. In Colombia, the reign of large, hierarchical cartels gave way to that of paramilitary groups, who were eventually replaced by more criminal groups, or " bandas criminales," that are more compartmentalized, dispersed, and autonomous than their predecessors. Miami DEA spokeswoman called Miami " the North American headquarters for the South American cartels" in early 1997. In 1997, US officials said there were more cartel operatives than ever in South Florida and levels of cocaine coming into the area were higher than ever. The Medellin and Cali cartels continued to exist in some form in the years after their respective leaders' demise, but Colombian criminal organizations continued to evolve in response to a changing drug market and ongoing pressure from authorities. When Miguel was arrested two months later - caught in his underwear before he could hide in a secret closet - national police chief Jose Serrano said, "The Cali cartel died today." Then-President Ernesto Samper called the June arrest of Gilberto - caught hiding in a secret compartment in a luxurious Cali home - "the beginning of the end for the Cali cartel." But that’s not the most exciting fact about this property. The United States government seized the property in the 1980s, well before Escobar’s death. That summer also saw the downfall of the Rodriguez Orejuela brothers themselves. Pablo Escobar house Miami was built in 1948, the four-bedroom house sat right along the waterfront of Biscayne Bay. Numerous high-level Cali cartel figures were arrested in 1995, however, including Jorge Eliecer Rodriguez Orejuela in March and cartel cofounder Jose Santacruz Londono in July. "They learned a valuable lesson that the more violence you generate against the government, against the citizens, the more of a target you're going to become by the government and the international community," Vigil said. "The cartels, I think, learned a valuable lesson with what Pablo Escobar was doing with wholesale violence, just basically narco terrorism," Mike Vigil, former chief of international operations for the DEA, told Business Insider in an interview earlier this year about the evolution of Colombia's criminal organizations. Gilberto called himself an "honest drugstore magnate," referring to a chain of pharmacies his family owned. The Rodriguez Orejuela brothers and their partners, posing as businessmen and investing in Colombian and US companies, earned a level of public respect for their behavior (though they were always willing to resort to violence). Gilberto Rodriguez Orejuela, nicknamed "the Chess Player," in particular earned a reputation for being business-oriented, preferring bribery to violence. Gilberto Rodriguez Orejuela Cali Colombia
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