Prohibition of drugs in Colombia was based on the introduction of prohibition laws in the
United States with the
Harrison Narcotics Act of 1914 which prohibited the production and consumption of
opiates and
cocaine, in 1937 added
marijuana,
tobacco and
alcohol and later on a variety of stimulant, depressant, and hallucinogenic drugs between 1964 and 1968. Some psychoactive drugs were already grown in Colombia at limited level by local
indigenous groups, who mostly employed marijuana and coca leaves for ceremonial and traditional medical uses as part of their culture.
Cocaine & heroin cartels (late 1970s-present) With prohibition, established producers and traffickers formed armed and clandestine
cartels. During the 1980s, as demand increased, the cartels expanded and organized into major criminal conglomerates usually headed by one or several kingpins as in the case of the
Medellín Cartel and the
North Coast Cartel, along with federation-style groups such as the
Cali Cartel and
Norte del Valle Cartel.
Medellín Cartel (1976–1993) The
Medellín Cartel led by
Pablo Escobar established a ruthless organization, kidnapping or murdering those who interfered with its objectives. The Medellín Cartel was responsible for the murders of hundreds of people, including government officials, politicians, law enforcement members, journalists, relatives of same, and innocent bystanders. When conflicts emerged between the Medellín Cartel and the guerrillas, the cartel also promoted the creation of
paramilitary groups. The cartel originally imported most coca from
Bolivia and
Peru, processing it into
cocaine inside Colombia and then distributing it through most of the trafficking routes and distribution points in the U.S., including Florida, California and New York. The pressure mounted by the US and Colombian governments to counter them led to the cartel's destruction. Most of the cartel's associates were gunned down by
police and
military forces or turned themselves in to authorities in exchange for lenient prison terms.
Cali Cartel (1977−1995) The
Cali Cartel, also known as "Cali's Gentlemen", was based in southern
Colombia, around the city of
Cali and the
Valle del Cauca Department. The Cali Cartel was founded by the Rodríguez Orejuela brothers,
Gilberto and
Miguel, as well as associate
José Santacruz Londoño. The Cali Cartel originally began as a ring of
kidnappers known as
Las Chemas. The profits of kidnapping helped finance the ring's move to drug trafficking, originally beginning in
Marijuana and eventually spreading to cocaine. The cartel's estimated revenue would eventually reach an estimated $7 billion a year. The cartel's influence spread to the political and justice system. It also played a role in the manhunt that led to the death of
Pablo Escobar and helped form the vigilante group "
Los Pepes" (Perseguidos por Pablo Escobar), which worked alongside members of the government's elite
Bloque de Busqueda (Search Bloc), exchanging information on the whereabouts of Escobar and other key members of the
Medellín Cartel. After the collapse of the cartel, it was discovered it was
wiretapping phone calls made into and out of
Bogotá, and was engaged in
money laundering using numerous front companies spread throughout Colombia.
Norte del Valle Cartel (1990−2012) The Norte del Valle Cartel, or North Valley Cartel, was a
drug cartel which operated principally in the north of the
Valle del Cauca department of
Colombia. It rose to prominence during the second half of the 1990s, after the Cali Cartel and the Medellín Cartel fragmented, and was known as one of the most powerful organizations in the
illegal drugs trade. The chiefs of the Norte del Valle cartel included
Diego León Montoya Sánchez,
Wilber Varela and
Juan Carlos Ramírez Abadía. Of the original leaders of the cartel, Wilber Varela was the last remaining member being sought by the authorities, but was found dead on January 31, 2008. The Norte del Valle cartel is estimated to have exported more than 1.2 million pounds – or 500 metric tons – of cocaine worth in excess of $10 billion from Colombia to Mexico and ultimately to the United States for resale. Indictments filed in the United States charge the Norte del Valle cartel with using violence and brutality to further its goals, including the murder of rivals, individuals who failed to pay for cocaine, and associates who were believed to be working as informants. Leaders of the Norte del Valle cartel were further alleged to have bribed and corrupted Colombian law enforcement and Colombian legislators to, among other things, attempt to block the extradition of Colombian narcotics traffickers to the United States for further prosecution. According to the indictments filed in the United States, members of the Norte del Valle cartel even conducted their own wiretaps in Colombia to intercept the communications of rival drug traffickers and Colombian and United States law enforcement officials. The cartel is believed to have employed the services of the
United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC), a right-wing paramilitary organization internationally classified as a terrorist organization, to protect the cartel's drug routes, its drug laboratories, and its members and associates. The AUC is one of the 37 Foreign Terrorist Organizations identified by the U.S. State Department in 2004.
North Coast Cartel (1999−2004) The North Coast Cartel was based in the Colombian city of
Barranquilla by the
Caribbean coast and was headed by
Alberto Orlandez Gamboa "
Caracol" (The Snail), who was considered as ruthless as Pablo Escobar. The organization transshipped significant amounts of cocaine to the United States and Europe via the smuggling routes it controlled from Colombia's North Coast through the Caribbean. As head of the organization, Gamboa depended on his close associates to conduct the organization's operations and to insulate himself. The success of Caracol's Barranquilla-based drug trafficking organization was attributed in part, to the respect the drug organization received from other traffickers operating on Colombia's North Coast. DEA Intelligence indicated that traffickers paid taxes to Gamboa's organization in order to be allowed to ship drugs out of the North Coast. His influence in this region was so strong that traffickers even asked him for permission before conducting assassinations.
Government The difficulty for the
Colombian Government in combating the illegal drug trade is the robustness of the drug cartels. These cartels have massive social and financial networks to support their drug production. As such, these cartels protect their business by way of illegal paramilitary groups that act as non-state actors and provide financial capital to government officials, generating a corrupt political system. Although the state government has attempted to control drug production, especially in the cocaine industry, the government’s weak state capacity has proven to be ineffective in controlling the illegal drug trade and production. For example, the Colombian government has tried to eliminate coca plants by spraying chemicals. Lastly, the government monitors and implements the integrated and sustainable illicit crop reduction and alternative development strategy in Colombia. This process showcases an attempt to improve the socio-economic conditions for domestic farmers by increasing their income by purchasing non-illicit crops and rewarding them for their efforts in environmental conservation. or BACRIM (Spanish for "emerging criminal organizations") by the Colombian government. Until 2011, Colombia remained the world's largest cocaine producer. Since 2003, Human Rights Watch stated that, according to their Colombian intelligence sources, "40 percent of the country's total cocaine exports" were controlled by these paramilitaries. And in 2011 an independent investigation made by the Colombian newspaper
El Tiempo estimated that 50% of all Colombian cocaine was controlled by the same BACRIM groups. According to the
Colombian National Police, these groups had 3,749 members by July 2010. The
NGO Instituto de Estudios para el Desarrollo y la Paz has indicated they would have approximately 6,000 armed combatants. The successor groups are often made up of mid-level paramilitary commanders and criminal structures that either did not demobilize in the first place or were re-activated after the demobilizations had concluded. •
Los Machos •
Los Gaitanistas •
Renacer •
Bloque Meta •
Libertadores del Vichada •
Ejército Popular de Liberación (Formerly considered a guerrilla movement, as of 2013 considered a
drug cartel.) •
The Office of Envigado (former enforcement wing for the
Medellín Cartel that inherited their turf and business connections) These groups continue to be involved in the drug trade, commit widespread human rights abuses, engage in forced displacement and undermine democratic legitimacy in other ways, both in collusion with and opposition to FARC-EP guerrillas. Their targets have included human rights defenders, labor unionists and victims of the former AUC. Members of government security forces have also been accused of tolerating their growth. In August 2025,
Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada, a former high ranking leader of the Mexico-based
Sinaloa Cartel, conceded in court how the Sinaloa Cartel held major influence over the trafficking of cocaine which originated in Colombia. ==Extradition treaty with the US==