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The Prince Of Cocaine; Colombia's Biggest Threat, Not FARC

Prince William set for showdown with drugs baron on Royal Navy patrol in Caribbean

By Jeremy McDermott in Bogota and Colin Freeman - 08/06/2008

Prince William is set for a showdown with the 'cocaine aristocrats' of Colombia who are focusing their efforts on the European market after saturating the US.

On the streets of Bogota, he is known unaffectionately as both the Fat One (El Gordo) and the Mad One (El Loco) – nicknames that testify to a generous waistline and a mean temper.

Yet when it comes to staying one step ahead of the law, the portly Daniel Barrera has proved no slouch – 20 years after he first started out in Colombia's cocaine business, he has become the country's number one drug kingpin, flooding both America and Europe with his product.

Now, having successfully dodged the clutches of counter-narcotics officials and rival dealers, the head of Colombia's narco-aristocracy is about to come up against royalty of a different league.

His shipments of high-quality cocaine – said to number scores of tons per year – will be in Prince William's sights when he joins a Royal Navy warship on anti-drug patrols in the Caribbean.

The frigate Iron Duke will sail into Caribbean waters later this month, where its duties will include hunting the high-powered "go-fast" launches that ferry Barrera's cargoes from Colombia's lawless coastline to their markets north and east.

Despite concerns for his safety, the Prince is expected to be allowed to join the Navy's armed boarding parties in their stop-and-search missions.

With a frigate's gun trained on them, and a helicopter with Special Boat Service snipers buzzing overhead, not even the most ruthless trafficker is generally tempted to offer resistance.

Yet in the wider war the odds remain stacked in the cocaine barons' favour. Despite two decades of US-led efforts to curb their activities, drug lords such as El Gordo remain as much a feature of Colombian life as ever. And despite the best efforts of the Royal Navy, they see Britain and Europe as their most promising new customers now that the American market has been saturated.

"There are three very good reasons why Colombian drugs traffickers are looking towards Europe," said one senior Colombian government official at his heavily-guarded offices in Bogota. "Firstly there is almost zero risk of extradition. Secondly, the prices are much higher for a kilo of cocaine in Europe than America. And thirdly, the risk of interdiction is much less than trying to get a shipment into the US."

The success of the drug barons' transatlantic marketing drive was spelt out in a United Nations report in March, which revealed how Colombia's drugs lords had carved out new shipping routes to Europe using impoverished West Africa as a staging post.

As a result, cocaine exports have increased, from an estimated 600 tons three years ago to 800 tons last year, halving European street prices to as little as £30 a gram.

Now young Britons can binge on cheap cocaine in much the same way as they binge on budget alcohol, following the example of celebrities such as the musicians Amy Winehouse and Pete Doherty, whom the report criticised for giving cocaine "celebrity endorsement".

Counter-narcotics officials in Colombia have a similarly unromantic view of the drug, which brought the country to brink of anarchy in the Eighties and fuelled a civil conflict between Left-wing FARC guerrillas and Right-wing paramilitaries that has cost an estimated 100,000 lives.

Since 1999, America has given the Colombian government both military assistance and about £300 million a year to undertake large-scale programmes of crop fumigation.

However, the drug barons have proved as persistently resilient as the hardy coca bush that supplies cocaine's base ingredient.

While the vast super-cartels such as the Medellin group – run by the late Pablo Escobar – have been broken up, about 300 "baby cartels" have flourished, whose turf wars threaten to propagate the violence indefinitely.

Backed by a combination of bribery, threats and private armies connected to the paramilitary groups, the new generation of barons operate throughout the country.

But unlike Escobar, who became a virtual folk hero by ostentatious donations of money to the poor, they try to keep as low a profile as possible, flitting from one hideout to another to avoid capture.

Gone are the extravagant haciendas and ranch-houses. They prefer run-down looking farmsteads, where the only clue to the wealthy owner is the satellite television or Jacuzzi that has been fitted inside.

Barrera, 41, who is backed by his powerful subaltern Pedro Guerro – aka el Cuchillo, or the Blade – is typical of the modern breed: little is known about him, and last year he attempted to fake his own death by placing a badly mutilated corpse on a road with his name beside it.

Today he is thought to run his criminal empire from over the border in neighbouring Venezuela, where Left-wing president Hugo Chavez has been accused of turning a blind eye to traffickers as part of his political war against the West.

Yet Colombia's most wanted man still visits Bogota from time to time, often travelling in official vehicles belonging to members of the security forces who are on his payroll.

Such is the reach into Colombian officialdom that his fingerprints are said to have been wiped from secret police files, and the paperwork for five cases against him has disappeared. "He is a magician," one justice official said. "All the judicial actions against him just disappear."

The fragmentation of the industry has also led to specialisation. The Medellin cartels had a corporate-style control over the drug from harvest through to sale, but today's young lieutenants know that made them more vulnerable to attack by the US and Colombian authorities. They compartmentalise their responsibilities as much as possible.

FARC commanders such as Alfonso Cano control much of the rural crop harvests, while the likes of Vicente Castano, a criminal "blue-blood" whose family worked for the Medellin cartel, supervise the distribution of the drug to Colombia's urban centres and beyond.

As far as Prince William is concerned, the closest link in the chain will be the gimlet-eyed Daniel Rendon, known as Don Mario, whose fiefdom in the Gulf of Uraba region on Colombia's north-west coast is the main smuggling route north to the Caribbean.

The mangrove-lined deltas around the appropriately-named Uraba town of Turbo is the launch point for up to 20 "go-fasts" per week, each equipped with a rack of outboard engines allowing them to transport two tons of cocaine at up to 60mph. Drug traffickers pay Don Mario a "departure tax" for using the area, which nets him anything up to £10 million a month.

Prince William's role aboard the Iron Duke is just part of Britain's growing involvement alongside America in Colombia's drug war – spurred in part by the fact that, proportionally, Britain snorts more cocaine than any other European nation except Spain.
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Colombia's biggest threat is NOT the FARC. As long as there is cocaine up in them hills, Colombia will never find peace.

By Medellin Traveler on Jun 8, 2008, 08:39 in Politics & the war.

adrimm says on Jun 8, 2008, 09:37:

Of course no one would dare consider that demand in the consumer nations (read addictions) fuels the production.. it's much easier to turn it into " a Colombian problem" than to deal with why people are getting hooked on the stuff at home.

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sloopskipper says on Jun 8, 2008, 09:53:

The Royal Dutch Navy is also active in the Caribbean, probably mostly near The Netherland Antilles and St.Maarten.

When I lived in Puerto Rico these Dutch destroyers were regular visitors, and they could nearly fill the old customs house with stuff:

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miamimike says on Jun 8, 2008, 10:03:

SS--Is this the Pier "Muelle" in Ponce, PR?

"Wait a minute. What did you just say? You're predicting $4-a-gallon gas? That's interesting. I hadn't heard that." -- Feb. 28, 2008 --George W. Bush, Washington, D.C.

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sloopskipper says on Jun 8, 2008, 10:15:

No, Pier 1 in San Juan (Bay of San Juan). That was maybe 100 meters from my apartment.

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sloopskipper says on Jun 8, 2008, 10:34:

Here the view from my terrace, with the old customs house in the foreground. But, this "tin-can" is Spanish:

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We got them from all around the World, and I imagine most were patrolling in the Caribbean.

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miamimike says on Jun 8, 2008, 12:15:

Killer View! Do you know that Hamburger place in Old San Juan, beleive they call it "Los Dos Hermanos"? Best Burgers I ever ate!

"Wait a minute. What did you just say? You're predicting $4-a-gallon gas? That's interesting. I hadn't heard that." -- Feb. 28, 2008 --George W. Bush, Washington, D.C.

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sloopskipper says on Jun 8, 2008, 12:24:

You're not thinking of La Hamburguesa? But I think the name was a bit Spanglish, and maybe had changed names.

The one I am thinking of was a tiny, open-air restaurant (the birds would fly in and sit on the table), overlooking the Atlantic, a short distance from the capital building, on the road to VSJ. This place did the burgers over an open fire, and we ate there often. YUMMY!

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miamimike says on Jun 8, 2008, 12:32:

No, this place was like in a small sidestreet in Viejo San Juan. The place, electic in nature,draws a crowd from all walks of life from Business attired clients to a Bum in flip flops. It was enclosed and packed at Noontimes with a waiting line outside. Killer Burgers! And Cheap! One Burger made a Meal! This place didn't overlook the Atlantic, all the neighboring Bldgs overlooked it! LOL

"Wait a minute. What did you just say? You're predicting $4-a-gallon gas? That's interesting. I hadn't heard that." -- Feb. 28, 2008 --George W. Bush, Washington, D.C.

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sloopskipper says on Jun 8, 2008, 12:46:

Yeah, I had a great vista. I could even see Bacardí on the other side of the bay. Here is QM2 arriving on her maiden voyage, in the twilight.

I was never able to get a good foto. She scraped bottom on her departure, and I was quit sure she ran aground whil trying to anchor out becuase she was dead in the wter for quite some time.

They were building a new pier for her and beginning to dredge the harbor, when I left.

Photobucket

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sloopskipper says on Jun 8, 2008, 12:49:

That is strange, Mike. I lived there nearly three years and it's hard to imagine I wouldn't have discovered it. VSJ is not that big a place, and I walked EVERY street.

But, I'm wondering. There was a new restaurant, The Spanglish Café, on Calle Cruz, only about 30' off Plaza de Armas, and another one at the other end of the block.

Perhaps they sold out?

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miamimike says on Jun 8, 2008, 21:17:

Very possible they sold out and changed the name. Wow that QM2 needs a deep channel, esp if they enter or exit on low tide, LOL. Maybe thats what hung them up! I toured the SS United States when it was tied up in Norfolk('84) while its owners decided what they would do with it. I bought a Bag of memorbilia like ashtrays, towels, keys, postcards. Turns out they are now a Hot Seller an eBay. I love those old Classic Liners like the SS U.States--they had beautiful lines are were built for speed. The SS U.States could easily hit 30+ Knots at full throttle. All these new Cruise ships look like Top heavy Floating Hotel Boxes.

"1952, his dream became a reality when the SS United States crossed the North Atlantic in 3 days, 10 hours and 42 minutes averaging 35.59 knots (65.48 km/hr or 40.96 mph). The design characteristics encompassing the United States read straight out of a James Bond novel, many remaining classified by the Navy well into the late 70's:
Her 241,000 horsepower engines allowed her to reach a top speed of 43 knots (79.12 km/hr or 49.48 mph)* at 990'6" in length, she is the largest passenger vessel ever built in the United States."

49.48 MPH is really moving out for a large ship as the SS United States! Moreso considering the Era,,,

http://www.ssunitedstates.org/theship.htm

http://www.ss-united-states.com/

"Wait a minute. What did you just say? You're predicting $4-a-gallon gas? That's interesting. I hadn't heard that." -- Feb. 28, 2008 --George W. Bush, Washington, D.C.

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sloopskipper says on Jun 9, 2008, 07:54:

Being an old sea dog, I have found the history of The United States fascinating, especiallly the military invovlment and the secrecy regarding her speed and range.

In VSJ, I was hosting a party,

Photobucket

and I saw the Maasdam, steaming up the bay. She was soon followed by a sister ship:

I had never seen her before, but my late wife emigrated on her maiden voyage. It seemed eerie, as though my wife had come to the party.

She tied up at pier one, almost below my aprtment.

I formated that foto, printed it on linen paper, and it hangs on my wall.

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sloopskipper says on Jun 9, 2008, 08:02:

Man, I really hate that top of the hour edit timeout. It seems worse now than before.

Should have been FORMATTED!

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Mr. Hollywood says on Jun 9, 2008, 10:42:

Can I just say how much a loathe the British fascination with the Royals?

Nothing personal against Prince William, but it's not like he's charging into battle on the back of a charging stallion. So the guy's ship is deploying to the Caribbean, big deal. Last I checked, that was considered a glamourous and luxurious assignment. Funny how they spun it up to be a heroic one.

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