Gilberto Rodríguez Orejuela once ran 80% of the world market
Save time by listening to our audio articles as you multitaskThis was true, up to a point. As the owner of Drogas La Rebaja he ran a chain of 400 pharmacies across the country, employing 4,000 people. That was his first and real vocation. As a boy of 13 he had run deliveries for a local pharmacy, cycling in the stupefying heat of siesta hour to take medicines to an elderly woman on a ranch.
He had started early on this path, altering drug prices in his delivery-boy days. Friends then persuaded him to try car theft, then marijuana-trafficking, then cocaine. When he saw how vast that market was, it tickled his ambition to make money not merely for himself but for the family, as before. It was a valid enough reason.
At first, following his cooler instincts, he and Medellín had co-operated. A prominent member of that cartel, Jorge Luis Ochoa, went with him to Spain. Pablo Escobar, the boss of Medellín, treated him pragmatically. They fell out mostly over the New York market, and by 1987 were such enemies that Medellín bombs blew up 85 of his stores.
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