columbia

In the mid-1990s, the Cali cartel finally broke infamous drug lord Pablo Escobar's stranglehold on Colombia's vibrant cocaine trade to reign over a $7-billion illegal industry -- until one man brought the entire operation down. Facing impossible choices in his homeland, Jorge Salcedo, a mild-mannered former Cali cartel security expert, found salvation by becoming a key informant for the Drug Enforcement Administration. Fueled largely by Salcedo's insider testimony, Cali crumbled. More than a decade later, the cartel's shocking downfall remains the single biggest victory in the United States' war on international drug trafficking. Salcedo's story is told in riveting detail in "At the ...