Javier Peña and Carlos Castaño in “Unfinished Business”

Javier Peña

[narrating] Chepe Santacruz never did make it back to New York. Without the government's guarantee that their sentences would be minimal, Chepe decided that prison wasn't the best place for him to be. And so he released himself, and set out in search of new alliances with partners who could help him rebuild the empire. You won't believe who he chose.

Don Chepe. I was happy to get your call.

Javier Peña

[continues narrating] Predictably, it wasn't much of a partnership. It seems the Castaños expected a larger contribution to their cause than Chepe was comfortable making. So the alliance died quickly, and Chepe Santacruz's wild ride came to an end. Pacho Herrera didn't fare much better staying in jail. Vendettas in the drug game never end. And Pacho's war on the Salazars made him some lifelong North Valley enemies. [a thug shoots Pacho in prison yard as he drinks with a friend] And as for the Rodríguez-Orejuela brothers, political pressure from the US and a disgraced Colombian president, who needed to prove he was tough on narcos, brought back the only effective weapon we have in the war on drugs: extradition.[they are sent on a plane bound for the US] All out of favors, and unlikely to find more, they will spend the rest of their lives in a US prison. The good guys didn't do much better. [el Semana headline: DELATAR SI PAGA (BETRAYAL PAYS)] Back in Colombia, Jorge Salcedo was publicly branded a rat. And in the States, despite testimony that he was instrumental to our efforts to capture and prosecute the Cali godfathers, he still had to plead guilty to felony conspiracy charges. [cut to Jorge Salcedo working at an auto shop and ordering at a McDonald's] And from there, Jorge Salcedo, the guy who had the most to do with bringing down the Cali cartel, disappeared into the Federal Witness Protection Program somewhere in the US. A prison of its own.