El cartel de los sapos / The Snitch Cartel

The film version of El Cartel de los Sapos opening May 2011 and starring Manolo Cardona and Tom Sizemore, presents the inside story of Colombia’s drug world as told by Carmelo, a key player in the Norte del Valle Cartel. As the son of a hired gunman, Carmelo grew up to become chief of security for Diego Montoya, head of the notorious Norte del Valle Cartel. The key position he played within the extradited drug lord’s organization allowed him to be a privileged witness and leading player in the war that consumed the cartel. The book walks the reader through each and every aspect of Montoya’s drug empire, from the workings of the dangerous kitchens,” (drug labs) reconnaissance missions for new drug routes to evade the authorities, and the shocking links to members of Colombia’s Fuerza Publica as well as renowned politicians. El cartel de los sapos 2 unveils previously unknown aspects of the relationship between the drug mafias and paramilitary groups, the role the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (or AUC, in Spanish), and the internal conflicts during the Santa Fe de Ralito summit. The story also throws some light into the possible authors of the assassination of presidential candidate Alvaro Gomez Hurtado in November of 1995, and reveals who orderedand who carried outthe murder of Wilber Varela, alias Jabon, one of the most prominent leaders of the drug cartel, and the murder of Danilo Gonzalez, the former police chief who retired from the force to sell his expertise to high ranking drug dealers. The story is so accurately portrayed, readers will feel they are live witnesses of a world where the price for a transgression is a life, and the fight for power and territory is synonymous with bloodbath. It also explains the origin of the merciless war which, in the end, led to the capture of the drunk and miserly Diego Montoya and the end of the Norte del Valle Cartel.