Berliner Tageblatt - Ex-Cali Cartel boss 'Chess Player' dies in US prison

"We are saddened for the passing of Gilberto yesterday evening," said David Oscar Markus in an email, without specifying the cause of death.

Nicknamed "The Chess Player," Rodriguez Orejuela was considered to be one of the world's biggest drug lords following the 1993 death of Pablo Escobar, the leader of the rival Medellin Cartel.

Along with his younger brother Miguel -- who is also detained in the United States -- Rodriguez Orejuela ran the Cali Cartel out of the western Colombian city of the same name.

After his capture in 1995, "The Chess Player" was sentenced to 15 years in prison in Colombia, but was released after only seven.

He was then arrested again in 2003 and held in a Colombian prison until being extradited to the United States in December 2004.

He and his brother were eventually sentenced to 30 years in prison each for trafficking 200 tons of cocaine into the United States.

According to US authorities, the Cali Cartel controlled up to 80 percent of the cocaine trade to the United States at its peak in the mid-1990s.

J.Bergmann--BTB