The
Medellín Cartel was an organized network of drug suppliers and smugglers originating in the city of
Medellín,
Colombia. The
drug cartel operated in
Bolivia,
Colombia,
Honduras,
Peru, the
United States, as well as
Canada and
Europe throughout the 1970s and 1980s. It was founded and run by Ochoa Vázquez brothers
Jorge Luis,
Juan David, and
Fabio, together with
Pablo Escobar and
José Gonzalo Rodríguez Gacha. By 1993, the highly effective resistance group,
Los Pepes (or PEPES), controlled by the
Cali Cartel, and the Colombian government, in collaboration with the
Cali Cartel,
right-wing paramilitary groups, and the
United States government, had successfully dismantled the Medellín Cartel by imprisoning or assassinating its members.