Suggested activities. g Write out the sentences from the text which mean that:

g Write out the sentences from the text which mean that:

1 Rodriguez did not know all the money-freight operators in Panama.

2 Money-freight operations made a big industry in Panama.

3 Some American bankers had been arrested for cooperation with drug dealers.

h Sum up what the text said about Rodriguez and Air Cash service industry.

i Agree or disagree and support your point of view:

If Rodriguez had not been arrested these money-freight operations would not have been revealed.

j Use your imagination and write a short account of how Rodriguez was arrested.

k Write down a summary of the four texts on the drug wars in Asia and Panama.

Section 2: Colombia

Pre-reading questions:

1. Where is Colombia located?

2. Is this country associated with drugs?

3. Have you heard anything about the Cali cartel?

Text 1

So the Cali cartel, once the world's most powerful criminal organisation, is dead, is it? The cartel's top bosses, most famously the Rodriguez Orejuela brothers, are now behind bars.

Until now, the biggest Cali bosses appeared to be safely behind bars. Too safe, complained American officials, who alleged that they have been running their drugs businesses from the comfort of their prison cells. The brutal slayings inside jail of two of Colombia's most notorious traffickers this month have silenced such talk. Now, the fear is that an all-out war might break out between the Cali has-beens and their putative successors.

On November 5th, a well-dressed man posing as a lawyer strolled on to the football pitch inside the Palmira maximum security prison near Cali. He warmly embraced Helmer «Pacho» Herrera – a top dog in the Cali mob – and, in front of Herrera's teammates, shot him six times in the head. Eight days later, Orlando Henao Montoya – the head of the Valle cartel. Call's one-time ally – was gunned down in another maximum-security prison. This time, it was Pacho's paraplegic brother who fired the shots from his electric wheelchair.

When the Cali leaders were rounded up in 1995 and 1996, Colombian and American authorities declared the mob shattered. But recent events suggest that, like the Valle mob, it remains a force to be reckoned with. The murders may be a sign that the mutual respect that once existed between the gangs is giving way to a power struggle. Equally worrying, say intelligence men, are signs that the biggest of the traffickers still at large are regrouping their operations.

Дата добавления: 2015-07-19