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10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/John F. Kennedy.md
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---
aliases:
- John F. Kennedy
- John Fitzgerald Kennedy
- JFK
- President Kennedy
- Kennedy
created: 2026-05-17
updated: 2026-10-05
category: "Political Figure"
tags:
- KeyFigure
- Person
- President
- Nuclear
- Israel
summary: "Kennedy's presidency was marked by a struggle with Israel over its nuclear ambitions, particularly concerning the Dimona reactor."
- Dimona
- CIA
- Assassination
- Cuba
- 1960s
summary: "Thirty-fifth President of the United States (1961-1963) whose Dimona diplomacy, Cuban operations and assassination on November 22, 1963 are documented in FRUS volumes, the Church Committee, the Warren Commission, the HSCA and the Review Board."
born: 1917-05-29
died: 1963-11-22
location: "Brookline, Massachusetts"
relations:
- type: head_of
with: "[[United States]]"
start: 1961-01-20
end: 1963-11-22
role: "35th President"
fn: 1
- type: appointed
with: "[[John McCone]]"
start: 1961-11-29
role: "Director of Central Intelligence, succeeding Allen Dulles"
fn: 4
- type: appointed
with: "[[Myer Feldman]]"
role: "presidential point man for Jewish and Israeli affairs, as described by Hersh; Feldman attended the December 27, 1962 meeting with Golda Meir"
fn: 2
- type: subject_of
with: "[[Warren Commission]]"
start: 1963
end: 1964
role: "Commission concluded Oswald alone fired the shots and found no evidence of conspiracy"
fn: 10
- type: subject_of
with: "[[House Select Committee on Assassinations]]"
end: 1979
role: "Committee concluded he was probably assassinated as a result of a conspiracy"
fn: 11
- type: subject_of
with: "[[Assassination Records Review Board]]"
start: 1994-04-11
end: 1998
role: "Board reviewed and released more than four million pages of assassination records"
fn: 13
---
John F. Kennedy, born in Brookline, Massachusetts on May 29, 1917 and killed in Dallas on November 22, 1963, served as the 35th President of the [[United States]] from January 20, 1961.[^1] The record below covers his policy toward the Israeli nuclear program, the Cuban operations of his administration, and the successive official inquiries into his death.
John F. Kennedy was the 35th President of the [[United States]], serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963. He was intellectually and emotionally committed to a halt in the spread of nuclear weapons, with nonproliferation being a topic he would discuss for hours.[^1]
### Dimona and nonproliferation
Kennedy's presidency was marked by a struggle with [[Israel]] over its nuclear ambitions, particularly concerning the [[Dimona]] reactor. He established himself as firmly opposed to the Israeli bomb, and his administration insisted on American inspection teams being permitted full and unfettered access to [[Dimona]]. This stance was met with resistance from [[David Ben-Gurion]] and [[Shimon Peres]], who sought to protect the secret.[^1]
The journalist [[Seymour Hersh]] wrote that Kennedy was intellectually and emotionally committed to halting the spread of nuclear weapons, that the administration insisted on American inspectors having full access to [[Dimona]], and that [[David Ben-Gurion]] and [[Shimon Peres]] resisted. Hersh wrote that Kennedy angrily told his friend [[Charles L. Bartlett]] that the Israelis "lie to me constantly about their nuclear capability," that Kennedy appointed [[Myer Feldman]] as point man for Jewish and Israeli affairs, a post that created "bureaucratic chaos" because of Feldman's pro-Israel bias, and that the "surprising" appointment of [[John McCone]] as Director of Central Intelligence reflected Kennedy's view of nonproliferation, which McCone shared.[^2] McCone, as chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission, had been at [[Dwight D. Eisenhower]]'s December 19, 1960 meeting on the reactor, where he urged IAEA safeguards, and succeeded [[Allen Dulles]] as Director on November 29, 1961.[^3][^4]
Kennedy continued to pressure [[David Ben-Gurion]] throughout 1962 about international inspection, receiving bland and irritating assurances that [[Israel]] had no intention of becoming an atomic power. He angrily told his friend [[Charles L. Bartlett]] that the Israelis "lie to me constantly about their nuclear capability." In what amounted to a direct move against Ben-Gurion's leadership, Kennedy invited Foreign Minister [[Golda Meir]], one of Ben-Gurion's leading critics, to his [[Palm Beach, Florida]], home for a private talk in late December 1962. During this meeting, Kennedy made an extraordinary private commitment to [[Israel]]'s defense, stating that in case of an invasion, the [[United States]] would come to [[Israel]]'s support.[^2]
The historian [[Marc Trachtenberg]] wrote the opposite reading: that Kennedy's policy on Israel's program was "rather lax, at least until 1963"; that the May 1961 meeting with Ben-Gurion "was relaxed and the president was friendly" although Ben-Gurion made clear Israel was keeping its nuclear option open; that the first visit to Dimona, arranged by the Israelis outside regular channels, was a guided tour by two American physicists who reported "no evidence of weapons-related activity"; that Kennedy's national security adviser [[McGeorge Bundy]] later admitted the inspections "were not as seriously and rigorously conducted as they would have had to be to get the real story"; and that the historian Avner Cohen called the period from May 1961 to March 1963 a "long slumber" before real pressure began in mid-1963.[^5]
Despite his tough stance, Kennedy's political needs, particularly the significant Jewish vote that contributed to his narrow victory in 1960, complicated his approach to Israeli issues. He appointed [[Myer Feldman]] as his presidential point man for Jewish and Israeli affairs, a position that created bureaucratic chaos due to Feldman's strong pro-Israel bias.[^1]
The Foreign Relations of the United States volumes record two exchanges. At the Palm Beach meeting of December 27, 1962, Kennedy told Foreign Minister [[Golda Meir]]: "I think it is quite clear that in case of an invasion the United States would come to the support of Israel. We have that capacity and it is growing." He added that he would hope Israel "would give consideration to our problems on this atomic reactor. We are opposed to nuclear proliferation," and the memorandum records that "Mrs. Meir reassured the President that there would not be any difficulty between us on the Israeli nuclear reactor." The same memorandum lists the Hawk missile among the sources of strain, and Kennedy referred to "our actions with respect to the Jordan waters, Hawks, and aid."[^6]
Kennedy's relationship with [[David Ben-Gurion]] became increasingly strained due to the ongoing correspondence about [[Israel]]'s bomb program. Ben-Gurion's responses were often perceived as evasive and even rude by Kennedy. The President's apprehension about the Israeli bomb was a factor in his surprising appointment of [[John McCone|John A. McCone]] as [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] director, who shared Kennedy's strong views on nonproliferation.[^1]
On May 18, 1963, in a letter transmitted through the State Department to Ambassador Barbour, Kennedy wrote to Ben-Gurion: "I am sure you will agree that there is no more urgent business for the whole world than the control of nuclear weapons," recalled that "when we spoke together in May 1961 you said that we might make whatever use we wished of the information resulting from the first visit of American scientists to Dimona and that you would agree to further visits by neutrals as well," and wrote that "development of a nuclear weapons capability by Israel would almost certainly lead other larger countries, that have so far refrained from such development, to feel that they must follow suit." He wrote that he saw "no present or imminent nuclear threat to Israel" from the United Arab Republic and that "we have the capacity to check" any contrary information, and pressed for "your Government's early assent to the proposal first put to you by Ambassador Barbour on April 2." Four and a half lines of the source text remain classified.[^7]
In mid-1962, Kennedy's administration authorized the sale of Hawk surface-to-air missiles to [[Israel]], a major departure from past policy of selling no weaponry to [[Israel]]. This decision was linked to [[Israel]]'s agreement to permit American inspection teams into [[Dimona]], though these inspections were largely a whitewash, with [[Israel]] controlling the visits and concealing the true nature of the facility.[^1]
Hersh wrote that in mid-1962 the administration authorized the sale of Hawk surface-to-air missiles to Israel, a departure from past policy, linked to Israel's agreement to allow inspection teams at Dimona, and that the inspections were "largely a whitewash." Hersh wrote that Kennedy invited Meir, one of Ben-Gurion's leading critics, to Palm Beach as "a direct move against Ben-Gurion's leadership." Hersh also wrote that a memorandum from Bundy to Kennedy dated November 22, 1963 indicated a change in policy toward the French, allowing France to use the [[Nevada]] test site for underground testing. Hersh is the sole source for the passages so cited.[^2]
Kennedy's persistent pressure on [[Israel]] stemmed from his belief that [[Israel]] had not yet developed any nuclear weapons and was not yet a proliferator. There is evidence that once [[Israel]] actually began manufacturing bombs, Kennedy was prepared to be pragmatic. While he remained resolutely opposed to a nuclear [[Israel]] to the end, he did change his mind about [[Charles de Gaulle|de Gaulle]]'s bombs. A memorandum from [[McGeorge Bundy]] to the President, dated November 22, 1963, the day of Kennedy's assassination, indicated a change in policy toward the French, suggesting cooperation and allowing them to use the [[Nevada]] test site for underground testing.[^2]
### Cuba and the CIA
The Church Committee's chronology records that Allen Dulles approved on December 11, 1959 that "thorough consideration be given to the elimination of Fidel Castro"; that in late 1960 [[Johnny Roselli]] and Robert Maheu met a CIA support chief; that in March 1961 Kennedy told Senator George Smathers he disapproved of assassination; that Roselli passed poison pills to a Cuban in Miami in April 1961; that the Bay of Pigs invasion failed on April 15 to 17, 1961; that Operation MONGOOSE was created in November 1961 and ended in November 1962; and that in April 1962 William Harvey made contact with Roselli and passed him poison pills in Miami. The Committee wrote that "United States Government personnel plotted to kill Castro from 1960 to 1965," using American underworld figures and Cuban exiles.[^4][^8] See [[Operation Mongoose]], [[Bay of Pigs]] and [[Operation NORTHWOODS]].
The Select Committee's account of the final months states that on October 29, 1963 [[Desmond Fitzgerald]], head of the CIA's Special Affairs Staff, met the Cuban official code-named AMLASH ([[Rolando Cubela]]), told him he was the "personal representative" of Attorney General Robert Kennedy and stated that the United States would support a coup; that on November 22, 1963, at a pre-arranged meeting, a CIA case officer told AMLASH he would be provided rifles with telescopic sights and explosives and offered a poison pen device; and that the case officer referred to the President's November 18 speech in Miami as an indication of presidential support, telling AMLASH that Fitzgerald had helped write the speech. DCI McCone testified that he was not aware of the AMLASH assassination effort.[^9]
### The Warren Commission, the Senate and the House
The Warren Commission reported that the shots which killed Kennedy and wounded Governor Connally were fired from the sixth floor window of the Texas School Book Depository, were fired by [[Lee Harvey Oswald]], and that it "found no evidence that either Lee Harvey Oswald or Jack Ruby was part of any conspiracy, domestic or foreign, to assassinate President Kennedy."[^10]
The Senate Select Committee's Book V (1976) reported that "the Warren Commission was not given information about CIA attempts to assassinate foreign leaders" and was unaware of the full extent of agency operations against Cuba; it quoted the Commission counsel David Belin that "at no time did the CIA disclose to the Warren Commission any facts which pertained to alleged assassination plans to kill Fidel Castro."[^9] The House Select Committee on Assassinations quoted the Senate committee that "why senior officials of the FBI and the CIA permitted the investigation to go forward, in light of these deficiencies, and why they permitted the Warren Commission to reach its conclusion without all relevant information is still unclear," and that "the possibility exists that senior officials in both agencies made conscious decisions not to disclose potentially important information." It found that the CIA also withheld from the Commission its information on a conversation of Luisa Calderón, a Cuban consulate employee in Mexico City, about five hours after the assassination in which she indicated possible foreknowledge.[^11]
The House Select Committee's finding was that "President John F. Kennedy was probably assassinated as a result of a conspiracy. The Committee is unable to identify the other gunman or the extent of the conspiracy." It also found, on the evidence available to it, that the Soviet and Cuban governments were not involved; that anti-Castro Cuban groups, as groups, and the national syndicate of organized crime, as a group, were not involved, though the evidence did not preclude the involvement of individual members; and that the Secret Service, FBI and CIA were not involved.[^11]
### Joannides and the Directorio Revolucionario Estudiantil
In 2003 the journalist [[Jefferson Morley]] filed a Freedom of Information Act request for CIA records on George E. Joannides, the CIA case officer for the anti-Castro [[Directorio Revolucionario Estudiantil]] in 1963, a group whose members had contact with Oswald in the months before the assassination, and for records on Joannides's selection as the agency's liaison to the House Select Committee in May 1978. The CIA answered that it could "neither confirm nor deny" the existence of records on his participation in covert operations; the D.C. Circuit in 2007 reversed summary judgment for the CIA and in 2013 remanded a fee dispute, and in December 2004 the CIA released three documents in full and 112 with redactions.[^12]
### The Assassination Records Review Board
Congress passed the President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act of 1992, which President Bush signed on October 26, 1992; the Review Board's members were sworn in on April 11, 1994. The Board's final report states that Congress, "frustrated by the lack of access and disturbed by the conclusions of [[Oliver Stone]]'s JFK," passed the Act, and that its legacy is "more than four million pages of records" in the National Archives. Its list of accomplishments includes opening previously redacted CIA Directorate of Operations records, releasing 99 percent of the "Hardway/Lopez Report" on CIA records of Oswald's trip to Mexico City, arranging the first known authenticity study of the Zapruder film, and acquiring original notes of Oswald's Dallas Police interrogation.[^13] See [[Assassination Records Review Board]] and [[Church Committee]].
### Footnotes
[^1]: Hersh, Seymour M. *The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy*. Random House, 1991. Chapter 8.
[^2]: Hersh, Seymour M. *The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy*. Random House, 1991. Chapter 9.
[^1]: Miller Center, University of Virginia, "John F. Kennedy" (born May 29, 1917, Brookline, Massachusetts; inaugurated January 20, 1961; term ended November 22, 1963). https://millercenter.org/president/kennedy
[^2]: Hersh, Seymour M. *The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy.* Random House, 1991, chs. 8 and 9. Sole source for the passages so cited.
[^3]: "The U.S. Discovery of Israel's Secret Nuclear Project," Wilson Center and National Security Archive, record of the meeting of December 19, 1960, Dwight D. Eisenhower Library. https://www.wilsoncenter.org/publication/the-us-discovery-israels-secret-nuclear-project
[^4]: U.S. Senate, Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities, *The Investigation of the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy: Performance of the Intelligence Agencies*, Book V, S. Rept. 94-755, 1976, chronology of the Castro plots ("November 29, John McCone succeeds Allen Dulles as Director, CIA"). https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/sites/default/files/94755_V.pdf
[^5]: Trachtenberg, Marc. "Appendix Eight (Chapter Nine, Note 134): Kennedy and the Israeli Nuclear Program," to *A Constructed Peace*. https://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/polisci/faculty/trachtenberg/appendices/appendixVIII.html
[^6]: Memorandum of conversation, Palm Beach, December 27, 1962 (participants: the President, Foreign Minister Golda Meir, Ambassador Harman, Myer Feldman, Phillips Talbot, Robert Komer), *Foreign Relations of the United States, 1961-1963*, Volume XVIII, Near East, 1962-1963 (Washington: GPO, 2000); text as reproduced at https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/US-Israel/FRUS12_27_62-2.html
[^7]: Telegram from the Department of State to the Embassy in Israel transmitting the President's letter to Prime Minister Ben-Gurion, May 18, 1963, *Foreign Relations of the United States, 1961-1963*, Volume XVIII, Document 258; text as reproduced at https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/US-Israel/FRUS5_18_63.html and listed at https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1961-63v18/d258
[^8]: U.S. Senate, Select Committee, *Alleged Assassination Plots Involving Foreign Leaders: An Interim Report*, 1975, summary of findings on Fidel Castro. https://archive.org/details/allegedassassina00unit
[^9]: Senate Select Committee, Book V (1976), sections on AMLASH and the Warren Commission's information (pp. 99 and following of the chronology; Belin quotation). https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/sites/default/files/94755_V.pdf
[^10]: *Report of the President's Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy* (Warren Commission), 1964, ch. 1, "Summary and Conclusions." https://www.archives.gov/research/jfk/warren-commission-report/chapter-1
[^11]: U.S. House of Representatives, Select Committee on Assassinations, *Report*, 1979, findings and sections on the CIA and the Warren Commission. https://www.archives.gov/research/jfk/select-committee-report/part-1c and /part-1d
[^12]: *Morley v. Central Intelligence Agency*, 508 F.3d 1108 (D.C. Cir. Dec. 7, 2007) (Rogers, J.); *Morley v. Central Intelligence Agency*, 719 F.3d 689 (D.C. Cir. June 18, 2013) (per curiam, Kavanaugh, J., concurring). https://static.case.law/f3d/508/cases/1108-01.json ; https://static.case.law/f3d/719/cases/0689-01.json
[^13]: Assassination Records Review Board, *Final Report*, September 30, 1998, Introduction, "Executive Summary" and accomplishments list. https://www.archives.gov/research/jfk/review-board/report/arrb-final-report.txt

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10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Jose Santacruz Londono.md
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---
title: Jose Santacruz Londono
aliases:
- Jose Santacruz Londono
- José Santacruz Londoño
- Jose Santacruz-Londono
- Jose Santa Cruz Londono
- Jose Santa-Cruz Londono
- Santacruz Londono
- Chepe Santacruz
- Londono
created: 2026-05-17
updated: 2026-10-05
category: "Organized Crime"
tags:
- Person
- OrganizedCrime
- Cartel
summary: "Londono was a target of a major DEA Centac investigation, which led to his indictment in Los Angeles and New York in 1978."
born: 1943-10-01
died: 1996-03-05
- CaliCartel
- Cocaine
- TheOctopus
- Colombia
summary: "Colombian cocaine trafficker and Cali cartel leader, investigated in New York from 1979, whom a federal court found had ordered the 1992 killing of the journalist Manuel de Dios Unanue."
location: "Cali, Colombia"
died: 1996-03-05
relations:
- type: member_of
with: "[[Cali Drug Cartel]]"
role: "leader with the Rodríguez Orejuela brothers; head of the 'Santa Cruz Family' of the cartel"
fn: 1
- type: prosecuted
with: "[[United States Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York]]"
reverse: true
start: 1985
role: "ten-count indictment in No. 85 CR 596 (E.D.N.Y.) naming Santa-Cruz Londono and seven others"
fn: 3
- type: investigated
with: "[[DEA]]"
reverse: true
start: 1979
role: "New York investigation of his organization; New York Drug Enforcement Task Force arrests in October 1985"
fn: 4
- type: participant_in
with: "[[Murder of Manuel de Dios Unanue]]"
start: 1991-11
end: 1992-03-11
role: "found by the Eastern District of New York to have issued the $50,000 contract from Cali"
fn: 7
---
[[Jose Santacruz Londono]] was a key figure in the [[Cali Drug Cartel]], a powerful Colombian drug trafficking organization that, by 1994, controlled a significant portion of the world's cocaine trade. He was often mentioned alongside [[Gilberto Rodriguez Orejuela|Gilberto Rodriguez]] as a leader of the cartel.[1]
José Santacruz Londoño was a leader of the [[Cali Drug Cartel]], named alongside [[Miguel Rodriguez Orejuela]] and [[Gilberto Rodriguez Orejuela]] in the 1997 congressional statement of the [[DEA]]'s Chief of Operations, which said the three were building "the most prolific and successful criminal enterprise in history" while the [[Colombian National Police]] was dismantling the [[Medellin Cartel|Medellín Cartel]].[^1] He was shot to death by police outside [[Medellin|Medellín]] on March 5, 1996, two months after escaping from La Picota prison in [[Bogota|Bogotá]].[^2]
Londono was a target of a major [[DEA|DEA]] Centac investigation, which led to his indictment in Los Angeles and New York in 1978. However, these cases reportedly did not progress beyond the indictment phase, and the Centac 21 task force was dismantled during the [[Ronald Reagan]] and [[George H.W. Bush]] administrations, leading to suspicions among disgruntled [[DEA|DEA]] agents of a [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] connection.[1]
### The Eastern District of New York cases
His name surfaced in connection with [[Michael Riconosciuto]]'s claims that [[Robert Booth Nichols]] paid [[Michael Abbell]] to "crowbar" the extradition of Londono and [[Gilberto Rodriguez Orejuela|Gilberto Rodriguez]], as they were considered "intelligence people."[1]
The federal court in Brooklyn described him in 1993 as the head of a Colombian conglomerate, the Cali cartel, that allegedly imported about 3,000 kilograms of cocaine a month into the [[United States]] and used bank accounts throughout the United States, Europe, and Central and South America to store and move its proceeds. An international letter rogatory from the Eastern District of New York, quoted by the Second Circuit, described the government's investigation of Santacruz-Londono "since 1979."[^3]
Londono's activities were also part of the broader "[[The Octopus]]" investigation conducted by [[Danny Casolaro]], which sought to expose the interconnectedness of organized crime, drug trafficking, and intelligence operations.[1]
The earliest case in the published record is No. 85 CR 596 (E.D.N.Y.), a ten-count narcotics indictment naming Jose Santa-Cruz Londono, Jose Omar Sanchez, Jairo Escobar, Fouad Hazzi, Angelica Carvajal, Soffy Mejia Carvajal, Luz Marina Carvajal and Luis Soto Garcia. On October 28 and 29, 1985, officers of the New York Drug Enforcement Task Force arrested Jairo Escobar at a house in Bayside, Queens, where a telephone warrant issued by Judge Henry Bramwell at about 11:40 p.m. led to the discovery of cash, jewelry, false identification and "a memo book listing information relating to customers of the Jose Santa-Cruz Londono cocaine trafficking organization." Sanchez, described as indicted "for his alleged role as a primary distributor in the Jose Santa-Cruz Londono cocaine trafficking organization," was stopped by agents near his Old Westbury, Long Island residence, and a wallet taken from him held documents that, in the agents' opinions, reflected narcotics quantities, cash amounts and code names of known customers of "the Jose Santa-Cruz Londono network." Judge Joseph McLaughlin ruled on the suppression motions on May 4, 1987.[^4]
### Luxembourg arrests and the 1992 forfeiture trial
Three associates of Santacruz-Londono were arrested in Luxembourg on June 28 and 29, 1990. According to the Second Circuit, they had opened hundreds of bank accounts throughout Europe and deposited large sums for the cartel. Luxembourg authorities asked several countries to freeze funds, and in July and August 1990 a series of electronic transfers through New York intermediary banks was attached through oral orders and eight in rem arrest warrants naming "all funds on deposit" in the names of persons and entities connected with Santacruz-Londono. A two-month jury trial before Judge Jack Weinstein began on March 9, 1992. The government's evidence included bank records from around the world, documents seized by the Colombian National Police in Cali, and the testimony of former cartel members, DEA agents, a Luxembourg police officer, an Internal Revenue Service investigator, a customs official and an accountant; it linked Santacruz-Londono's proceeds to Panamanian and Colombian shell corporations, while the claimants maintained that the funds came from clothing sales. The court of appeals recorded that he "had already been indicted in this country for various narcotics and money-laundering violations," and Agent Michaelis was allowed to testify as an expert on Santacruz-Londono's money-laundering techniques.[^3]
### The de Dios Unanue contract
In a 1994 memorandum, Judge Edward Korman summarized evidence from the trial of Wilson Alejandro Mejia-Velez: [[Manuel de Dios Unanue]], a journalist and former editor of New York's largest Spanish daily, was shot in the head in a Queens restaurant on March 11, 1992, and was "singled out for execution by Jose Santa Cruz Londono, head of the 'Santa Cruz Family' of the cartel" because of his "scathing exposes" of the cartel. In November 1991, from Cali, Londono issued a contract offering $50,000. He passed it to his aide Guillermo Leon Restrepo Gaviria, who kept $30,000 and handed the $20,000 contract to John Harold Mena, head of the family's "New York Office." Mena offered it to Juan Carlos Velasco, who, after aborted attempts, subcontracted it in February 1992, when Londono "became impatient," to Jose James Benitez and Elkin Farley Salazar, who recruited Mejia-Velez as the gunman for $7,000. Velasco's wife, Diane Elizabeth Castaño, showed the men a photograph of de Dios and took them to the Meson Asturias restaurant, and Mena paid the balance the next day.[^5] Castaño pleaded guilty on October 21, 1992 to using a telephone to facilitate a murder-for-hire, and the Second Circuit affirmed her resentencing in 2000.[^6]
### Lawyers for the Cali cartel
The Southern District of Florida case No. 93-0470-CR is a nine-count indictment of fifty-nine defendants charging racketeering conspiracy, conspiracy to import and distribute cocaine and conspiracy to launder money. Two of the defendants, the lawyers [[Michael Abbell]] of Washington and [[William Moran]] of Miami, were charged on the theory that their acts furthered "promoting and protecting the Cali Cartel's drug importation and distribution network." Search warrants on their offices were executed on September 9, 1994, on the strength of an affidavit by a Customs agent that described calls from Abbell's office to numbers in Cali for Miguel Rodríguez Orejuela.[^7]
### Escape and death
The Associated Press reported on March 6, 1996 that Santacruz, 54, regarded as the number three leader of the Cali cartel, was killed on Tuesday night when police intercepted his Chevrolet four-wheel-drive shortly after 11 p.m. in Medellín, "once home to a rival drug gang." A police patrol had chased the vehicle after an informant's tip, said General Alfredo Salgado, the Medellín police commander. He had fled La Picota prison on January 11, "apparently with the help of corrupt prison guards," and U.S. officials were described as furious. The killing came a week after President [[Bill Clinton]] cut some U.S. aid to Colombia partly because of evidence of drug money in the campaign of President [[Ernesto Samper Pizano]], who said the manhunt was "a way of showing the world that this country is not an executioner but is rather the main victim of drug trafficking."[^2]
### Allegations in the Casolaro material
According to [[Cheri Seymour]], [[Michael Riconosciuto]] told [[Danny Casolaro]] and her that [[Robert Booth Nichols]] paid Abbell to "crowbar" a Justice Department inquiry that would have led to the extradition of Gilberto Rodríguez Orejuela and Santacruz Londoño, whom Nichols considered "intelligence people"; she places Santacruz Londoño among the figures of Casolaro's "[[The Octopus]]" investigation. Seymour also wrote that Santacruz Londoño and Rodríguez Orejuela were targets of a DEA Centac investigation that produced indictments in Los Angeles and New York in 1978, that those cases did not go beyond indictment, and that disgruntled DEA agents suspected a [[Central Intelligence Agency]] connection after the Centac 21 task force was dismantled under the [[Ronald Reagan]] and [[George H.W. Bush]] administrations. Sole source for the passages so cited; the New York court record dates the investigation to 1979 and the indictment in No. 85 CR 596 to 1985.[^8]
---
### Footnotes
[1] Seymour, Cheri. *The Last Circle: Danny Casolaro’s Investigation into the Octopus and the PROMIS Software Scandal*. First Edition. TrineDay, 2010.
[^1]: Statement of Donnie Marshall, Chief of Operations, Drug Enforcement Administration, Subcommittee on National Security, International Affairs and Criminal Justice, July 9, 1997. https://irp.fas.org/congress/1997_hr/h970709m.htm
[^2]: Associated Press, "Colombian Police Kill No. 3 Drug Kingpin," *Deseret News*, March 6, 1996. https://www.deseret.com/1996/3/6/19229025/colombian-police-kill-no-3-drug-kingpin/
[^3]: *United States v. Daccarett*, 6 F.3d 37 (2d Cir. 1993) (appeal from the 1992 trial in *United States v. All Funds on Deposit in Any Accounts Maintained in Names of Meza, et al.*). https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/8619261/united-states-v-daccarett/
[^4]: *United States v. Londono*, 659 F. Supp. 758 (E.D.N.Y. May 4, 1987) (No. 85 CR 596(S)), pp. 760-61, 764-65. https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/1957276/united-states-v-londono/
[^5]: *United States v. Mejia-Valez*, 855 F. Supp. 607, 608-10 (E.D.N.Y. June 15, 1994) (Korman, J.). https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/1973343/united-states-v-mejia-valez/
[^6]: *United States v. Castaño*, 234 F.3d 111 (2d Cir. 2000). https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/771330/united-states-v-elizabeth-castano/
[^7]: *United States v. Abbell*, 926 F. Supp. 1545 (S.D. Fla. 1996) (No. 93-0470-CR), https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/2280404/united-states-v-abbell/; *United States v. Abbell*, 963 F. Supp. 1178 (S.D. Fla. 1997), https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/1645124/united-states-v-abbell/
[^8]: Seymour, Cheri. *The Last Circle: Danny Casolaro's Investigation into the Octopus and the PROMIS Software Scandal.* TrineDay, 2010. Not re-verified against the book.