Changes in Leadership
The chiefs of the Norte del Valle cartel at one time included Orlando Henao a.k.a. "el hombre del overol" ("The overall man"), Montìguéz Franco a.k.a "Monty", Diego León Montoya Sánchez, a.k.a. "Don Diego", Wilber Varela, a.k.a. "Jabón" ("Soap"), and Juan Carlos Ramírez Abadía, a.k.a. "Chupeta" ("Lollipop"). Until his capture in late 2007 Diego Montoya was part of the list containing the FBI's Ten Most Wanted Fugitives.
Fierce rivalries that divided the cartel into warring factions erupted in 2003 when Hernando Gómez, Wilber Varela and their inner circle, prompted by a rising number of extradition of cartel members to the United States, apparently attempted to negotiate a possible surrender deal with the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), in a move which was strongly rejected by Diego Montoya and several of the other cartel drug lords. After a failed hit on Varela left him in the hospital with multiple gunshots, Varela declared war on Diego Montoya who he held responsible for the attack.
This situation led to brutal gang warfare, which left a deathtoll of more than 1,000 people between 2003 and 2004 throughout different northern locations of the Valle del Cauca department.
The consequences of such an internal vendetta led Colombian authorities to intervene in order to increase law enforcement efforts against the cartel, which resulted in the 2004 arrest of some 100 assassins in the employ of both rival factions, and in the 2005 capture of Varela's close associate Julio César López (alias "Ojitos", or "Small Eyes"), and Montoya's chief hatchetman, Carlos José Robayo Escobar (alias "Guacamayo", or "Macaw"), among others. On June 4, 2008 Julio César López was sentenced to 45 years in federal prison by a federal court in New York. More than $100 million worth in properties and luxury assets was also seized, along with an almost complete fiberglass narco submarine that would have been built by the cartel in order to smuggle drugs into the United States and other foreign countries.
All of these events may have influenced several members of the Norte del Valle cartel to seek a deal with Colombian and U.S. drug enforcement authorities during late 2004 and early 2005, whether through direct negotiation proposals or employing the possible protection that they may gain through the infiltration of the AUC's then ongoing peace negotiations with the Colombian government.
Diego Montoya was captured in Colombia on September 10, 2007. Wilber Varela was killed in the Venezuelan city of Mérida.
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