Juan Carlos Ramirez Abadia, a reputed drug trafficker who recently rose to the top of Colombia's powerful Cali cartel, surrendered Friday and agreed to cooperate with authorities in exchange for leniency.
Ramirez, known by the nickname "Chupeta" or "Lollipop," turned himself in at the regional prosecutor's office in Cali, the southwest city that gave the world's leading drug organization its name. He was accompanied by at least two lawyers when he arrived in a bulletproof car, a spokesman at the chief prosecutor's office in Bogota told Reuters.National Police chief Gen. Rosso Jose Serrano described the surrender as the second major blow against the cartel's leadership this month. Fugitive cartel kingpin Jose Santacruz Londono was gunned down by police on March 5 in the northwest city of Medellin.
Ramirez, 33, has been described by Serrano and other authorities as one of a handful of traffickers who assumed operational control over the Cali drug mob in the aftermath of last year's arrests of six of its seven top leaders.