A son of Cali drug cartel chieftain Miguel Rodriguez Orejuela was shot and critically wounded Friday in an assassination attempt in which five other people were killed, police said.
They said eight to 10 hit men in Cali - the southwest city that gave the infamous drug cartel its name - opened fire at William Rodriguez Abadia and six companions while they were having lunch at a local restaurant.Rodriguez, a lawyer and vice president of Cali's popular America soccer club, was rushed to a hospital in critical condition along with a wounded bodyguard. The five people killed were all initially thought to be bodyguards, but one was later identified as Oscar Echeverri Garcia, a brother-in-law of Miguel Rodriguez.
The so-called "sicarios" or hired assassins who raked William Rodriguez's table with about 80 rounds of automatic gunfire fled the scene in two cars, police said.
They said there was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack but that it appeared to be part of "a settling of accounts" between rival drug organizations.
Miguel Rodriguez and his older brother Gilberto, both reputed billionaires, are the top leaders of the Cali cartel. They have been jailed in the maximum security wing of Bogota's La Picota prison since last summer when they were arrested as part of an unprecedented crackdown on what U.S. drug agents have described as the world's leading drug-trafficking organization.
In a related development Friday, officials said Victor Patino Fomeque, the Cali cartel drug lord sentenced to just six years in jail in February, will now have to stay twice as long behind bars.
They said the original sentence, which prompted strong complaints, had been appealed and that a court Thursday ordered it to be doubled.
The office of Prosecutor-General Alfonso Valdivieso had asked that Pantino be sentenced to 24 years in jail for crimes he committed as the No. 5 leader of the cartel.