Gilberto Rodríguez Orejuela, head of the Cali drug cartel, is escorted by police in Bogotá before being handed over to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration on Dec. 3, 2004.

Cali's criminal history is thin. He served only one prison term, 16 months for extortion back in 2008. The conviction, bargained down from a racketeering charge, involved a failed attempt to build ...

Frank “Franky Boy” Cali, the elusive mafia don who was assassinated in 2019, rose to the top of the Gambino Family in part by helping lead a fraud scheme that became one the syndicate’s ...

Doubles from 467,460 COP (£96), B&B. This story was created with the support of Cali’s Tourist Board and ProColombia. Published in the Jul/Aug 2024 issue of National Geographic Traveller (UK).