One of Colombia's most notorious drug traffickers has been released after serving seven years of a 15 year-sentence. Gilberto Rodriguez Orejuela (63), one of the heads of the now-defunct Cali drug cartel, walked free from prison overnight.
Judge Luz Angela Moncada earlier ruled that Rodriguez had served his time and ordered his immediate freedom. Attempts by the government of President Alvaro Uribe to keep him in prison longer failed.
However, the judge ruled that Rodriguez's brother, Miguel Rodriguez Orejuela, will remain in the maximum security prison after being sentenced today to four years' imprisonment for attempting to bribe a judge in 1996.
The brothers have already served seven years of 15-year prison sentences handed down in 1995.
Colombia supplies some 80% of the world's cocaine and a large portion of its heroin, according to the US government. Cali traffickers tarnished the 1994 election of President Ernesto Samper, who allegedly accepted $6.5m in campaign contributions from them.
Traffickers are thought to be responsible for a wave of violence that surged with the cocaine trade in Cali, previously a quiet agricultural centre.
