Drug Cartel Leader’s Son Shot in Attack
Gunmen seriously wounded the son of a top cocaine trafficker Friday in an assassination attempt that killed a relative and five bodyguards, police said.
Eight gunmen opened fire on William Rodriguez, 32, as he was having lunch in the Rio de Enero restaurant in Cali, hometown of the world’s most powerful drug syndicate, police said.
Rodriguez, a lawyer and vice president of the Cali soccer club America, is the son of jailed Cali cartel kingpin Miguel Rodriguez Orejuela. He was shot in the throat, arm and leg, said Gen. Luis Guillermo Montenegro, deputy national police commander. He was hospitalized in Cali.
Killed in the attack was Oscar Echeverri, the brother of the drug kingpin’s third wife, former national beauty queen Marta Lucia Echeverri, police said. Five bodyguards also were killed.
The gunmen escaped by car, and police said they had made no arrests.
The top Cali cartel leaders--Miguel Rodriguez, his brother Gilberto and Jose Santacruz Londono--were jailed last year under intense U.S. pressure. Santacruz Londono was gunned down at a police roadblock in March after he escaped from jail.
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