Introducing Business Wars: Drug Cartels

Tides of History

Wondery / Patrick Wyman

Documentary, Society & Culture, History

4.8 • 6.3K Ratings

🗓️ 7 August 2024

⏱️ 5 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Pablo Escobar is a household name, known for his reign of terror in Colombia’s cocaine wars. But it wasn’t always that way. The leader of one of the world’s most infamous drug cartels fought his way to the top throughout the 1970s and 80s. Escobar’s Medellin cartel was determined to extinguish its main rival — the Cali cartel, but with billions of dollars at stake, trade disputes quickly turned into actual battles with body counts. The new season of Business Wars goes deep into the battles between the Cali and Medellin cartels, who will stop at nothing to win market dominance.

Follow BUSINESS WARS on the Wondery App or wherever you get your podcasts. Listen to all episodes of Business Wars: Drug Cartels exclusively and ad-free by joining Wondery+ in the Wondery App, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Start your free trial by visiting Wondery.fm/BWDC_IP now. And check out the new TV series that inspired this season of Business Wars 'Hotel Cocaine’, on MGM+. Click here to get 50% off your first month: https://www.mgmplus.com/wondery.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	It's 1978 in Miami and the infamous mutiny club is the hottest spot in town and the epicenter of the cocaine trade,
0:07.5	but behind the glamorous parties and opulent lifestyles,
0:11.0	a violent drug war to own the booming industry is raging.
0:15.0	Business Wars is a podcast about the biggest rivalries of all time.
0:19.0	And our new three-part series drug cartels dives into the war between the top two cartels in Colombia.
0:25.0	Combining the complex business acumen of a corporation with a calculated violence of the mafia,
0:31.0	the Kali and Medelline cartels ignited a ruthless fight to extinguish the other
0:36.2	and dominate the growing cocaine trade in the U.S. which in 1984 was estimated to be over 70 tons of cocaine each year.
0:44.6	The conflict affected the entire Western Hemisphere and claimed countless lives.
0:49.7	You're about to hear a clip from Business Wars Drug Cartels. While you're listening, make sure to follow
0:54.8	Business Wars on the Wundery app or wherever you get your podcasts. It's June 3rd, 1989, above the Magdalena River Valley, Colombia.
1:17.0	Corje Salcedo sits in the co-pilot seat of a Cessna airplane soaring above the lush river basin below.
1:23.7	Salcedo peers out the window, taking in the dense canopy of trees.
1:29.3	After a moment Salcedo checks the time.
1:31.8	It's just before 11 a.m. He swiveles in his seat and looks back at a man perched
1:37.3	in the back of the plane. The man's surrounded by a sea of electronic equipment, a large
1:42.3	pair of headphones over his ears.
1:44.6	Salcedo yells out to him.
1:46.4	It's almost time!
1:48.4	The radio tech gives him a thumbs up.
1:50.5	Salcedo watches the second hand on his clock, taking closer and closer to 11.
1:55.0	Up until five months ago, Salcedo was a businessman and volunteer officer in the Colombian
	...

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