For 20 years, the Cali drug cartel shipped thousands of tons of cocaine across the world, laundered billions of dollars in profits and was responsible for countless murders and assassinations. It ultimately controlled 70 percent of the world’s cocaine market, flooding towns and cities with the addictive white powder dubbed the “champagne of drugs.” Through organized violence, terrorism, intimidation and bribery, the cartel became a major threat to Colombia’s fragile stability. It also brought an unprecedented degree of strategy and planning to the drugs trade.

It would take more than two decades and a global effort to bring it down. In this account of the cartel’s rise and fall, Ron Chepesiuk provides a compelling insight into the history of international drug trafficking. He draws vivid pictures of the gang’s founders—Jose “the Chess Player” Londono and brothers Miguel and Gilberto Rodriguez Orejuela—and reveals how they built their empire, carving up the massive US market with their rival Medellin Cartel: New York going to Cali, Miami to Medellin.

Unlike Medellin, led by Pablo Escobar, the men from Cali kept their complex operation in the shadows. It grew quickly and came to operate like a multinational corporation. In time, they became too big to share their spoils and fought an indescribably bloody war with the Medellin mob, a war they ultimately won.