Cali cartel guilty pleas / Colombian brothers get long sentences, to forfeit billions – SFGate

[…] U.S. officials said, 28 people with ties to the pair will have a chance to be removed from a Treasury Department list that freezes the assets of “specially designated narcotics traffickers” if they relinquish property tainted by drug money, officials said. Techniques used by the Cali cartel included smuggling cocaine in shipments of coffee, frozen vegetables, concrete posts, ceramic tiles and lumber, among other things, usually using Mexico as a transit point. Gonzales — joined in Washington by U.S. law enforcement officials and the Colombian ambassador — said the Rodriguez brothers “were responsible for the importation of over 200,000 kilograms of cocaine” to the United States from 1990 to 2002, a period that included years when they ran the organization from a Colombian prison.