Fear has been raised in Colombia by the return, via deportation, from the United States of a man linked to drug trafficking and money laundering. He is nicknamed The Man in Overalls and in the 1990s was described as “worse than Pablo Escobar”.

Orlando Sánchez Cristancho, as his name is, returned to Colombian soil on April 28, 2023.

El País, a newspaper from the neighboring country, points out that Sánchez Cristancho is “a known old school drug trafficker with ties to the Norte del Valle cartel”.

The United States deported him 11 days ago, along with 132 other people, the paper said.

“The Man in Overalls” with “free transit” in Colombia

Sánchez Cristancho, “El Hombre del Overol,” “was one of the leaders of the Norte del Valle cartel and the trusted man of the Rodríguez Orejuela brothers,” reports El Espectador.

He paid “a sentence in North America for bank fraud by laundering mafia money”. According to El Espectador, this subject has dealt with the American justice system a few times.

In Colombia they don’t forget that figures from the world of drug trafficking compared him to Pablo Escobar, the extinct boss of the Medellín cartel. After returning to Colombia, El País emphasizes: “When he arrived, he had free transportation.”

Sanchez Cristancho’s past

His identity, as evidenced by this outlet, was revealed by Semana magazine in the mid-1990s. However, he has denied the relationship with such a particular name.

“A source who investigated him in the 1990s told that magazine that the capo had for years served as a permanent bridge for affairs between the Colombian cartels and the Mexican mafia,” they specify.

In the controversial Trial 8,000, he was linked to the intrusion of “mafia” money into the campaign of then-President Ernesto Samper.

And his name was related to the murder of Elizabeth Montoya, called “La Monita Retrechera”, for an alleged guilt.

crimes

In 2001, “The Man in Overalls” was arrested in Florida, United States, “charged with conspiracy to launder money. For this crime he was imprisoned for almost six years and was released on bail.

Upon arrival in Colombia, authorities determined that he continued to commit crimes. He was said to be involved in bank fraud and money laundering.

The indictment alleges that between 2003 and 2011, Sánchez Cristancho conspired to defraud and obtain money for real estate through false promises, obtaining “mortgage loans for the purchase of real estate in the Southern District of Florida and elsewhere.” .

Because of these facts, El Espectador recalls, he was captured after the United States again requested his extradition, for which he was sent again and later sentenced to eight years.

In Semana, they point out that the subject had been arrested in 2018 in a luxury estate after the issuance of a red circular from Interpol, following a request from a US court seeking him for bank fraud for laundering assets in excess of $1.3 million.

The man in overalls, worse than Pablo Escobar?

His intimidating power – judged by Semana – was so great that even brothers Miguel and Gilberto Rodríguez Orejuela – heads of the Cali Cartel – feared him and always avoided making enemies with him.

It was one of the Rodríguez Orejuela brothers who compared him to Pablo Escobar.

El País publishes: “In 1996, when William Rodríguez was the victim of an assault and gunshot, his father, Miguel Rodríguez Orejuela, mentioned in a wiretapped telephone conversation that the person responsible was “the man in overalls, who is worse than Pablo Escobar” .

For now, less than 15 days after this return of “El Hombre del Overol”, the press indicates that the authorities and civil society demand “a thorough investigation into his activities and relations” in the neighboring area.