U.S. District Judge Federico A. Moreno/photo by J. Albert Diaz U.S. District Judge Federico A. Moreno/photo by J. Albert Diaz

U.S. District Judge Federico Moreno found that Gilberto Rodriguez Orejuela, the 81-year-old former chieftain of the Cali cartel, did not have serious enough health problems to merit early release. The judge also said doing so would be a blow to the U.S. justice system.

The cartel led by Rodriguez Orejuela and his brother, Miguel, smuggled over 441,000 pounds of cocaine worth more than $2.1 billion into the U.S. in the 1980s and 1990s. The organization succeeded the Medellin cartel once run by drug lord Pablo Escobar. Both used violence and killings extensively for intimidation and enforcement.