Death
The Colombian Government finally caught a break from an unlikely source when Rodríguez Gacha's son Fredy Rodriguez Celades (b. 1972) unwillingly led more than 1,000 Colombian National Police and Colombian Marines to his father. Fredy was arrested during an army raid of one of Rodriguez Gacha's ranches north of Bogotá. His alleged crime, possession of illegal weapons, was relatively minor, but police held Fredy longer than most unindicted prisoners, hoping to put pressure on Rodríguez.
When no signs of fatherly concern emerged, the police released Fredy and waited. Just as they anticipated, Fredy eventually headed for his father, unaware that police were tailing him. Police spotted José Gonzalo Rodríguez in Cartagena and followed the fleeing drug lord to a small ranch in Tolu. On Friday, December 15, 1989, Fredy, Gilberto Rendon (the alleged No. 8 man in the Medellín cartel) and a bodyguard were killed in a bloody shootout with Colombian police. José Gonzalo Rodríguez killed himself detonating a grenade on his face affer watching his son get killed, three others died as they attempted to escape into the fields between Tolú and nearby Coveñas.
Read more about this topic: José Gonzalo Rodríguez Gacha
Famous quotes containing the word death:
“... while many people pride themselves, and with no exaggeration, on their ability to hear with sympathy of the downfall, sickness, and death of others, very few people seem to know what to do with a report of joy, happiness, good luck.”
—Jessamyn West (1902–1984)
“hung up like a pig on exhibit,
the delicate wrists,
the beard drooling blood and vinegar;
hooked to your own weight,
jolting toward death under your nameplate.”
—Anne Sexton (1928–1974)