DRUGS

By Elaine Shannon/Washington

U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration head TOM CONSTANTINE made a quiet trip to Bogota last week to say gracias to Colombian National Police chief GENERAL ROSSO JOSE SERRANO for his work rounding up the Cali dons. Since the CNP-DEA crackdown, says Constantine, the coke business has atomized, and the many small- and medium-size organizations now operating have neither the political sophistication nor the immense concentration of wealth of the old Cali guard. "That type of clout and power to intimidate doesn't exist anymore," says Constantine, who calls CNP boss Serrano "an honest guy who is determined to make a difference."

That's the good news. The bad news is that the Cali dons are thought to be running their networks from prison. Last spring Serrano ordered his men to go into the maximum-security wing of La Picota prison in Bogota because top Cali dons MIGUEL and GILBERTO RODRIGUEZ OREJUELA were thought to be plotting a jail break. The police found evidence they had been chatting away with their aides via cell phones, hard lines, fax and the Internet. Recently, DEA officials say, the cnp raided a group of private telecommunications switching centers that the cartel leaders had organized in Bogota so they could dial a local number and have a clerk patch their calls to numbers anywhere around the world. The CNP telecommunications crackdown has put a cramp in the dons' style, but they still use visiting henchmen to carry messages to the outside. The war on drugs isn't over by a long shot.

--By Elaine Shannon/Washington