José Abello Silva

Who is José Abello Silva?

José Rafael Abello Silva was a top-ranking member of Colombia's notorious Medellín Cartel. He was considered among the major drug traffickers in the Santa Marta region and the reputed chief of Caribbean coast operations on the cartel's behalf. During January 1987, Abello was included in a group of 128 major narcotics figures whose capture was ordered by President Virgilio Barco. Although he was captured in Barranquilla during that same month, he was released shortly thereafter, apparently with the help of Miguel Pinedo Barros, a senator in La Guajira and reputed protector of cocaine traffickers.

He was indicted by a United States federal grand jury in Tulsa, Oklahoma, during 1987 on charges of conspiring to import and distribute cocaine into the United States. The Drug Enforcement Administration said that Abello "was considered a major transporter for the Medellín cartel," responsible for "major shipments of cocaine and marijuana into the states." Abello was the cartel's chief of operations for Colombia's northern coast. Specifically, the DEA estimated that Abello's trafficking ring was responsible for the importation of more than 1,700 pounds of cocaine into the United States.