The Cali Cartel: New Kings of Coke

To their admirers, they are Horatio Alger heroes, poor boys who worked their way out of the slums and backwaters of the Cauca Valley. Onetime delinquent Jose Santacruz Londono studied engineering, went into construction and emerged as Don Chepe, a billionaire whose marble citadel looms high above the sugarcane fields of Cali, the country's third largest city.

Down the road, in the new-rich suburb of Ciudad Jardin, is the modern compound of Gilberto Rodriguez Orejuela. Nicknamed the "Chess Player" because he runs his business -- and life -- with cold calculation, he parlayed youthful jobs as a drugstore clerk by day...