Francisco Hélmer Herrera Buitrago, also known as “Pacho” and “H7”, (August 24, 1951 – November 6, 1998) was a Colombian drug trafficker, fourth in command in the Cali Cartel , and believed to be the son of Benjamín Herrera Zuleta.
Early years
Herrera grew up in the Colombian city of Palmira, in the Valle del Cauca department. In high school, Herrera studied technical maintenance, an experience that later landed him a job in the United States. He lived in the United States and also became a jeweler and precious metals broker until he started selling cocaine in New York City. In 1975 and 1978, Herrera was arrested in New York City on distribution charges for selling cocaine.
Cali Cartel
In 1983, Herrera went to Cali, Colombia, to negotiate supply and distribution rights with the Cali Cartel for New York City. He later opened smuggling routes for the Cali Cartel through Mexico, using connections he had previously established.
Herrera also ran one of the “most sophisticated and profitable money laundering operations,” according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. Herrera was soon promoted to leader of the Cali Cartel and gained control of Jamundí in the south of the Valle, and Palmira and Yumbo in the north and east of the Valle.
According to the DEA, the Herrera operation involved the importation of cocaine base from Peru and Bolivia, which was then smuggled through its own transport to conversion laboratories in Colombia. It is believed that Herrera hired guerrilla forces such as Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (English: Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) (FARC) and then the guerrilla group April 19 Movement (Spanish: Movimiento 19 de Abril, M-19) to monitor remote laboratory locations.
Herrera always kept a very low profile and was never interviewed, and his name was almost never mentioned along with those of the other Cali Cartel leaders. Although it is alleged that he was the source of most of the money involved in the illegal financing of Ernesto Samper’s presidential campaign, Herrera himself never spoke about the matter and was never formally involved in the investigation. His name only came to light after a terrorist attack on a football field in Candelaria, Valle del Cauca, on September 25, 1990; Twenty armed men dressed in military and police fatigues opened fire on the crowd where Herrera was sitting, killing 18 people but not hitting Herrera. The attack was attributed to the Medellín Cartel , and in particular to Pablo Escobar , who apparently blamed Herrera for a car bomb that exploded on 13 January 1988 in Escobar’s Monaco-owned apartment complex, located in one of the most affluent areas of Medellín. . The war between the cartels led to much bloodshed, but Herrera played a minor role and left the fighting to the Rodriguez brothers. Another attempt on Herrera’s life took place on July 27, 1991 at a summer residence: hooded gunmen wearing pink armbands opened fire, killing seventeen people and wounding thirteen others.
Herrera was always said to be the Los Pepes organization’s main financial services provider, but his name was never officially associated with them.
Law enforcement actions
In November 1991, the DEA launched Operation Kingpin, targeting two of Herrera’s distribution cells in New York City. Through massive wiretapping, the DEA used more than 100 simultaneous, court-approved cell phone wiretaps. At the end of Operation Kingpin, nearly 100 traffickers were arrested and more than $20 million in cash and assets, and more than 2.5 tons of cocaine, were seized. In addition, transaction and personnel data were seized from computers, which information later provided a better understanding of the Cali cartel’s cell structure.
Surrender and death
On September 1, 1996, Herrera turned himself in to the Search Bloc (Spanish: Bloque de Busqueda), a unit of the Colombian National Police. Herrera was the last of the four Cali Cartel leaders to be captured. He was sentenced to six years and eight months in prison on drug trafficking charges, which was extended to fourteen years in 1998.
Once in prison, Herrera reportedly changed his lifestyle and devoted himself to football, becoming the prison sports organizer and sponsoring football tournaments. He also began work on a bachelor’s degree in business administration. Although he would be in the maximum security wing of the prison, Herrera visited the other wings, where he would meet with his lawyers. On November 6, 1998, Rafael Ángel Uribe Serna, 32, entered the prison and went to the soccer field where Herrera was playing. Uribe was reportedly drunk, but apparently Herrera stopped the game when he saw him and went to greet him. After hugging Herrera, Uribe grabbed a gun and shot him seven times in the head. Uribe was picked up by other inmates and then taken away by prison guards, while Herrera was taken to a hospital where he died.
There are a number of possible motives for Herrera’s murder. These include old revenge attacks by members of the Norte del Valle cartel, in particular a man known by the alias JJ, on the orders of Wilber Varela, who had apparently been the victim of an assassination attempt a few days earlier by the leaders of the Cali cartel and the collaboration between Herrera and DEA to betray Orlando Henao, head of the Norte del Valle cartel and Varela’s boss. Other hypotheses point to Herrera’s long conflict against communist guerrillas. The killer, Uribe, had been a personal advisor to Herrera for ten years and was a frequent visitor. Uribe stated that he decided to kill Herrera because he had threatened Uribe’s family when Uribe failed to kill Víctor Carranza as Herrera ordered. However, these statements were found to be unreliable [by whom?] and likely a ruse to divert attention from the real masterminds. The most accepted hypothesis [by whom?] is that Uribe was actually acting on orders from the Norte del Valle cartel, who were angry at Herrera for releasing information about them, and who were eager to take over the company left behind after the disaster . capture or death of Cali Cartel leaders. Uribe was also the uncle of brothers Luis Enrique and Javier Antonio Calle Serna, the “Comba” brothers, who took control of the Norte del Valle cartel after Varela died. Uribe himself was murdered in October 2009.
Sexual orientation
In the book La patrona de Pablo Escobar, written by Colombian journalist José Guarnizo, Herrera was described as “an immigrant who went from an anonymous Latin mechanic to one of the richest members of the Cartel de Cali” and “one of the few homosexuals who climbed high in the mafia pyramid.” At the time, Herrera’s crimes overshadowed any speculation about his sexual orientation. In the Netflix drama Narcos, Herrera is portrayed as openly gay.