Oficina de Envigado

The inheritors of Pablo Escobar’s drug trafficking empire in Colombia, the Oficina de Envigado is now a hodgepodge of smaller organizations that seeks alliances with street gangs to keep control of their territory and businesses that is in nearly constant flux. The Oficina de Envigado first arose as a faction of assassins established by Pablo Escobar in Envigado, a small municipality adjacent to Medellin, in the 1980s. Since then, the Oficina has evolved into a sizable, though conflicted, drug-running operation, drawing many of its leaders from former paramilitary blocs, while its lower ranks are filled with an endless pool of willing young men from the working-class neighborhoods of Medellin.

Despite its internal conflicts and external rivalries, the Oficina managed to create a sizable drug trafficking network from Medellin to the northern coast of Colombia and the Panamanian border area, although this has for the most part now been lost. It also controls extortion, gambling and money laundering businesses within the Valle de Aburra area that surrounds Medellin. Its battles have left numerous public figures dead as a result of the Oficina's penchant for settling debts with firepower. Much of the unrest in and around Medellin can be attributed to the Oficina. Its leaders have alternated between battling each other and rallying to fight outside foes, but it has been consistent in one thing: its cooption of local police and other security officials.

Origins

The Oficina de Envigado's "Godfather" is Diego Fernando Murillo, alias "Don Berna,"who after operating as a guerrilla fighter for the Popular Liberation Army (Ejercito Popular de Liberacion - EPL), began working in the criminal underworld as an assassin for the Galeano and Moncada families. These families worked with Pablo Escobar until Escobar ordered the assassinations of the Moncado and Galeano brothers in 1992 for allegedly stealing money from him, after which his control of the Oficina began to slip. Don Berna supposedly only escaped with his life as he was accompanying Galeano’s mistress to the beauty salon at the time. After Escobar assassinated Don Berna's bosses, Don Berna teamed up with paramilitary leaders Fidel and Carlos Castaño to organize the People Persecuted by Pablo Escobar (Perseguidos por Pablo Escobar - PEPES), a paramilitary group designed to destroy Escobar’s massive network. Combining portions of the Medellin underworld, rural right-wing paramilitaries, the Cali Cartel and elements of the Colombian National Police, the PEPES attacked every facet of Escobar’s life and business, eventually enabling the Colombian police to find him and gun him down in December 1993.

After Escobar’s death, Don Berna took control of Medellin. The Oficina became the chief mediator and debt collector in drug trafficking disputes, and Don Berna maintained major trafficking drugs through his numerous contacts. Don Berna's connections with the paramilitaries continued as well, and in the late 1990s he was named the commander of the Cacique Nutibara Bloc by the paramilitary umbrella organization the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia - AUC). He also consolidated his control of the Medellin street gangs, drove the guerrillas from the city and presided over the country’s most feared hitmen network, La Terraza, . His ruthless approach included fighting with his cohorts in the AUC and La Terraza. When La Terraza rebelled against his command, he assassinated several of its leaders and exterminated the breakaway members of the gang in a bloody conflcit. He also waged war against one time ally turned rival AUC commander Carlos Mauricio Garcia Fernandez, alias "Doblecero," and his Bloque Metro paramilitary unit in a dispute over demobilization negotitations with the government, which led to the eventual decimation of the Bloque Metro and the murder of Doblecero. Before his death, Doblecero accused Don Berna of being behind the assassination of AUC leader Carlos Castaño. Although no one has been charged with the murder, it is believed Don Berna and other traffickers in the AUC ordered Castaño's brother Vicente to have him murdered as they believed Castaño was about to sever ties with the traffickers and turn himself in to the US authorities.

More:
http://www.insightcrime.org/groups-colombia/oficina-de-envigado