Calle Serna was a top leader of the Rastrojos criminal syndicate in Colombia, perhaps the country’s most ambitious and sophisticated drug trafficking organization. His older brother, Javier Antonio Calle Serna, alias 'Comba' was the top leader of the Rastrojos until handing himself over to the US in May 2012 and some say Luis may have ridden his coat tails into the Colombian underworld. Still, with experience overseeing cocaine laboratories along the Pacific Coast and connections to the Mexican drug cartels, in particular the powerful Sinaloa Cartel, he commands respect. He kept a low profile and was believed to have operated out of Ecuador and along the Pacific Coast in Colombia where much of the Rastrojos’ operations are based. He is a trained pilot.

After reportedly negotiating his surrender for months with the United States, he handed himself over on October 2, 2012 in Panama. He had been living in Venezuela immediately prior to his arrest.

Notes

• "International Narcotics Control Strategy Report - 2009," U.S. Department of State (March 2009).