• Vladimiro Montesinos was not only one of Peru's most powerful drug traffickers, he was one of the world's most powerful drug traffickers. Making his story even more interesting, he was heavily involved in politics in Peru during the 1990's. Vladimiro Montesinos was born in 1945 to communist parents who wanted to be perceived as rich and upscale. Since the army was the only way for ordinary Peruvians to acquire wealth, Vladimiros father enrolled him in military school in Lima. Montesinos entered the drug trade after he was kicked out of the army and began working at a family members law practice. He successfully defended a Medellin cartel member and was invited to meet Pablo Escobar. Soon Montesinos was not only defending the cartel in court but shipping Peruvian coca leaves to Colombia, making six figures per drug flight. The cartel was also contributing to the presidential campaign of Alberto Fujimori and when he was elected, Montesinos was placed in charge of the Servicio de Inteligencia Nacional, or SIN. Montesinos called all the major cartels in Colombia and Mexico and anyone who did not negotiate with Montesinos was persecuted to death. The guy had some serious power. At the same time, Montesinos was working with the CIA and DEA trying to shut everything down. The double-crossing was bound to backfire and it almost did when approximately 170 kg of cocaine was seized aboard a Peruvian Air Force plane transporting military equipment to Russia, but no one was ever convicted. Everything came crashing down in 2000 when one of the many videos that Montesinos would secretly record of himself bribing politicians ended up in the hands of a Peruvian TV station. Montesinos fled and with the help of the FBI was captured in Venezuela. Read the complete story here. | 
