Trial looms for Colombian drug barons

TWO leading members of the Colombian gang which helped make cocaine an affordable drug in Ireland are set to face trial later this year.

Brothers Gilberto and Miguel Rodriguez were among the four drug lords who formed the Cali Cartel, so called after the city from which they began their operations in the 1970s.

The gang was ultimately responsible for the beginning of mass importation of cocaine to Europe from the mid-1980s.