After Escobar

Taking Down the Notorious Cali Godfathers and the Biggest Drug Cartel in History
BookFest Awards, First Place, Nonfiction—True Crime
Fall 2025—Readers’ Choice Book Award: Gold Winner, Adult Nonfiction
Best Book Awards—True Crime: Nonfiction Winner, 2025

Renowned DEA agents Chris Feistl and Dave Mitchell tell the incredible true story of how they helped dismantle the world’s single most powerful crime syndicate, as featured in Season 3 of the hit Netflix series Narcos.

By the early 1990s, Colombia’s Cali cartel had become what the former head of the DEA Thomas Constantine referred to as “The biggest and most powerful crime syndicate in history.” Responsible for nearly 85% of the cocaine that reached U.S. soil and 90% worldwide, they were untouchable, earning billions of dollars all while maintaining their reputation as ‘The Godfathers of Cali” and brazenly corrupting thousands of Colombian authorities and government officials, even “buying” the outcome of the 1994 presidential election.

In 1994, the DEA sent young operatives Chris Feistl and Dave Mitchell to Colombia with one formidable task: help Colombian authorities take down the ruthless leaders of the brutal Cali cartel. Not any easy job for two men who looked more like tall, lanky surfers than DEA agents: standing well over six feet tall and only six years removed from the DEA Academy, they were the epitome of conspicuous in a city where most residents rarely, if ever, saw an American in person. Many of their colleagues feared for their safety, openly questioning their ability to blend in.

Their almost three-year journey would lead them from the bureaucratic halls of the U.S. Embassy to the violent streets of Cali and deep into its rural sugar cane fields, on high alert day and night as they dodged deadly cartel assassins and oftentimes worked unilaterally to battle the unprecedented corruption within Colombia’s security forces. Over time their relentless efforts began to slowly degrade the godfathers’ defenses and weaken their infrastructure.

Contributor: Jessica Balboni (With)

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