Accountant Says Cali Cartel Gave Millions To Help Samper

The Cali cartel bribed Colombian officials to get a constitutional ban on extradition and spent $5 million to pick a president of their liking, the drug ring’s former accountant testified Tuesday.

Guillermo Pallomari said the once-powerful cartel operating from the city of Cali even printed up T-shirts and bought ads featuring sports celebrities to help elect Colombian President Ernesto Samper in 1994. He told of drug money being crated, gift-wrapped and flown to the capital city of Bogota.

“I heard a deal reached by the Cali cartel leaders that they were going to finance Ernesto Samper’s campaign,” said the Chilean computer whiz who handled the cartel’s financial records.

Samper has repeatedly denied wrongdoing and last year a loyalist Congress cleared him of allegations that he solicited the cartel cash.

Pallomari is a star prosecution witness in the U.S. District Court trial of two U.S. lawyers and four men accused as smugglers for the organization once responsible for 80 percent of the world’s cocaine supply.

On trial for racketeering and conspiracy, William Moran, 58, of Miami, and Michael Abbell, 56, of Bethesda, Md., could be sentenced to life in prison if convicted on the same charges faced by their former clients. Moran and Abbell adamantly deny the charges and say they were merely defending their clients aggressively.

The attorneys are accused of delivering hush money and preparing false affidavits from cartel defendants jailed in the United States.

Pallomari explained Tuesday that the affidavits were part of a cartel plan to avoid extradition to the United States.