''The Snitch Cartel'' ( es, El Cartel de los Sapos) is a 2011 Colombian
crime film
Crime films, in the broadest sense, is a film genre inspired by and analogous to the crime fiction literary genre. Films of this genre generally involve various aspects of crime and its detection. Stylistically, the genre may overlap and combine ...
directed by Carlos Moreno. The film was selected as the Colombian entry for the
Best Foreign Language Oscar at the
85th Academy Awards but did not make the final shortlist.
The film, like the 2008
Caracol TV series ''
El Cartel'', is based on the 2008 novel by the same name by Andrés López López, alias ''Florecita'' ("Little Flower"), a former drug dealer who, while in prison, wrote the fictionalized account of his experiences in the
Cali Cartel and of what happened within the
Norte del Valle Cartel
The Norte del Valle Cartel ( es, Cártel del Norte del Valle), or North Valley Cartel, was a drug cartel that operated principally in the north of the Valle del Cauca department of Colombia, most notably the coastal city of Buenaventura. It ros ...
.
Plot
Two friends enter the illegal drugs business, one of them is a lower class boy, Martin, alias ''Strawberry'', a smart and skilled young man seeking to earn money to gain the attention of his childhood love, Sophia.
His new boss, Óscar Cadena, makes a plan to take down the powerful Medellin Cartel, that is headed by the infamous don
Pablo Escobar
Pablo Emilio Escobar Gaviria (; ; 1 December 19492 December 1993) was a Colombian drug lord and narcoterrorist who was the founder and sole leader of the Medellín Cartel. Dubbed "the king of cocaine", Escobar is the wealthiest criminal in h ...
, while Martin moves up fast in the syndicate, becoming a vital part of the growing
North Valley Cartel, he begins a turbulent life in the midst of a cartel war which he is uncanny to take part in, forcing him to move to Mexico looking for allies while struggles between the money and power that he now owns, and becoming a ''sapo'' (snitch) for the
DEA
The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA; ) is a United States federal law enforcement agency under the U.S. Department of Justice tasked with combating drug trafficking and distribution within the U.S. It is the lead agency for domestic enf ...
, to protect his beloved Sofia.
Cast
*
Manolo Cardona as Martin
*
Tom Sizemore
Thomas Edward Sizemore Jr. (; born November 29, 1961) is an American actor and producer. He is known for his supporting roles in films such as ''Born on the Fourth of July'' (1989), ''Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man'' (1991), ''Passenger 5 ...
as DEA Agent Sam Mathews
*
Juana Acosta
Juana Acosta Restrepo (born 28 November 1976) is a Colombian-Spanish actress. She has appeared in more than 40 films.
Biography
Juana Acosta was born in Cali, Valle del Cauca, on 28 November 1976. She made her television debut with an appeara ...
as Sofia
*
Kuno Becker as Damian
*
Diego Cadavid
Diego Cadavid (born Diego Andrés Cadavid on December 8, 1978 in Medellín, Colombia) is a Colombian actor, cinematographer and musician known for his roles in telenovela
A telenovela is a type of a television serial drama or soap opera pro ...
as Pepe Cadena
*
Robinson Díaz
Robinson Díaz (born 1 May 1966 in Envigado, Antioquia, Colombia) is a Colombian actor. He is best known for his popular character El Cabo of series as '' El cartel'', ''El Señor de los Cielos''. He is also a teacher of Dramatic Art of the Nati ...
as "El Cabo"
*
Julian Arango
Julian may refer to:
People
* Julian (emperor) (331–363), Roman emperor from 361 to 363
* Julian (Rome), referring to the Roman gens Julia, with imperial dynasty offshoots
* Saint Julian (disambiguation), several Christian saints
* Julian (gi ...
as Guadana
*
Andrés Parra
Andrés Parra Medina (born 18 September 1977) is a Colombian film and television actor. He is best known for portraying the drug lord Pablo Escobar
Pablo Emilio Escobar Gaviria (; ; 1 December 19492 December 1993) was a Colombian drug ...
as Anestesia
* Fernando Solórzano as Oscar Cadena
*
Juan Pablo Raba
Juan Pablo Raba Vidal (born 14 January 1977) is a Colombian film, TV and telenovela actor, best known internationally for his role as Gustavo Gaviria in the 2015 Netflix series '' Narcos''.
Early life
Raba was born in Bogotá, Colombia wher ...
as Pirulo
*
Ilja Rosendahl
Ilja Rosendahl (born 23 February 1968) is a German film and music producer, director, screenwriter, actor, songwriter, musician (vocals, guitars, bass) and voiceover artist.
Biography
Artistic career
Rosendahl was born in Bochum. He played in t ...
as Prison Guard
*
Jhonny Rivera
Jhon Jairo Rivera Valencia (born February 23, 1972) is a Colombian Colombian popular music singer, actor and businessman known as Jhonny Rivera.
Biography
A Colombian singer and second cousin of Pablo Escobar.
A broken heart led him to comp ...
as Antonio Villegas
*
Pedro Armendáriz, Jr.
Pedro is a masculine given name. Pedro is the Spanish, Portuguese, and Galician name for '' Peter''. Its French equivalent is Pierre while its English and Germanic form is Peter.
The counterpart patronymic surname of the name Pedro, meani ...
as Mexican Drug Lord ''Modesto''
Associated media
In addition to the aforementioned 2008 book that inspired both the 2011 film and
the 2008 TV series, Lopez has written several additional books about his and his associates' experiences in the drug trade.
See also
*
*
References
External links
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Snitch Cartel
2011 films
2011 crime films
Colombian crime films
2010s Spanish-language films
Films about Colombian drug cartels
Films about Mexican drug cartels
2010s Mexican films