His name is Andrés López López, and his particular story is already partly known: a young man from Cali born in 1971 who from a very young age was involved in the world of drug trafficking. From the age of 15 (and with ‘Florecita’ as his alias) he started as a coca leaf cook and He became a middle manager of the Norte del Valle Cartel.
It was the time when the term ‘narco’ was not widely spread socially; Those characters who could boast of an immense fortune overnight were known as”magicals.”
In an interview, López stated: “First you start working in a drug laboratory, but then you say ‘what you have to do is market your own drug'” and that is how he became the owner of his own laboratory, which led him to be an exporter of cocaine and finally, a distributor.
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However, tired of a life on the run, he decided to submit to the authorities and turned himself in to the DEA in 2001. But in the 11 years he was imprisoned he discovered his literary vocation. The same one that allowed him to secretly write what ended up being his book The frog’s sign, the rise to fame when it was adapted for Colombian television: a sample of the reality of our country, which no matter how many chest-beats or barks they give, cannot be denied, in the words of its author.
The twists and turns of life meant that, once he was a free man, he settled in Miami. There he met Rigoberto Urán. The contact and trust led to the writing of the biography of the Urrao cyclist which served as the basis for the novel that has allowed RCN Televisión to regain its prominence on television nights.
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The surprise is that now Andrés López López, the man who left his life as a ‘magic’ and dedicated himself to telling the lives of others, is preparing his biographer skills for his next character: Nairo Quintana.
The cyclist from Cómbita (Boyacá) has decided to tell his life story, and along the way he also connected with López, with whom they share a closeness that allowed Quintana to present him on Instagram and announce him.
Everything indicates that the book will be released in July and it is expected that, as in the case of the Rigo biography, this will serve as the basis for an eventual production with Netflix and Amazon. The magician who is now a writer and triathlete prepares his narrative capacity to continue telling the life of the Colombian beetles.
