Other reports allege Los Rastrojos are in fact the same as the Norte del Valle cartel, only working under a new name and taking advantage 'of a strong network of assassins, distributors and contacts in the international markets'.

[7] The group focuses on buying coca from the source, processing it themselves and selling it wholesale for international distribution or shipping it themselves through Central America and Mexico.

They are believed to operate mainly in Valle del Cauca and Cali, although there are reports of them spreading their zone of influence to other parts of Colombia and western Venezuela.

They also have control of one of the primary smuggling routes into Venezuela, which is a bridge for cocaine moving towards Europe and northwards into the US on aircraft and go-fast boats.

[13][14] Currently, the Rastrojos have an agreement with the National Liberation Army (Ejército de Liberación Nacional – ELN) for several years in the departments of Cauca and Nariño.

In both cases, these alliances give the Rastrojos direct access to coca base, which provides them the raw material to convert into cocaine at very cheap prices.

[1] By January 2018, 100 of the remaining Los Rastrojos members had joined five of the cartel's seven newly established debt collection agencies in the Cali region of Colombia.

[1] In June 2019, alleged Los Rastrojos head Jon Jairo Durán Contreras, alias “El Menor,” and his assistant Gerson Gregorio Rosario Aquino, known as "Torombolo," were captured by Cúcuta police following an incident of infighting which saw Los Rastrojos members killed in Boca de Grita, located in the Guaramito region of Venezuela’s Táchira state.

[21] On February 4, 2020, it was announced Cúcuta police officer Sthevenson Sanchez, who was revealed to be the assistant CFO of the local Los Rastrojos branch, was arrested the previous week.

[22] On February 15, 2020, Venezuelan security forces seized and dismantled a suspected Los Rastrojos drug processing and contraband fuel operation in Boca de Grita.