On cross-examination, Agnieszka Fryszman of Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll PLLC, representing the plaintiffs, challenged Gaddis’s assertion that the AUC was primarily a drug trafficking organization. She referenced a 2015 declaration by Gaddis stating that FARC controlled the world’s cocaine supply and mentioned a deposition where he said the AUC was formed to protect wealthy landowners.
Gaddis maintained that the AUC was a drug trafficking organization and a terrorist group known for torture, kidnapping, and murder.
Following Gaddis’s testimony, Chiquita attorneys called expert witness Jorge Restrepo, an economics scholar at Pontificia Universidad Javeriana in Bogota, Colombia. Restrepo testified about his research on the AUC and the Colombian civil conflict, offering opinions on the lack of correlation between Chiquita’s payments to the AUC and subsequent violence.
The plaintiffs are represented by a legal team including John Scarola, Victoria Mesa-Estrada, Mariano Garcia, James K. Green, Rick Herz, Maryum Jordan, Marissa Vahlsing, Marco Simons, William J. Wichmann, William R. Scherer, Agnieszka Fryszman, Leslie M. Kroeger, Jonathan C. Reiter, Terrence Collingsworth, and Gabriela Paola Valentin Diaz.
