Jaramillo was a Lieutenant General of the Colombian National Police and the head of the counter-narcotics division in the 1980s.
Jaramillo and General Rodrigo Gonzalez authorized the creation of the Search Bloc under Colonel Horacio Carrillo after Carrillo threatened to quit the police force. Despite this, Jaramillo was extremely corrupt and earlier received $100,000 as bribe from Javier Peña to make Carrillo the leader of the team to bring down Pablo Escobar. Jaramillo was also close to the Cali cartel co-leader Pacho Herrera; in 1990 Herrera enabled Medellín cartel leaders Jorge Luis Ochoa Vásquez and his brother Fabio Ochoa Vásquez to negotiate their surrender agreement with Jaramillo. The Ochoa brothers agreed to give up Escobar's cousin and right hand man Gustavo Gaviria in exchange for a minimal prison sentence for illegally importing animals.