"Otoniel", the biggest drug trafficker in Colombia, extradited to the United States
Colombia's biggest drug trafficker, 50-year-old "Otoniel", was extradited to the United States on Wednesday, Colombian President Ivan Duque announced.
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Colombia's biggest drug trafficker, 50-year-old "Otoniel", was extradited to the United States on Wednesday (May 4), Colombian President Ivan Duque announced.
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"
I want to inform that Dairo Antonio Usuga, alias Otoniel, has been extradited
," the Colombian president said on Twitter in the evening.
The most wanted drug trafficker in Colombia, “Otoniel” was
arrested on October 23
in the northwest of the country during a vast military operation.
He has been prosecuted for drug trafficking since 2009 in a New York court.
“
He is the most dangerous drug trafficker in the world, the murderer of social leaders and police, a rapist of children and adolescents.
Today, legality, the rule of law, public force and justice prevail
”, welcomed the Colombian head of state.
Local media broadcast images of a convoy of large armored vehicles, escorted by heavily armed police, heading for Bogota airport.
Relatives of
Otoniel
's victims had requested a "
suspension
" of the extradition, citing their right to know the truth and to receive reparations.
But Colombian justice finally gave the green light to his extradition on Thursday,
Dairo Antonio Usuga's defense team told
AFP .
At the head of an organization comprising 1,600 men
Coming from a peasant family in the northwest of Colombia, Dairo Antonio Usuga was a far-left guerrilla, then a far-right paramilitary before becoming the head of a strong drug trafficking organization. about 1,600 men, who exported an average of nearly 300 tonnes of cocaine each year to around 30 countries, according to the authorities.
He succeeded at the head of the
Clan del Golfo
to his brother, Juan de Dios known as "Giovanni", killed by the police in 2012.
In five decades of war on drugs supported by the United States, Colombia has killed or captured several drug lords, including Pablo Escobar, shot dead by law enforcement in 1993. But the country remains the world's largest producer of cocaine and the United States the main market, while violence linked to trafficking continues.
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To listen: Cocaine: the reasons for Colombian overproduction
(and
AFP
)
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