Colombia arrests "Otoniel", the country's most powerful drug trafficker
Dairo Antonio Usuga David, alias "Otoniel", head of the Clan del Golfo, during his arrest by the Colombian military on October 23, 2021. via REUTERS - COLOMBIAN DEFENSE MINISTRY
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4 min
The Colombian government announced on Saturday the arrest of Dairo Antonio Usuga, alias "Otoniel", in a border area of Panama.
The United States and the United Kingdom participated in this operation.
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Colombia's most wanted drug trafficker, Dairo Antonio Usuga, known as "Otoniel", has been captured in the northwest of the country, the Colombian government said on Saturday.
He was the leader of Clan del Golfo, the most powerful gang of drug traffickers in Colombia, the world's largest exporter of cocaine.
"
This is the hardest blow that has been dealt to drug trafficking in this century in our country
(...)
only comparable to the fall of Pablo Escobar
", welcomed President Ivan Duque, in a message posted on social networks.
The informamos a Colombia captured it by Dairo Antonio Úsuga, alias 'Otoniel', máximo cabecilla del Clan del Golfo, uno de los criminales más buscados por la justice a nivel nacional e internacional.
pic.twitter.com/CHVJasS3Eo
- Iván Duque 🇨🇴 (@IvanDuque) October 23, 2021
Pablo Escobar, leader of the Medellin cartel (north-west) which controlled up to 80% of the global cocaine trade, was shot dead by Colombian police in 1993.
Images released by the Colombian government show Otoniel, dressed in black, handcuffed and surrounded by armed Colombian soldiers.
The drug trafficker was captured in Necocli, in the northwest of the country, near the border with Panama.
It was "
the most important penetration into the jungle ever in the military history of our country
", according to Mr. Duque.
The Colombian police carried out "
an important satellite operation with agencies of the United States and the United Kingdom
", explained in a press conference the director of the police force, the general Jorge Vargas.
The operation, during which a police officer was killed, mobilized some 500 members of the security forces, supported by 22 helicopters, he said.
The United States had offered five million dollars for his capture.
Couriers in the jungle rather than telephone
The Clan del Golfo is Colombia's most powerful drug trafficking gang and the arrest of its leader represents the Colombian government's biggest blow to organized crime in the country.
"
Special
gratitude
to the security forces
(...)
for the capture in Necocli of Dairo Antonio Usuga, alias" Otoniel ", senior leader of the Clan del Golfo,
" Emilio Archila, adviser to President Ivan Duque, said on Twitter.
The United States had offered a reward of five million dollars for his capture.
Otoniel, who was indicted by the American justice in 2009, is in particular the subject of an extradition procedure in the court of the southern district of New York.
The 50-year-old drug trafficker was at the head of the Clan del Golfo, made up of former members of paramilitary groups who waged a fierce struggle against the left-wing guerrillas until the 2010s. The cartel, financed mainly through trafficking drug abuse, illegal mining and extortion is present in nearly 300 municipalities across the country, according to independent think-tank Indepaz.
Former Marxist guerrilla turned paramilitary
The Colombian government accuses the Clan del Golfo of being one of the responsible for the worst wave of violence that shakes the country since the signing of the peace agreement in 2016 with the guerrillas of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC, Marxist ).
In 2017, Otoniel announced his intention to reach an agreement to go to justice.
The government responded by deploying as many as 1,000 troops to hunt him down.
According to police, the drug trafficker was hiding in the jungle, in the Uraba region, where he is from, and did not use a telephone, relying on couriers to communicate.
"
He was moving with eight security circles
" around him, General Vargas said.
Otoniel had become the leader of the Clan del Golfo after the death of his brother Juan de Dios, "Giovanni", during clashes with the police in 2012. He had taken up arms at the age of 18 as a guerrilla in the People's Liberation Army (EPL), a Marxist guerrilla demobilized in 1991.
After laying down his arms, he returned to fight in the far-right paramilitary groups.
Many of these groups were demobilized in 2006 at the initiative of the government of the former right-wing president Alvaro Uribe (2002-2010).
But Otoniel had decided to stay illegal.
Despite four decades of fighting drug trafficking, Colombia remains the world's largest producer of cocaine, of which the United States is the largest consumer.
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Colombia
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Drug
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Ivan Duque