Colombian drug lord Dairo Antonio Úsuga, better known as Otoniel, was extradited from Colombia to the United States on Wednesday. Colombia’s President Iván Duque reports that on Twitter† He calls him “the most dangerous drug trafficker in the world” and “murderer of social leaders, agents and abuser of children and young people”.
The leader of the infamous drug gang Clan del Golfo was arrested last October in the jungle in northwestern Colombia after a large-scale joint action by the police and the Colombian army. He had been hunted for ten years and the US had offered a $5 million reward for information about his whereabouts. The Colombian president called his arrest “only comparable to the fall of Pablo Escobar in the 1990s”.
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In the United States, Otoniel is suspected of importing cocaine, conspiracy and illegal possession of weapons. In Colombia, in addition to sending dozens of shipments of cocaine to the US, he is accused of murdering police officers, recruiting minors and abusing children.
According to Duque, the drug lord will return to Colombia after serving his sentence in the US to “pay for his crimes”. Earlier last year, his sister Nini Johana Úsuga had already been arrested and extradited to the United States.