Colombia’s biggest drug trafficker “Otoniel”, leader of the Clan del Golfo, was released in the United States on Wednesday where he was indicted by a court in New York, Colombian President Ivan Duque successfully announced.
I would like to inform that Dairo Antonio Usuga alias Otoniel has been extraditedthe Colombian president said on Twitter last night, saying that this criminal can only be compared to Pablo Escobarnotorious drug trafficker co-founder of the notorious Medellin Cartel and shot by police in 1993.
The most wanted drug trafficker in Colombia, Otoniel, aged 50, was arrested on Oct. 23 in the northwest of the country in a major military operation. He has been prosecuted for drug trafficking since 2009 in a New York court and his head was priced at 5 million United States dollars.
” He is the most dangerous drug trafficker in the world, the killer of society leaders and police, a rapist of children and youth. Today, legality, the rule of law, public force and justice prevail. “
Local media broadcast images of a convoy of large armored vehicles accompanied by armed police, heading to Bogota airport. The presidency also published photos ofOtonielhandcuffed and wearing a gray jacket, aboard a jet, shortly before the aircraft took off.
Relatives of the victims ofOtoniel asked for a suspension extradition, considering that this procedure occurs bring to justice a paramilitary leader who has committed crimes against humanity in our country. They demanded their right to know the truth and receive reparations.
But Colombian justice has finally given the green light to his extradition, Mr. Usuga’s defense team told AFP.
When his sentence in the United States ended, the leader of the Clan del Golfo will return to Colombia to pay for all the crimes committed in our countryconfirmed the head of state of Colombia on Wednesday.
President Duque has thanked the Supreme Court, the State Council as well as the JEP (a special jurisdiction that investigates armed conflict in Colombia) ofto avoid the deliberate manipulations of this criminal in an attempt to prevent this extradition.
Who’s Afraid of Otoniel?
The detention under strict surveillance in Bogota by the drug lord has been marked by several incidents and controversies.
Recordings of his testimony before the Truth Commission, which investigates human rights abuses during Colombia’s armed conflict until the signing of the 2016 peace agreement, were stolen by unknown individuals.
Colombian police also delayed the hearing ofOtonielsaying he suspects an attempt to flee.
Who’s Afraid of Otoniel? is specifically titled the independent online media Changebelieving some wanted to silence the drug trafficker, who allegedly stated at his hearings that the army continued to work in collusion with the most right -wing paramilitaries in some regions of the country.
According to the newspaper citing a JEP document, Otoniel reportedly involved 63 people allegedly associated with the Clan de Golfo, including a former minister, a former national intelligence director, six former governors and four former members of parliament.
According to his lawyers, the drug lord also asserted that he was the one who organized his surrender.
Humble origin
From a peasant family in northwestern Colombia, Dairo Antonio Usuga was a left-most guerrilla, then a far-right paramilitary, before becoming the leader of a drug-driving organization of about 1,600 people, which exported an average of nearly 300 tons of cocaine per year in about 30 countries, according to authorities.
He took over as leader of the Clan del Golfo from his brother Juan de Dios, he said Johnkilled by police in 2012.
In five decades of the U.S. -backed war on drugs, Colombia has killed or captured several drug lords, the best known to the general public being Pablo Escobar, for which a television series was aired.
The country remains the world’s largest producer of cocaine, and the United States, the primary market, as violence associated with trafficking continues.
Source: Radio-Canada
