BOGOTA, Oct 24 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Colombia’s most-wanted drug trafficker, Dairo Antonio Usuga, also known as “Otoniel,” was arrested by the country’s authorities, the government said.
Colombia had offered a reward of up to 3 billion pesos (about US$800,000) for information concerning Otoniel’s whereabouts, while the US government had put up a reward of US$5 million for information leading to his arrest.
Presidential adviser Emilio Archila praised “the capture in Necocli of Dairo Antonio Usuga, alias ‘Otoniel’, head of the Gulf Clan”, in a message on Twitter. The gang is the most powerful among Colombia’s drug traffickers.
The capture of the head of Colombia’s largest narcotrafficking gang signals a major victory for the conservative government of President Ivan Duque, whose country is the world’s top cocaine exporter.
After stints as a left-wing guerrilla and later paramilitary, Otoniel, 50, took over the leadership of the Gulf Clan, previously known as the Usuga Clan, from his brother Juan de Dios, who was killed by police in 2012.
Clan del Golfo has around 1,200 armed men – the majority former members of far-right paramilitaries. The gang is present in almost 300 municipalities in the country, according to the independent think tank Indepaz.
The capo was captured in Necocli, one of the Gulf Clan’s main outposts, located near the border with Panama.
The organisation has been decimated recently by authorities, with the inner circle reduced to hiding in the jungle without telephones, according to police.
Colombian authorities launched Operation Agamemnon in 2016 as they worked to close in on Otoniel, killing and capturing dozens of his lieutenants, going after his finances and forcing him to be constantly on the move, according to the police.
In 2017 a video in which Otoniel announced his intent to submit himself to justice was published, but the plan never came to fruition.
In March, Colombian police and the US Drug Enforcement Agency captured Otoniel’s sister, Nini Johana Usuga, who was extradited to the United States to face charges connected to drug trafficking and money laundering.
As well as drug trafficking, Clan del Golfo is involved with illegal mining, authorities say, while the government accuses the group of threatening and killing community leaders across the country. Colombia is the world’s top provider of cocaine, with the United States as its principal market, despite half a century of trying to clamp down on the drug trade.
In remote areas where there is little government presence, criminal groups like the Gulf Clan, dissident FARC guerrillas and leftist ELN rebels engage in bloody turf battles over control of drug trafficking corridors and illegal mining operations. — NNN-AGENCIES
