By: Staff Writer
October 26, 2021
Colombia’s most notorious drug lord, Dairo Antonio Usuga, aka “Otoniel” was captured in a major drug bust linked to that of the one that felled the infamous Pablo Escobar over 30 years ago.
Otoniel, a former left wing guerrilla and paramilitary fighter and the leader of the Autodefensas Gaitanistas de Colombia or the Gulf Clan, was captured on Saturday in a rural area in the Uraba region in the northern part of Colombia close to Panama hiding in its dense jungles.
The operation involved 500 soldiers supported by 22 helicopters. One police officer was reportedly killed.
Otoniel rose to the top of the Colombian drug game with his brother, Giovanni, who was killed in a police raid some years back leaving Otoniel to carry on the gang and family legacy.
Otoniel had used a network of rural safe houses to move around and evade the authorities for years, and did not use a phone, instead relying on couriers for communication.
In the past, police have found special orthopaedic mattresses for Otoniel in these sparse homes, as he suffered back pain from a herniated disc.
Police chief Jorge Vargas has said the drug lord was fearful of capture, “never approaching inhabited areas”.
Otoniel evaded capture for years by moving between safe locations in the remote jungle region. General Vargas said Saturday that Otoniel slept in rough conditions, hardly ever spending time in homes, and dined on his favorite jungle animals. Years of intelligence work, with assistance from the United States and Britain, eventually led Colombian special forces soldiers to his jungle hideout, Vargas said. Otoniel moved around with eight rings of bodyguards.
Otoniel is accused of exporting hundreds of tonnes of cocaine each year, while President Ivan Duque said on Saturday he is also responsible for killing police officers, recruiting minors and sexually abusing children.
Colombia’s government will file a petition on Monday with the Andean country’s Supreme Court to extradite Otoniel to the United States, Justice Minister Wilson Ruiz told Reuters on Sunday, adding the process could take four weeks to complete.
“Extradition awaits all those who commit international crimes,” Defense Minister Diego Molano told journalists in Necocli, close to where Otoniel, 50, was captured.
Colombia had offered a reward of up to 3 billion pesos (about $800,000) for information concerning Otoniel’s whereabouts, while the U.S. government had put up a reward of $5 million for help locating him.
Both rewards will be paid, Molano said, while describing Otoniel as “the worst kind” of criminal.
“Otoniel was the most feared drug trafficker in the world, killer of police, of soldiers, of social leaders, and recruiter of children,” Duque said during a broadcast video message. “This blow is only comparable to the fall of Pablo Escobar in the 1990s.”
The Colombian authorities are now bracing for the next face of the Gulf Clan as more than likely there is another leader waiting to replace Otoniel if they have not already.
Otoniel’s net worth is unknown at the time but it is estimated to be in the hundreds of millions of dollars.