Colombian drug lord Dairo Antonio Úsuga, also known as Otoniel, was arrested on Saturday after a manhunt lasting more than ten years. Colombian President Iván Duque confirmed this in a press conference, which he also shares on his twitter account. Duque calls the arrest the “biggest blow to the drug trade in this century,” “comparable only to the fall of Pablo Escobar in the 1990s.”
Úsuga is a high-ranking member of the Clan del Golfo, a drug gang that is one of South America’s largest cocaine exporters. President Duque calls him the leader of the gang and says his charges include sending dozens of shipments of cocaine to the United States, murdering police officers, recruiting minors and sexually abusing children. In the United States, he is accused of importing at least 73,000 kilos of cocaine between 2003 and 2014, via Guatemala and Mexico, among others, the news agency writes. AP. The Clan del Golfo is active in ten of Colombia’s 32 provinces.
The 50-year-old drug lord has been wanted for years. In 2016, the police launched Operation Agamemnon with the aim of arresting Úsuga. Dozens of his confidants were rounded up and murdered, and his finances were under investigation, and earlier this year police also arrested his sister, Nini Johana Úsuga. However, he always managed to stay out of the hands of justice.
The Colombian government had promised a reward of three billion pesos (more than 680,000 euros) to anyone who could provide information leading to Úsuga’s arrest. The United States offered five million dollars (about 4.3 million euros) for information about his whereabouts. For the largest cocaine markets in the world, Europe and the United States, Colombia is the main supplier.
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