News / Colombia

Colombia’s most wanted drug trafficker extradited to US

Thursday, 05 May 2022 4:36 AM [ Last Update: Thursday, 05 May 2022 4:36 AM ]

Colombian drug lord and former head of the Gulf Clan 'Otoniel' Usuga was extradited to the United States on May 4, 2022. (Photo by AFP)

Colombia extradited the alleged head of the feared Gulf Clan, who had been the country's most wanted drug lord before his capture, to the United States Wednesday where he faces indictments in three federal courts.

Colombian President Iván Duque said Dairo Antonio Úsuga David is "comparable only to Pablo Escobar," referring to the late former head of the Medellin drug cartel.

"He is not only the most dangerous drug trafficker in the world, but he is murderer of social leaders, abuser of boys, girls and adolescents, a murderer of policemen," Duque said accompanied by Colombia's military leaders whom he congratulated for guarding Úsuga David and capturing him in October 2021.

The former rural warlord, better known by his alias Otoniel, had stayed on the run for more than a decade by corrupting state officials and aligning himself with combatants on the left and right. He was transferred Wednesday in handcuffs and wearing a helmet and a bulletproof vest from a prison in Bogotá to a heavily guarded military transport air field.

(Source: AP)

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