Accused Colombian drug lord Dairo Usuga ‘Otoniel’ extradited to the US, source says

May 5, 2022 admin-dominor

Usuga is widely considered to be the boss of the “Clan del Golfo,” a powerful drug cartel that controls cocaine routes into Mexico and the United States. He is being held at the Brooklyn Metropolitan Detention Center in New York City and was expected to appear before a US judge within hours.

He faces multiple drug-trafficking charges in New York and Florida district courts. The State Department has previously offered up to $5 million for information leading to his arrest or conviction.

Usuga was captured by Colombian authorities in October in a rural area of the northwestern Uraba region in Antioquia province, a feat President Iván Duque celebrated as “the biggest arrest of a narco-trafficker by the Colombian police since the days of Pablo Escobar.”

At the time of his arrest, the alleged cartel leader was facing at least 122 charges for drug trafficking, criminal association, murder and money laundering, according to the Colombian Attorney General’s office.

His extradition was approved by presidential decree after the Colombian State Council denied an appeal by several victims of Usuga’s alleged crimes who wished to see him tried in Colombian court.

The so-called Clan del Golfo consists of former members of terrorist organizations and “uses violence and intimidation to control the narcotics trafficking routes, cocaine processing laboratories, speedboat departure points, and clandestine landing strips,” according to the State Department.

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