Colombia’s most important drug trafficker, Otoniel, was extradited to the United States on Wednesday, Colombian President Ivan Duque said.
“I inform you that Dairo Antonio Ushuga, known as Otoniel, has been extradited,” the Colombian president said via Twitter.
The most wanted cocaine baron in Colombia, 50, was arrested on October 23rd in the northwestern part of the country, in Antioch, following a large-scale operation by police and the army, according to authorities. Otoniel himself, the leader of the Clan del Golfo gang, later stated that he had surrendered, testifying before the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (Jurisdicción Especial para la Paz, JEP).
Extradition to the US is what drug traffickers in Colombia fear most.
Authorities have blamed Otoniel for the deaths of hundreds of members of the security forces. The US was looking for him in order to try him for various crimes, in particular drug trafficking to their territory.
Extradition to the United States was suspended in 1991 amid a cartel campaign of assassinations and bombings, but the practice was reinstated by a 1997 parliamentary resolution.
Otoniel’s lawyers struggled not to be extradited, arguing that he should be allowed to testify before the JEP, confess to his role in the 60-year-old civil war in Colombia, and reveal the army’s links to illegal armed groups.
A child of a peasant family living in northwestern Colombia, Dairo Antonio Ushuga was once a member of the Marxist guerrillas, then paramilitary groups of the far right, sworn enemies of the guerrillas, before becoming the leader of his 1.6 gang gang. The Klan exports an average of 300 tonnes of cocaine to about 30 countries, according to authorities.
She succeeded his brother, Juan de Dios, or “Giovanni”, who was killed in a police operation in 2012.
Otoniel’s fall was hailed as the biggest success of outgoing right-wing President Duce’s government in the fight against organized crime.
In the decades since the US-backed so-called “war on drugs”, Colombian authorities have killed or arrested several cocaine barons, most notably Pablo Escobar, who was killed in an operation by law enforcement. order in 1993.
Nevertheless, Colombia continues to rank first in the world for cocaine production, while the United States remains the country with the highest consumption.
The Colombian civil war is estimated to have claimed nine million lives (260,000 dead, missing, abducted, maimed, millions displaced).
SOURCE: AMPE
Source: Capital
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